“A cooper’s vessel, that by chance hath been
    Either of middle-piece or cant-piece reft,
  Gapes not so wide as one that from his chin
    I noticed lengthwise through his carcass cleft.”
                        Inferno:  Canto XXVIII.

“We tarried yet the ocean’s brink upon,
Like unto people musing of their way,
Whose body lingers when the heart hath gone;
And lo! as near the dawning of the day,
Down in the west, upon the watery floor,
The vapor-fogs do Mars in red array,
Even such appeared to me a light that o’er
The sea so quickly came, no wing could match
Its moving.  Be that vision mine once more.”
Purgatorio:  Canto II.

“And thou, remembering well, with eye that sees
The light, wilt know thee like the sickly one
That on her bed of down can find no ease,
But turns and turns again her ache to shun,”
Purgatorio:  Canto VI.

“’T was now the hour the longing heart that bends
In voyagers, and meltingly doth sway,
Who bade farewell at morn to gentle friends;
And wounds the pilgrim newly bound his way
With poignant love, to hear some distant bell
That seems to mourn the dying of the day;
When I began to slight the sounds that fell
Upon my ear, one risen soul to view,
Whose beckoning hand our audience would compel.”
Purgatorio:  Canto VIII.

  “There I the shades see hurrying up to kiss
     Each with his mate from every part, nor stay,
   Contenting them with momentary bliss. 
     So one with other, all their swart array
   Along, do ants encounter snout with snout,
     So haply probe their fortune and their way.”
                        Purgatorio:  Canto XXVI.

“Between two viands, equally removed
And tempting, a free man would die of hunger
Ere either he could bring unto his teeth. 
So would a lamb between the ravenings
Of two fierce wolves stand fearing both alike;
And so would stand a dog between two does. 
Hence, if I held my peace, myself I blame not,
Impelled in equal measure by my doubts,
Since it must be so, nor do I commend.”
Paradiso:  Canto IV.

“And as a lute and harp, accordant strung
With many strings, a dulcet tinkling make
To him by whom the notes are not distinguished,
So from the lights that there to me appeared
Upgathered through the cross a melody,
Which rapt me, not distinguishing the hymn.”
Paradiso:  Canto XIV.

“As through the pure and tranquil evening air
There shoots from time to time a sudden fire,
Moving the eyes that steadfast were before,
And seems to be a star that changeth place,
Except that in the part where it is kindled
Nothing is missed, and this endureth little;
So from the horn that to the right extends
Unto that cross’s foot there ran a star
Out of the constellation shining there.”
Paradiso:  Canto XV.