On Dante's Track

On Dante's track by some funereal spell

Drawn down through desperate ways that lead not back

We seem to move, bound forth past flood and fell

On Dante's track.

The grey path ends: the gaunt rocks gape: the black

Deep hollow tortuous night, a soundless shell,

Glares darkness: are the fires of old grown slack?

Nay, then, what flames are these that leap and swell

As 'twere to show, where earth's foundations crack,

The secrets of the sepulchres of hell

On Dante's track?