All 27 Uses
lament
in
Dante's Inferno -- translated by Longfellow
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- Therefore I think and judge it for thy best
Thou follow me, and I will be thy guide,
And lead thee hence through the eternal place,
Where thou shalt hear the desperate lamentations,
Shalt see the ancient spirits disconsolate,
Who cry out each one for the second death;
And thou shalt see those who contented are
Within the fire, because they hope to come,
Whene'er it may be, to the blessed people;
To whom, then, if thou wishest to ascend,
A soul shall be for that than I more worthy;
With her at my departure I will leave thee;
Because that Emperor, who reigns above,
In that I was rebellious to his law,
Wills that through me none come into his city.†Canto 1.1-11lamentations = passionate expressions of grief or sorrow - And I: "O Master, what so grievous is
To these, that maketh them lament so sore?"†Canto 1.1-11lament = express grief or regret - There, as it seemed to me from listening,
Were lamentations none, but only sighs,
That tremble made the everlasting air.†Canto 1.1-11lamentations = passionate expressions of grief or sorrow - And now begin the dolesome notes to grow
Audible unto me; now am I come
There where much lamentation strikes upon me.†Canto 1.1-11 *lamentation = passionate expression of grief or sorrow - When they arrive before the precipice,
There are the shrieks, the plaints, and the laments,
There they blaspheme the puissance divine.†Canto 1.1-11laments = expresses grief or regret - And as the cranes go chanting forth their lays,
Making in air a long line of themselves,
So saw I coming, uttering lamentations,
Shadows borne onward by the aforesaid stress.†Canto 1.1-11lamentations = passionate expressions of grief or sorrow - We left him there, and more of him I tell not;
But on mine ears there smote a lamentation,
Whence forward I intent unbar mine eyes.†Canto 1.1-11lamentation = passionate expression of grief or sorrow - And he who well the handmaids of the Queen
Of everlasting lamentation knew,
Said unto me: "Behold the fierce Erinnys.†Canto 1.1-11 - All of their coverings uplifted were,
And from them issued forth such dire laments,
Sooth seemed they of the wretched and tormented.†Canto 1.1-11laments = expresses grief or regret - We with our faithful escort onward moved
Along the brink of the vermilion boiling,
Wherein the boiled were uttering loud laments.†Canto 1.12-22 - Here they lament their pitiless mischiefs; here
Is Alexander, and fierce Dionysius
Who upon Sicily brought dolorous years.†Canto 1.12-22lament = express grief or regret - There do the hideous Harpies make their nests,
Who chased the Trojans from the Strophades,
With sad announcement of impending doom;
Broad wings have they, and necks and faces human,
And feet with claws, and their great bellies fledged;
They make laments upon the wondrous trees.†Canto 1.12-22laments = expresses grief or regret - I heard on all sides lamentations uttered,
And person none beheld I who might make them,
Whence, utterly bewildered, I stood still.†Canto 1.12-22lamentations = passionate expressions of grief or sorrow - Those who were going round were far the more,
And those were less who lay down to their torment,
But had their tongues more loosed to lamentation.†Canto 1.12-22lamentation = passionate expression of grief or sorrow - Therefore go on; I at thy skirts will come,
And afterward will I rejoin my band,
Which goes lamenting its eternal doom.†Canto 1.12-22lamenting = expressing grief or regret - Then was I still more fearful of the abyss;
Because I fires beheld, and heard laments,
Whereat I, trembling, all the closer cling.†Canto 1.12-22laments = expresses grief or regret - And the good Master yet from off his haunch
Deposed me not, till to the hole he brought me
Of him who so lamented with his shanks.†Canto 1.12-22lamented = expressed grief or regret - Whereat the spirit writhed with both his feet,
Then, sighing, with a voice of lamentation
Said to me: "Then what wantest thou of me?†Canto 1.12-22lamentation = passionate expression of grief or sorrow - Inferno: Canto XXI
From bridge to bridge thus, speaking other things
Of which my Comedy cares not to sing,
We came along, and held the summit, when
We halted to behold another fissure
Of Malebolge and other vain laments;
And I beheld it marvellously dark.†Canto 1.12-22laments = expresses grief or regret - Lamenting with the others, Barbariccia
Made four of them fly to the other side
With all their gaffs, and very speedily
This side and that they to their posts descended;
They stretched their hooks towards the pitch-ensnared,
Who were already baked within the crust,
And in this manner busied did we leave them.†Canto 1.12-22lamenting = expressing grief or regret - Inferno: Canto XXIV
In that part of the youthful year wherein
The Sun his locks beneath Aquarius tempers,
And now the nights draw near to half the day,
What time the hoar-frost copies on the ground
The outward semblance of her sister white,
But little lasts the temper of her pen,
The husbandman, whose forage faileth him,
Rises, and looks, and seeth the champaign
All gleaming white, whereat he beats his flank,
Returns in doors, and up and down laments,
Like a poor wretch, who knows not what to do;†Canto 1.23-34laments = expresses grief or regret - And there within their flame do they lament
The ambush of the horse, which made the door
Whence issued forth the Romans' gentle seed;
Therein is wept the craft, for which being dead
Deidamia still deplores Achilles,
And pain for the Palladium there is borne.†Canto 1.23-34lament = express grief or regret - As the Sicilian bull (that bellowed first
With the lament of him, and that was right,
Who with his file had modulated it)
Bellowed so with the voice of the afflicted,
That, notwithstanding it was made of brass,
Still it appeared with agony transfixed;
Thus, by not having any way or issue
At first from out the fire, to its own language
Converted were the melancholy words.†Canto 1.23-34 - When it had thus completed its recital,
The flame departed uttering lamentations,
Writhing and flapping its sharp-pointed horn.†Canto 1.23-34lamentations = passionate expressions of grief or sorrow - If were again assembled all the people
Which formerly upon the fateful land
Of Puglia were lamenting for their blood
Shed by the Romans and the lingering war
That of the rings made such illustrious spoils,
As Livy has recorded, who errs not,
With those who felt the agony of blows
By making counterstand to Robert Guiscard,
And all the rest, whose bones are gathered still
At Ceperano, where a renegade
Was each Apulian, and at Tagliacozzo,
Where without arms the old Alardo conquered,
And one his limb transpierced, and one lopped off,
Should show, it would be nothing to compare
With the disgusting mode of the ninth Bolgia.†Canto 1.23-34lamenting = expressing grief or regret - Meanwhile my Guide departed, and behind him
I went, already making my reply,
And superadding: "In that cavern where
I held mine eyes with such attention fixed,
I think a spirit of my blood laments
The sin which down below there costs so much."†Canto 1.23-34laments = expresses grief or regret - When we were now right over the last cloister
Of Malebolge, so that its lay-brothers
Could manifest themselves unto our sight,
Divers lamentings pierced me through and through,
Which with compassion had their arrows barbed,
Whereat mine ears I covered with my hands.†Canto 1.23-34
Definitions:
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(1)
(lament) to express grief or regret
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(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) Although lament typically refers to a feeling or simple vocal expression, it can refer to a vocal expression as complex as a sad song or poem. It can even refer to sad, but non-vocal music -- as when Tennessee Williams references background music in A Streetcar Named Desire.