st fervid is and living
With breath of God and with his works and ways,
Extended over us its inner curve,
So very distant, that its outward show,
There where I was, not yet appeared to me.
Therefore mine eyes did not possess the power
Of following the incoronated flame,
Which had ascended near to its own seed.
And as a little child, that towards its mother
Extends its arms, when it the milk has taken,
Through impulse kindled into outward flame,
Each of those gleams of white did upward stretch
So with its summit, that the deep affection
They had for Mary was revealed to me.
Thereafter they remained there in my sight,
_Regina coeli_ singing with such sweetness, [132]
That ne'er from me has the delight departed.
Oh, what exuberance is garnered up
In those resplendent coffers, which had been
For sowing here below good husbandmen!
There they enjoy and live upon the treasure [137]
Which was acquired while weeping in the exile
Of Babylon, wherein the gold was left.
There triumpheth beneath the exalted Son
Of God and Mary, in his victory,
Both with the ancient council and the new,
He who doth keep the keys of such a glory. [143]

[Line 1: Dante is with Beatrice in the eighth circle, that of the fixed
stars. She is gazing upwards, watching for the descent of the Triumph of
Christ.]

[Line 12: Under the meridian, or at noon, the shadows being shorter move
slower, and, therefore the sun seems less in haste.]

[Line 21: By the beneficent influences of the stars.]

[Line 29: The old belief that the stars were fed by the light of the
sun. So Milton,--

"Hither, as to their fountain, other stars
Repair, and in their golden urns draw light."

Here the stars are souls, the sun is Christ.]

[Line 45: Beatrice speaks.]

[Line 55: The Muse of harmony and singing.]

[Line 72: The rose is the Virgin Mary, _Rosa Mundi, Rosa Mystica_; the
lilies are the Apostles and other saints.]

[Line 78: The struggle between his eyes and the light.]

[Line 89: Christ reascends, that Dante's dazzled eyes, too feeble to
bear the light of his presence, may behold the splendors around him.

The greater fire is the Virgin Mary, greater than any of those
remaining. She is the living star, surpassing in brightness all other
souls in heaven, as she did here