All 21 Uses
serpent
in
The Divine Comedy -- translated by Longfellow
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- Therefore one people triumphs, and another
Languishes, in pursuance of her judgment,
Which hidden is, as in the grass a serpent.†Canto 1.1-11 *serpent = snake - And more he said, but not in mind I have it;
Because mine eye had altogether drawn me
Tow'rds the high tower with the red-flaming summit,
Where in a moment saw I swift uprisen
The three infernal Furies stained with blood,
Who had the limbs of women and their mien,
And with the greenest hydras were begirt;
Small serpents and cerastes were their tresses,
Wherewith their horrid temples were entwined.†Canto 1.1-11serpents = snakes - Even as the frogs before the hostile serpent
Across the water scatter all abroad,
Until each one is huddled in the earth.†Canto 1.1-11serpent = snake - Men once we were, and now are changed to trees;
Indeed, thy hand should be more pitiful,
Even if the souls of serpents we had been.†Canto 1.12-22serpents = snakes - The face was as the face of a just man,
Its semblance outwardly was so benign,
And of a serpent all the trunk beside.†Canto 1.12-22serpent = snake - Because he wished to see too far before him
Behind he looks, and backward goes his way:
Behold Tiresias, who his semblance changed,
When from a male a female he became,
His members being all of them transformed;
And afterwards was forced to strike once more
The two entangled serpents with his rod,
Ere he could have again his manly plumes.†Canto 1.12-22serpents = snakes - We from the bridge descended at its head,
Where it connects itself with the eighth bank,
And then was manifest to me the Bolgia;
And I beheld therein a terrible throng
Of serpents, and of such a monstrous kind,
That the remembrance still congeals my blood
Let Libya boast no longer with her sand;
For if Chelydri, Jaculi, and Phareae
She breeds, with Cenchri and with Amphisbaena,
Neither so many plagues nor so malignant
E'er showed she with all Ethiopia,
Nor with whatever on the Red Sea is!†Canto 1.23-34 - They had their hands with serpents bound behind them;
These riveted upon their reins the tail
And head, and were in front of them entwined.†Canto 1.23-34 - at one who was upon our side
There darted forth a serpent, which transfixed him
There where the neck is knotted to the shoulders.†Canto 1.23-34serpent = snake - From that time forth the serpents were my friends;
For one entwined itself about his neck
As if it said: "I will not thou speak more;"
And round his arms another, and rebound him,
Clinching itself together so in front,
That with them he could not a motion make.†Canto 1.23-34serpents = snakes - I do not think Maremma has so many
Serpents as he had all along his back,
As far as where our countenance begins.†Canto 1.23-34 - a serpent with six feet darts forth
In front of one, and fastens wholly on him.†Canto 1.23-34serpent = snake - Even as a lizard, under the great scourge
Of days canicular, exchanging hedge,
Lightning appeareth if the road it cross;
Thus did appear, coming towards the bellies
Of the two others, a small fiery serpent,
Livid and black as is a peppercorn.†Canto 1.23-34 - He at the serpent gazed, and it at him;
One through the wound, the other through the mouth
Smoked violently, and the smoke commingled.†Canto 1.23-34 - Together they responded in such wise,
That to a fork the serpent cleft his tail,
And eke the wounded drew his feet together.†Canto 1.23-34 - "From Mary's bosom both of them have come,"
Sordello said, "as guardians of the valley
Against the serpent, that will come anon."
Whereupon I, who knew not by what road,
Turned round about, and closely drew myself,
Utterly frozen, to the faithful shoulders.†Canto 2.1-11 - Upon the side on which the little valley
No barrier hath, a serpent was; perchance
The same which gave to Eve the bitter food.†Canto 2.1-11 - Hearing the air cleft by their verdant wings,
The serpent fled, and round the Angels wheeled,
Up to their stations flying back alike.†Canto 2.1-11 - And thus the shade that questioned was of this
Himself acquitted: "I know not; but truly
'Tis fit the name of such a valley perish;
For from its fountain-head (where is so pregnant
The Alpine mountain whence is cleft Peloro
That in few places it that mark surpasses)
To where it yields itself in restoration
Of what the heaven doth of the sea dry up,
Whence have the rivers that which goes with them,
Virtue is like an enemy avoided
By all, as is a serpent, through misfortune
Of place, or through bad habit that impels them;
On which account have so transformed their nature
The dwellers in that miserable valley,
It seems that Circe had them in her pasture.†Canto 2.12-22 - So passing through the lofty forest, vacant
By fault of her who in the serpent trusted,
Angelic music made our steps keep time.†Canto 2.23-33 - Know that the vessel which the serpent broke
Was, and is not; but let him who is guilty
Think that God's vengeance does not fear a sop.†Canto 2.23-33
Definitions:
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(1)
(serpent) a snake
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) For less common senses of "serpent", see a comprehensive dictionary.