NP Dante

[Joachim de Fiore]

Canto XI 

Dante now in Paradise, the Sun, the great sages, souls, 
round him circling and singing, they cease, St. Thomas on
St. Francis, his discourse finished, the ring of souls
singing, circling, now a second circle, perfect harmony, 
the double ring, concentric rainbows: 

As two concentric arcs of equal hue,
are seen as they bend through the misty clouds
when Juno tells her handmaiden to appear--

the outer from the inner one and echo,
like to the longing voice of her whom love
consumed as morning sun consumes the dew--

and reassure the people here below
that by the covenant God mad with Noah,
they have no need to fear the flood--

even so those sempiternal roses wreathed
twin garlands round us as the outer one
was lovingly responding to the inner.
		

		& 

The world once dangerously believed the lovely
Cyprian, whirling in third epicycle...


		& 

And at my side shines that Calabrain Abbot Joachim...

I put some people in Paradise too, Mom.