Which through the’ etherial concave comes rejoicing.” 
     I straight obey’d; and with mine eye return’d
Through all the seven spheres, and saw this globe
So pitiful of semblance, that perforce
It moved my smiles:  and him in truth I hold
For wisest, who esteems it least:  whose thoughts
Elsewhere are fix’d, him worthiest call and best. 
I saw the daughter of Latona shine
Without the shadow, whereof late I deem’d
That dense and rare were cause.  Here I sustain’d
The visage, Hyperion! of thy sun;
And mark’d, how near him with their circle, round
Move Maia and Dione; here discern’d
Jove’s tempering ’twixt his sire and son; and hence
Their changes and their various aspects
Distinctly scann’d.  Nor might I not descry
Of all the seven, how bulky each, how swift;
Nor of their several distances not learn. 
This petty area (o’er the which we stride
So fiercely), as along the eternal twins
I wound my way, appear’d before me all,
Forth from the havens stretch’d unto the hills. 
Then to the beauteous eyes mine eyes return’d.

CANTO XXIII

E’en as the bird, who midst the leafy bower
Has, in her nest, sat darkling through the night,
With her sweet brood, impatient to descry
Their wished looks, and to bring home their food,
In the fond quest unconscious of her toil: 
She, of the time prevenient, on the spray,
That overhangs their couch, with wakeful gaze
Expects the sun; nor ever, till the dawn,
Removeth from the east her eager ken;
So stood the dame erect, and bent her glance
Wistfully on that region, where the sun
Abateth most his speed; that, seeing her
Suspense and wand’ring, I became as one,
In whom desire is waken’d, and the hope
Of somewhat new to come fills with delight. 
     Short space ensued; I was not held, I say,
Long in expectance, when I saw the heav’n
Wax more and more resplendent; and, “Behold,”
Cried Beatrice, “the triumphal hosts
Of Christ, and all the harvest reap’d at length
Of thy ascending up these spheres.”  Meseem’d,
That, while she spake her image all did burn,
And in her eyes such fullness was of joy,
And I am fain to pass unconstrued by. 
     As in the calm full moon, when Trivia smiles,
In peerless beauty, ‘mid th’ eternal nympus,
That paint through all its gulfs the blue profound
In bright pre-eminence so saw I there,
O’er million lamps a sun, from whom all drew
Their radiance as from ours the starry train: 
And through the living light so lustrous glow’d
The substance, that my ken endur’d it not. 
     O Beatrice! sweet and precious guide! 
Who cheer’d me with her comfortable words! 
“Against the virtue, that o’erpow’reth thee,
Avails not to resist.  Here is the might,
And here the wisdom, which did open lay
The path, that had been yearned for so long,