But here I can't be still; and by the lines of this my Comedy, reader, I swear- and may my verse find favor for long years. Inferno, Canto XVI, lines 127-129

More from The Divine Comedy

• Here sighs and lamentations and loud cries were echoing across the starless air, so that, as soon as I set out, I wept. Inferno, Canto III, lines 22-24
• May God so let you, reader, gather fruit from what you read. Inferno, Canto XX, lines 19-20
• Moving again, I tried the lonely slope- my firm foot was always the one below. Inferno, Canto I, lines 29-30
• Silently, alone, no one escorting us, we made our way- one went before, one after- as Friars Minor when the walk together. Inferno, Canto XXIII, lines 1-3
• There is no greater sorrow than to recall a happy time in the midst of wretchedness. "Inferno," cto. 5, l. 121-3
• The time was the beginning of the morning; the sun was rising now in fellowship with the same stars that had escorted it when Divine Love first moved those things of beauty. Inferno, Canto I, lines 37-40