from Canto XVI
121
Were his eyes open?—Yes! and his mouth too.Surprise has this effect—to make one dumb,
Yet leave the gate which Eloquence slips through
As wide as if a long speech were to come.
Nigh and more nigh the awful echoes drew,
Tremendous to a mortal tympanum:
His eyes were open, and (as was before
Stated) his mouth. What opened next?—the door.
122
It opened with a most infernal creak,Like that of Hell. “Lasciate ogni speranza
Voi che entrate!” The hinge seemed to speak,
Dreadful as Dante’s rhima, or this stanza;
Or—but all words upon such themes are weak;
A single shade’s sufficient to entrance a
Hero—for what is substance to a Spirit?
Or how is’t matter trembles to come near it?
123
The door flew wide, not swiftly—but, as flyThe sea-gulls, with a steady, sober flight—
And then swung back; nor close—but stood awry,
Half letting in long shadows on the light,
Which still in Juan’s candlesticks burned high,
For he had two, both tolerably bright,
And in the door-way, darkening Darkness, stood
The sable Friar in his solemn hood.