Narration -- The Divine Comedy

Canto I
ARGUMENT: The author tells how she began to read Dante's Divine Comedy, and what has happened in Cantos I and II of Book I -- Inferno (Hell), in a manner mimicking the poetic style of that book.

I

looked upon the bookshelf, so many
Good choices there upon that wooden shelf!
Mine eye espied one volume, in color
Red, in thickness not too daunting to me.
"What may this volume be?"-- I grabbed it, and
Behold! In mine hands did rest that Dante's
Masterpiece, called The Divine Comedy.
I pondered o'er the pages -- should this book
I read? This book, remembered for one part,
The 'Inferno' -- should this book I begin?
All written in verse -- dare I even try?
"Fear not!" cried that spirit, a worm-like one,
Who is the guardian of such as I,
And those who would read rather than, perhaps,
Eat. "Fear not! It is not too difficult!"
Then I, emboldened, cried, "This challenge I
Accept!" And so began this here journey.
        Dante is his main character within
'Divina Commedia'. Thirty-and-
Five is he, and wandering lost in some
Dangerous forests, when, lo, a mountain
He sees. This he ascends, or at least tries,
But numerous beasts prevent his ascent.
Despairing, he retreats, and comes across
Virgil; not alive, no, but a spirit,
Sent unto Dante by Beatrice, the girl
He loved, and now a spirit of pure good.
Beatrice pitied Dante, and sent Virgil;
Though offering the dead Roman no kind
Of reward, the pureness of Beatrice was
Enough to convince Virgil to do the
Noble task of escorting Dante through
First Hell, then Purgatory, then Heaven.
And so the two start up the mountainside.