Canto XVI Project Dante

This was a difficult canto. Now that I know I'm aiming for a certain length it kind of helps me break down the canto's into more manageable pieces.

First Pass

And nearing their a certain place 1
Where air contained a distant trace
I heard a roar like crashing shore
Or maybe yet a war next door 4
That happened off beyond our sight
But ears could hear it without eyes
And knew I in my heart that sound
Like distant water falling down 8
My mind recalled Victoria Fall's
By this was made to look real small
Then saw approaching group of souls
When over to me three shades rolled 12
As gain they then all three loud shout
'You, fellow there!' they all cried out
'The very cut of your cool jeans
The place you're from and what it means 16
'What man are you who walks below?
Please tell us what we want to know!'
Oh my! The wounds I saw on limbs
Both old and new that flame seared in 20
My mind recoiled in mental pain
To see these shades in place insane
And halted we right there awhile
As spirits round and round they file 24
And arm in arm in circles go
(With head opposed to heels you know)
There round about on spinning trail
And never risked their movement fail 28
'Though we are base I'd have you know
That once we were the place to go
How fares the city on the hill
Has Fortune left it standing still? 32
So may our fame incline your mind
To chat with us a while, most kind
How came your living feet through hell
Who is your guide?' they asked me tell 36
'Though we be burnt and we be peeled
Around we go in constant wheel
For we were once the kings of men
Until to Hell our souls were sent 40
The one in front, His Piety,
Was one who had impropriety
Though ruled he mother church you know
His soul to Hell was bound to go. 44
The one behind was compromised
By sight of arse and hairy thighs
The oval house he once had ruled
In Hell with me for sin is schooled 48
And so he burns both him and I.'
The spirit said and then he sighed
'And I was William Rufus King
Before I found the seventh ring.' 52
As watched I these poor sinners bake
I shed a tear with heart ache
'The city shining on the hill
In distant wars its blood was spilled 56
Though it was once a paragon
The dream is dead, its all long gone!'
So cried I out with face upraised
They looked at me as men un-fazed 60
Then sudden all three wheel away
As though they'd long their welcome strained
And called they out as off they went
'Remember us when journey's spent!' 64
Then legs a blur away they rushed
Until they passed horizon pushed
In time it took to say 'amen';
long gone were sodomites by then. 68
My master thinks it right to leave
So turned we then without reprieve
Toward the sound of water fall
By noise made deaf like raging squall 72
Till reached we then the bitter edge
And Virgil turns to me on ledge.
Requests my belt from round my waist
Which hand I then with all due haste 76
Then standing there with knotted string
With poise my master chucks it in
The chasm deep where waters fell
Down into circle eight of hell 80
And certain something must reply
I thought as down it fall I spied
Then saw I something from the chasm
The nightmare shape that rose in spasms 84
Saw I this lifting from the dark
This vision that I saw most stark. 86

Okay, so a couple of lines short of the 90 I need, but not bad for the first pass.

The three named sodomites are 15th President of US James Buchanan, his gay lover William Rufus King and Pope Julius III (died 1555)

Buchanan and King of course would ask about Washington, or its 19th century equivalent, not Florence as the souls in Dante Inferno inquire after.