Canto VIII

As I said, not long before 1
We reached the distant tower's door
Our eyes were drawn towards the top
Where fires flashed like burning spots 4
And answer came from distant spire
As flickered there returning fire.
Then cross the water comes a boat
That moved as fast as speeding bolt 8
And at its helm one spitting man
Who bears us down as if to ram,
And cries he in his dreadful shout
'Now you are caught, O soul without!' 12
But Virgil stands in helmsman's way
And listened I to hear him say
'O Phlegyas don’t torment your mind
His passing has been blessed you'll find 16
With you and we in binded truce
So ferry us cross muddy sluice.'
Enraged he was, this demon red
As one who'd lost on sucker's bet 20
Then Virgil leads me on the boat
As lower then the ferry floats.
But Phlegyas turns the skiff around
And pointed prow to distant ground 24
A hundred leagues and more did pass
Beneath the speeding demon craft.
Then saw I thing before obscene
That rose from water inbetween 28
A shade there formed of face I'd known
Com-patriot of distant home
Who stares at me as cold I shiver
Stands O'Reilly! (dreadful sinner!) 32
Screams 'Who are you before your time
That floats across this world of slime?'
I answered him 'O slave of sin
You're looking great, so very thin 36
And I may come and I may go
But after all you'll never know.'*
This sinner lunges at my boat
So kicked I swiftly at his throat 40
And then I pulled my trusty glock
And had him in the cross-hairs locked 42
I shot the fiend in his fiend head
Then spat into the river bed
And then my guide, he then rejoiced
As singing raised he up his voice 46
And called he to the Heaven's there
With words that burned in blackest air
'This my friend is right, is proper!
These foul souls have come a cropper! 50
Damned by God, by world forgotten
Curse their souls with curses rotten.'
I to him, 'I'd see him suffer,'
'Underneath this river smothered!' 54
He to me 'You'll get your wish
His torture here provides us bliss!
Our bliss, our bliss, the very joy!
To know his soul is devil toyed.' 58
And then indeed his body torn
As watched we from the skiff past borne
Consumed his fellows every bit
Till nothing left but bones to spit 62
And happy then it was to know
That hated here in time would go.
Continued on to distant gate
Where Phleg-Yas left us to our fate 66
And spikes arose like tongues of flame
Where devils lived and demons reigned.
So stood we there upon the brink
My mind so cowed I could not think 70
And up upon the rampart wall
A thousand devils made the call
'Who is this who without death
Can journey through the land of dread.' 74
My master made a secret sign
That devils knew from former time
Suppressed they then their great disdain
These angels who from Heaven rained.** 78
But angel gate would open not
Our path ahead it seemed was blocked
But Virgil turns to me and says
'Now One descends through Lion's Gate.' 82
Who has been charged to clear our path
So wait we for the coming wrath.'
Then knelt we there, with out escape
In fear I wept with mouth agape 86
As parley not the lords of rot
And jeered they from the rampart top. 88


Canto IX

I frosted white in growing fright 1
As sat we there in bloody light
My guide beside me troubled seemed
While I beside him lost in dream 4
To see my master driven back
By fallen from this evil crack.
'Does anyone from Limbo come,'
I asked him then in halting tongue 8
'As deep as we from Lion's Gate
And so down through this Land of Hate?' 10
And answered me and tale he telled
Of journey to the deeps of Hell
That he had made when new born shade
To Judas Ring, a soul to save 14
'My worthy guide!' I gladly cried
'My road is blessed with you beside!'
And then I choked in sudden fear
As saw I Furies standing clear 18
And screamed they down from highest peak
As cowered I in muck and reek.
And each of them was robed in snakes
With ragged nails their breasts they rake
Then cast they curses down on me
That burn my ears and sear my cheeks 24
And screamed they did for my life’s blood
Be captured in a golden cup
That Gorgon feed, for which they bleed
The matter from my veins there freed 28
'If you would live then shade your eyes
Or always here as boulder lie 30
For Gorgon with her deadly gaze
Will petrify!' My Guide then raves.
And all my knowledge, all my knowing
Couldn't stop blind terror growing 34
And all the things that I believed
Right then weren't worth the fog I breath
And having nothing left but hearing
Heard I sounds most horrid nearing 38
Facing fast this coming storm
That sounded like a demon swarm
As spirits screamed in rages fright
And ever louder grew the blight. 42
It seemed as if a million men
Charged down upon that point and then
My guide he there releases me
And raise myself so I can see. 44
And what I saw, it blew my mind
A vision there of hope refined.
I saw an Angel crossing fast
All shining like a lightning blast 48
His blessed feet not touching down
This messenger of high renown
He barely seemed to notice us
As hung we low with heads like thus 52
So stands he wide and belows loud
'O You Cast Out, O Hated Crowd! 54
Why do you Fallen listen not
When Betters tell you what is what?
Why do you rail against the fates
That told you to unlock that gate?' 58
Then tears he down the cities door's
His face wrapped up in other chores 60
Then walked He through and followed I,
Beyond the broken gate with guide
My mind could not believe my eyes
As entered we the Land of Flies 64
I saw on every side a plain
Of lament and of spreading pain
With burning graves that bake red hot
And in graves were sinners caught 68
As flames pour from the burning tombs
And smoke rise high in giant plumes
And everything was bathed in red
The bloody hue from city fed 72
At every point I cast my gaze
I see ten thousand burning graves 76
And tortured moans and piteous wails
Sound round me as we walk this trail. 78
'O Who can all these people be?'
I asked in shock at what I see. 80
My master said with steely breath
'Those heretics who dared mock death
They looked at world and thought they saw
A kingdom made without God's Law 84
And so they fry as heretics
In burning graves beyond the Styx.' 88
Where those who thought there was no rule
In pain now learned their lesson cruel
So walking on he gestures right
As toil we through torment and fright. 92

Canto's VIII and IX together.

Canto VIII only needed 8 lines to place it in the range so it took a couple of hours to get it right. Canto IX was another story completely.

IX actually turned out to be quite complex. It was 32 lines short, which made it one of the shortest canto's, but also, it was one where there were a lot of images I'd skipped over in the first pass. The areas that were fleshed out were the lines containing the Furies and the approach of the Gorgon which I had almost ignored of my way first through.

I'm almost at the point where I reach the opposite problem of the earlier canto's. There are two canto's coming up that I have to shorten. One of them needs to be trimmed by over a third. Ouch.