Ugolino

INFERNO 33, 22-75.

Now had the loophole of that dungeon, stillWhich bears the name of Famine's Tower from me,And where 'tis fit that many another will

Be doomed to linger in captivity,5Shown through its narrow opening in my cell'Moon after moon slow waning', when a sleep,

'That of the future burst the veil, in dreamVisited me. It was a slumber deepAnd evil; for I saw, or I did seem'10

To see, 'that' tyrant Lord his revels keepThe leader of the cruel hunt to them,Chasing the wolf and wolf-cubs up the steep

Ascent, that from 'the Pisan is the screen'Of 'Lucca'; with him Gualandi came,15Sismondi, and Lanfranchi, 'bloodhounds lean,

Trained to the sport and eager for the gameWide ranging in his front;' but soon were seenThough by so short a course, with 'spirits tame,'

The father and 'his whelps' to flag at once,20And then the sharp fangs gored their bosoms deep.Ere morn I roused myself, and heard my sons,

For they were with me, moaning in their sleep,And begging bread. Ah, for those darling ones!Right cruel art thou, if thou dost not weep25

In thinking of my soul's sad augury;And if thou weepest not now, weep never more!They were already waked, as wont drew nigh

The allotted hour for food, and in that hourEach drew a presage from his dream. When I30'Heard locked beneath me of that horrible tower

The outlet; then into their eyes aloneI looked to read myself,' without a signOr word. I wept not--turned within to stone.

They wept aloud, and little Anselm mine,35Said--'twas my youngest, dearest little one,--"What ails thee, father? Why look so at thine?"

In all that day, and all the following night,I wept not, nor replied; but when to shineUpon the world, not us, came forth the light40

Of the new sun, and thwart my prison thrownGleamed through its narrow chink, a doleful sight,'Three faces, each the reflex of my own,

Were imaged by its faint and ghastly ray;'Then I, of either hand unto the bone,45Gnawed, in my agony; and thinking they

Twas done from sudden pangs, in their excess,All of a sudden raise themselves, and say,"Father! our woes, so great, were yet the less

Would you but eat of us,--twas 'you who clad50Our bodies in these weeds of wretchedness;Despoil them'." Not to make their hearts more sad,

I 'hushed' myself. That day is at its close,--Another--still we were all mute. Oh, hadThe obdurate earth opened to end our woes!55

The fourth day dawned, and when the new sun shone,Outstretched himself before me as it roseMy Gaddo, saying, "Help, father! hast thou none

For thine own child--is there no help from thee?"He died--there at my feet--and one by one,60I saw them fall, plainly as you see me.

Between the fifth and sixth day, ere twas dawn,I found 'myself blind-groping o'er the three.'Three days I called them after they were gone.

Famine of grief can get the mastery.65