Virgil's Mission — Canto II
Canto 2 of Inferno by Dante Alighieri
Day was departing, and the embrowned air Released the animals that are on earth From their fatigues; and I the only one Made myself ready to sustain the war, Both of the way and likewise of the woe, Which memory that errs not shall retrace.
O Muses, O high genius, now assist me! O memory, that didst write down what I saw, Here thy nobility shall be manifest!
I began: "Poet, who dost guide me, Regard my manhood, if it be sufficient, Ere to the arduous pass thou dost confide me. Thou sayest, that of Silvius the parent, While yet corruptible, unto the world Immortal went, and was there bodily. But I, why thither come, or who concedes it? I not Aeneas am, I am not Paul, Nor I, nor others, think me worthy of it."
