Saturday, May 28, 2011

Divina Commedia: Fourth Sonnet - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

This sonnet is the most explicitly Dantean of the set, I think!

Divina Commedia: Fourth Sonnet

With snow-white veil and garments as of flame,
  She stands before thee, who so long ago
  Filled thy young heart with passion and the woe
  From which thy song and all its splendors came;
And while with stern rebuke she speaks thy name,
  The ice about thy heart melts as the snow
  On mountain heights, and in swift overflow
  Comes gushing from thy lips in sobs of shame.
Thou makest full confession; and a gleam,
  As of the dawn on some dark forest cast,
  Seems on thy lifted forehead to increase;
Lethe and EunoĆ«—the remembered dream
  And the forgotten sorrow—bring at last
  That perfect pardon which is perfect peace.

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