2: Moon Sphere

      1 Some folk in little boats follow my ship

      because they like the story in my song.

      Let them turn back toward the shore they know

      4 unless their craft is strong. I now go far

      over a sea no poet crossed before.

      Minerva fills my sails. Apollo steers.

      7 The Muses indicate each guiding star.

      If you are of the few like me who seek

      the bread that feeds but never satisfies,

      10 you too may launch your vessel on this sea

      using my wake as guide. The Argonauts,

      those heroes voyaging for the Golden Fleece,

      13 when they saw armed men springing from the soil

      after their captain ploughed down dragon teeth

      were not as much amazed as you will be.

      16 Our inborn thirst for God’s sufficiency

      kept Beatrice intent on upper skies,

      me intent on her eyes, so up we went

      19 as swiftly as we looked, until halted

      by a wondrous sight. It stopped us short

      as a struck target ends an arrow flight.

      “Now praise God for His generosity! 22

      This star is nearest earth,” said happily

      that fairest one who understood my mind.

      I saw what lower down could not exist. 25

      Luminous mist enclosed us now inside

      a diamond-hard and perfect shining pearl,

      yet we could move in it as easily 28

      as light rays pass through water in a glass

      without a change of character in each.

      For one or more bodies to occupy 31

      an equally dense body easily

      defies earth’s common sense. In Paradise

      it was quite clear to my intelligence. 34

      “Lady,” said I, “my gratitude to He

      who saves us from death’s grip will never cease,

      but why, when viewed from where most people live, 37

      has this pure moon a spotted face? Some say

      they can make out Cain and his thornbush there.”

      Amused she said, “Wits stray when seeking laws 40

      for what they cannot touch, so tell me now

      what you think the cause.” “Varied density?”

      I suggested. “Looking through dirty air?” 43

      “No,” said she. “God has made all the Heavens

      equally good. Air here is free from dirt,

      and though bodies of light within these skies 46

      differ in sizes, colours, faculties,

      their densities do not. On summer days

      49 most things appear equally clear at noon.

      At night when you see bodies in one sphere

      what you mistake for spots are smaller lights

      52 contrasted with more bright, as in the moon.”