Pagans and the Unbaptized. The Four Poets, Homer, Horace, Ovid, and Lucan. The Noble Castle of Philosophy.
Canto V. The Second Circle: The Wanton. Minos. The Infernal Hurricane. Francesca da Rimini.
Canto VI. The Third Circle: The Gluttonous. Cerberus. The Eternal Rain. Ciacco. Florence.
Canto VIII. Phlegyas. Philippo Argenti. The Gate of the City of Dis.
Canto IX. The Furies and Medusa. The Angel. The City of Dis. The Sixth Circle: Heresiarchs.
Canto X. Farinata and Cavalcante de' Cavalcanti. Discourse on the Knowledge of the Damned.
Canto XI. The Broken Rocks. Pope Anastasius. General Description of the Inferno and its Divisions.
Canto XV. The Violent against Nature. Brunetto Latini.
Canto XVI. Guidoguerra, Aldobrandi, and Rusticucci. Cataract of the River of Blood.
Canto XVII. Geryon. The Violent against Art. Usurers. Descent into the Abyss of Malebolge.
Canto XIX. The Third Bolgia: Simoniacs. Pope Nicholas III. Dante's Reproof of corrupt Prelates.
Canto XXI. The Fifth Bolgia: Peculators. The Elder of Santa Zita. Malacoda and other Devils.
Canto XXII. Ciampolo, Friar Gomita, and Michael Zanche. The Malabranche quarrel.
Canto XXIV. The Seventh Bolgia: Thieves. Vanni Fucci. Serpents.
Canto XXVI. The Eighth Bolgia: Evil Counsellors. Ulysses and Diomed. Ulysses' Last Voyage.
Canto XXVII. Guido da Montefeltro. His deception by Pope Boniface VIII.
Canto XXIX. Geri del Bello. The Tenth Bolgia: Alchemists. Griffolino d' Arezzo and Capocchino.
Canto XXXI. The Giants, Nimrod, Ephialtes, and Antaeus. Descent to Cocytus.
Canto I. The Dark Forest. The Hill of Difficulty. The Panther, the Lion, and the Wolf. Virgil.
Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straightforward pathway had been lost.
Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say
What was this forest savage, rough, and stern,
Which in the very thought renews the fear.
So bitter is it, death is little more;
But of the good to treat, which there I found,
Speak will I of the other things I saw there.
I cannot well repeat how there I entered,
So full was I of slumber at the moment
In which I had abandoned the true way.
But after I had reached a mountain's foot,
At that point where the valley terminated,
Which had with consternation pierced my heart,
Upward I looked, and I beheld its shoulders,
Vested already with that planet's rays
Which leadeth others right by every road.
Then was the fear a little quieted
That in my heart's lake had endured throughout
The night, which I had passed so piteously.