Analytical poems of Dante's Inferno

Arrangement

These lines I'll write and boast in rhyming verse
That Dante first, in wilderness, woke up
And found himself in midst of darkness, worse,
For he's a man whose soul'd been toss'd away.
O, Dante brave, he saw three beasts of dread--
A Lion, Leopard, She-wolf, on the Hill,
Had forc'd him back to where the sun was dead.
--but Hark! He saw a dark and ghostly shade
Amidst the darkness set by Jove on high.
He'd recognised the man, that would give aid,
As Virgil, Poet, man of high esteem.
He plead thus; "Light and honor of poets,
Have pity on my soul, and help me, now!"
His fate now seal'd, the two went on their way.

"I am the way into the doleful place,
I am the way into eternal grief,
I am the way to a forsaken race.
Fair Equity had prompted my maker.
Divine Omnipotence created me,
And Highest Wisdom joined with Primal Love.
Before me nothing but eternal things
Were made, and I shall last eternally.
Abandon every hope, all who enter."
These words inscribed above the way before
The Poets infiltrated the venter
Of Hell, spelled out in somber colors there.
And so they walk'd into the first circle;
And howling wind had giv'n the Pilgrim sleep.

Upon his waking, Dante, with his guide,
went thus into the Limbo, which is first.
He learn'd of burning want for salvation--
And Homer, Horace, Ovid, and Lucan
Took Dante into their scholarly trust.
The Pilgrim finds Minós awaiting him,
But Virgil lead him into the ring, Lust.
Francesca, with her lover, Paolo, spake
Of love and innocence, caused the Pilgrim
To swoon, and fall, as a dead body falls.
Inside the third ring where the Gluttons, grim,
Were. Shades were mire'd in filthy muck, and whence
The Fourth ring, Greed, had bared the Misers and
The Prodigal, that suffer'd sins in weight!

Together, Dante, with Virgil, descend
the banks of rivers swampy and boiling.
within the bog are Shades engulfed by Wrath
who constantly will tear and mangle. With
them, those beneath the slime are Slothful; the
constant bubbles on the muddy surface
would indicate their presence there below.
Behold! A messenger of God had come,
to open up the Tower Gates, wherefore
the Heretics were thus revealed, hidden
by tombs of stone. The Pilgrim and his guide,
Assailed by stench alone, that rose from deep
Within abysmal caverns, stop-- they must,
In order to accustomate themselves!

The steep slope into circle Seven, had
Gone down by means of Landslide-- caused when Christ
Descended into Hell. The Poets find
The Minotaur, presiding over the
Low circle of the Violent, and they would
Race past him, whilst he rages-- unnoticed.
Trav'ling through the Forest of Suicides*,
The Poets left the Circle, and came up
On Level Eight, which bore the name of Fraud.
The Monster, Geryon, carried them
Upon his back and down into the Ditch,
His serpentine tail writhing to propel
Them forward, Virgil kept Dante aboard,
With arms locked 'round his waist, though the caverns.

The Fraudulent were thus arranged: within
The Ditches eight, were devils and sinners;
Each punished shade burns harsh within a flame.
And Treachery, the Ninth circle of hell
Bore souls encased in ice. The treacheries
Of these-- denials of love, "Which is God" and
Of human warmth. They pass'd through this Circle.
Within the Center-- Lucifer lay trapped
In Ice, the beating of his wings froze all.
"He had three faces: one in front bloodred;
and then another two that, just above
the midpoint of each shoulder, joined the first;
and at the crown, all three were reattached;
the right looked somewhat yellow, somewhat white;
the left in its appearance was like those
who come from where the Nile, descending, flows."
The Poets passed the center of the earth,
And started climbing up the mountain that
Was Purgatory, ready for the stars.

A/N: *Violence against the self. 

A/N (Continued.): Another disclaimer-- I do not own any of the content, just the way it was arranged.  Oh, also, I made the word "accustomate" into a thing. If Shakespeare can do it, so can I. (I think. Whatever, it doesn't matter.)

This is what English Lit. is for, my friends.