| Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882). Complete Poetical Works. 1893. | | | | Translations | From the Italian.
Seven Sonnets and a Canzone.
VII. Dante |
| | | WHAT should be said, of him cannot be said; | |
| By too great splendor is his name attended; | |
| To blame is easier those who him offended, | |
| Than reach the faintest glory round him shed. | |
| This man descended to the doomed and dead | 5 |
| For our instruction; then to God ascended; | |
| Heaven opened wide to him its portals splendid, | |
| Who from his country’s, closed against him, fled. | |
| Ungrateful land! To its own prejudice | |
| Nurse of his fortunes; and this showeth well | 10 |
| That the most perfect most of grief shall see. | |
| Among a thousand proofs let one suffice, | |
| That as his exile hath no parallel, | |
| Ne’er walked the earth a greater man than he. | | | | |
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