Canto VI

Then upon my minds reviving 1
I find myself on ground reclining
Saw I things that chilled my marrow
Souls immersed in graves foul shallow 4
Under tumbled surface moaning,
Spirits of the damned lay groaning.
Sinners turn and turn again
As seek they some unknown refrain 8
Whichever way I cast my eyes
New sufferings and more I spy.
In circle third here lashed with snow
My knuckles white in cold wind blow 12
The mud beneath my feet foul stinking
Feel myself to knees now sinking,
Blinking back the tears full streaming
Eyes stung blind by blizzard screaming. 16
Hailstones gross and raindrops greasy,
(Rancid stench makes stomach queasy).
Over these a demon towered,
Burning eyes of three heads glowered 20
The demon Cerebus swipes his claws
Then gores these sinners in his jaws
His eyes blood red and belly black
As made he feast like Scooby snacks 24
As sinners flop and flip like eels
That squirm beneath these claws of steel
And all the while they scream like dogs
Here trapped beneath this stinking bog 28
So Virgil stoops while I in awe
And throws he earth into that maw
Who whimpers like a scalded pup
Then over goes till toes were up. 32
So walked we then across this field
Of sinners under water sealed
And Virgil told me who they were
These gluttons who did linger there 36
Of sins they’d made against the Lord
A million years for each drink poured
Who’d ate until it made them sick
These gluttons now immersed in slick 40
Where torture makes them turn and turn
In stinking rain unending churns.
Then sudden I saw body proud
Who sat within his muddy shroud 44
Then screams he does his face in pain
Blue battered by the stinking rain
'Oh you that travel through this hell
Recall me fore I downward fell?' 48
'I can't recall' I answered him
'No person with your visage grim,
But tell me sir about your flaw
That cast you out against God's law 52
And tell me now of what your name
Might I recall for point of fame?’
'For gluttony I fell in sin
Beyond all hope of risen King 56
In living state they called me Farley
Stuffed myself on coke and barley
Went I always back for seconds
Thirds and fourths and pie I reckon’. 60
Then he sighed while my heart cried
To see this wretch in circle tied
But then he says these words I write
That placed upon my heart a blight 64
As looked he to the future dim
And told me this in words full grim
‘I tell a tale of city great
Where sickness is the native state 68
I tell you this, within five suns
The walls will shake to many guns!'
In agony I begged to know
What happens to those fractured souls. 72
'Can none be saved?' I almost raved.
'The path to hell is merit paved?'
He ghastly said with lips all torn
'No none shall live' he coldly warned 76
'I need to know,' to him I plead,
'My fellows all do God's word heed?'
He looked at me and ghastly said,
'They all fall here upon their death 80
Six billions souls and more on earth
But only one or two of worth
For every million doomed to burn
There might be one whom heaven earns' 84
He goes all quite and dips his brow
My guide says 'He will rise not now
Until the final judgment come
When answer all to Savior’s drum.' 88
Then walking down Inferno's path
He brings us down to Plutus wrath 90

So, theres canto VI to some degree of finish anyway, onto canto VII.

I do recall warning that hell was filled with people that you like.

This was a canto where nearly everything changed. The new lines needed changed the order of the old lines and I had to expand on Cerebus and the named sinner (Ciacco) or Farley as we called him.