DANTE
by: Michelangelo Buonarroti
(1475-1564)
- HAT should
be said of him cannot be said;
- By too great splendor is his name attended;
- To blame is easier than those who him offended,
- Than reach the faintest glory round him shed.
- This man descended to the doomed and dead
- For our instruction; then to God ascended;
- Heaven opened wide to him its portals splendid,
- Who from his country's, closed against him, fled.
- Ungrateful land! To its own prejudice
- Nurse of his fortunes; and this showeth well
- That the most perfect most of grief shall see.
- Among a thousand proofs let one suffice,
- That as his exile hath no parallel,
- Ne'er walked the earth a greater man than he.
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