The Divine Comedy: Hell

IN the midway of this our mortal life,
I found me in a gloomy wood, astray
Gone from the path direct:

"THROUGH me you pass into the city of woe:

Through me you pass into eternal pain:

Through me among the people lost for aye.

Justice the founder of my fabric mov’d:

To rear me was the task of power divine,

Supremest wisdom, and primeval love.

Before me things create were none, save things

Eternal, and eternal I endure.

my dismay
Renews, in bitterness not far from death.