Canto X

My master leads me through these gates 1
Where found myself in land insane,
On every side stood open tombs
That echoed screams through Land of Doom. 4
So followed we that narrow path
Between these scenes of pain and wrath
'O Highest Virtue,' I decried
'Can those within the graves be spied?' 8
My master turned and told me then
'Their spirits burn in flame within
And only on the final day 11
When Armageddon come their way
Will flesh that once before was worn
In time to face the Savior's scorn.
Within this crematory lies 15
The ghosts of those who thought when died
That soul would cease to be right there
So life best lived without a care
And others here burn hotter yet
Who dared to change the Heaven’s set, 20
And some are here who told their peers
Heretic thoughts masked as ideas
Of what the Maker might have meant
When Adam first to earth was sent. 24
Now see that hottest grave of all
To look upon would eyeballs scald
Were dreadful sinners cast within
Must contemplate their origins. 28
Now those who lived by being free
Must burn in hell for heresy.' 30
As questioned I my Guide once more 31
A noise I heard from fires roar,
A voice there was, that cried in pain
That begged of me to know my name.
This shade who once before was king 35
Asked how I toured this dreadful ring, 36
And asked me from which city came,
And why I journeyed through the flame 38
So Virgil turned and led me to
Where ghost of Nixon rose on through 40
With head held high, with look of scorn
He stared at me as though I worm 42
'Who were your fathers?' then he asked
As burned he in the fire basked
It made me glad for I to know 45
This sinner to the bad place go
So told him then of who I was,
My name, my church, my favorite cause.
I told the shade and held none back 49
As listened he from roasting crack
Then lectures me his manner grand
As future there his vision spanned
And told me tales of things to come 53
And battles made to distant drums 54
He told me then of wars in line
From Friday next to end of time
Then Nixon asks, ‘Is Henry Come?’ 57
With blinking eyes and visage numb,
Right then I grasped the fate of soul
The past and future only know 60
But not the present could they see
Just echoes of the things that be
And when the final portal closed
These souls would burn while others rose 64
So crept I close then to the brink
And looked I into grave I sink
My gaze it falls on writhing mass
That cooked within the steaming gas.
One thousand pairs of bloodshot eyes
There looked at me as watched I fry 70
And more than just a few of those 71
Who blazed within these burning stones
Were known to me from books I’d read
As filled they up the reasoned head,
And anyone fool who thought to know
Consumed within inferno glow.
But these were damned and all their works
Now used to fan the fires cursed.
However hot a grave might burn
Was ranked from ‘bake’, to far more stern,
For those who’d made the bigger sin
In torment they were placed within. 84
I catch my foot, I fall head first
Into the burning grave with cursed,
But Virgil he had caught my bag
And from the brink he hauled me back! 88
So Virgil turns and cautions there
'The way is long and far from fair.'
From here on in it is the pits
But still no chance for you to quit.’ 92
So walk we on through circle sixth
Path littered with these brittle sticks
That crack and crunched beneath my toes
As down to level seven go. 96

This may be a little too long, but I'm contemplating allowing up to 96 lines per verse. There is probably more than a few lines that are entirely losable anyway, so it will barely matter.