The Dark Forest of Despair

Midway upon the journey of our life I found myself within a forest dark, For the straightforward

pathway had been lost. Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say

What was this forest savage, rough, and stern, Which in the very

thought renews the fear. So bitter is it, death is little more;

But of the good to treat, which there I found, Speak will I of the other things

I saw there. I cannot well repeat how there I entered, So full was I of slumber at the moment

In which I had abandoned the true way. But after I had reached a mountain’s foot,

At that point where the valley terminated, Which had with consternation pierced my heart, Upward I looked,