All 13 Uses of
discern
in
Dante's Inferno
- And when I gave myself to looking onward, I saw people on the bank of a great river; wherefore I said, "Master, now grant to me that I may know who these are, and what rule makes them appear so ready to pass over, as I discern through the faint light."†
Canto 1-3
- Dark, profound it was, and cloudy, so that though I fixed my sight on the bottom I did not discern anything there.†
Canto 4-6 *
- We were still a little distant from it, yet not so far that I could not partially discern that honorable folk possessed that place.†
Canto 4-6
- I mean, that, when the miscreant spirit comes there before him, it confesses itself wholly, and that discerner of sins sees what place of Hell is for it; he girdles himself with his tail so many times as the degrees he wills it should be sent down.†
Canto 4-6
- And he to me, "Upon the foul waves already thou mayest discern that which is expected, if the fume of the marsh hide it not from thee."†
Canto 7-9
- And I, "Master, already in the valley therewithin I clearly discern its mosques vermilion, as if issuing from fire."†
Canto 7-9
- But in truth, if I discern clearly, a little ere He came, who levied the great spoil on Dis from the supernal circle, in all its parts the deep foul valley trembled so that I thought the universe had felt the love by which, as some believe, oft times the world has been converted into chaos:[1] and, at that moment, this ancient cliff here and elsewhere made this downfall.†
Canto 10-12
- Among all else that I have shown to thee, since we entered through the gate whose threshold is barred to no one, nothing has been discerned by thine eyes so notable as is the present stream which deadens all the flamelets upon it.†
Canto 13-15
- And he to me: "If thou follow thy star, thou canst not miss the glorious port, if, in the beautiful life, I discerned aright.†
Canto 13-15
- "If all my entreaty were fulfilled," replied I to him, "you would not yet be placed in banishment from human nature; for in my mind is fixed, and now fills my heart, the dear, good, paternal image of you, when in the world hour by hour you taught me how man makes himself eternal and in what gratitude I hold it, so long as I live, it behoves that on my tongue should be discerned.†
Canto 13-15
- And I discerned now the face of one, his shoulders, and his breast, and great part of his belly, and down along his sides both his arms.†
Canto 31-34
- When a little ray entered the woeful prison, and I discerned by their four faces my own very aspect, both my hands I bit for woe; and they, thinking I did it through desire of eating, of a sudden rose, and said, 'Father, it will be far less pain to us if thou eat of us; thou didst clothe us with this wretched flesh, and do thou strip it off.'†
Canto 31-34
- "Vexilla regis prodeunt inferni,[1] toward us; therefore look in front," said my Master; "if thou discernest him."†
Canto 31-34
Definition:
-
(discern) to notice or understand something -- often something that is not obvious