Oft have I seen at some cathedral door
A laborer, pausing in the dust and heat,
Lay down his burden, and with reverent feet
Enter, and cross himself, and on the floor
Kneel to repeat his paternoster o’er;
Far off the noises of the world retreat;
The loud vociferations of the street
Become an undistinguishable roar.
So, as I enter here from day to day,
And leave my burden at this minster gate,
Kneeling in prayer, and not ashamed to pray,
The tumult of the time disconsolate
To inarticulate murmurs dies away,
While the eternal ages watch and wait.
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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Rats, now I have to re-read Inferno. Poor me. :-) How does he divide the sonnets? Per Canto? I think this sonnet confuses me because it sounds like the intro to Paradise rather than an introduction to Inferno--except perhaps as how it imitates the silence of Limbo of the Virtuous Pagans.
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