Gate Of Hell, Canto 3 Poem by Amera Andersen

'Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate' (3.9)
Leave behind all hope, you who enter

Gate of Hell, canto 3

Before the river Acheron I wait *1
And stand within the threshold of my hell,
For I have stepped within the evil gate,

To where one bids mortality farewell.
I’m greeted by the lost angelic four *2
And told I must decide where I should dwell.

‘Twas providence that lead me through this door,
For I was neither warm nor was I cold. *3
The scriptures I had chosen to ignore

And now I’m watching prophesy unfold.
As Charon grins approaching in his boat, *4
I feel the darkness closing in so cold,

An ambiance of fear that is remote.
I watch him anchor terror with his rope.
Revulsion swelling deep within my throat,

I doubt my living soul will ever cope
And wonder if redemption is too late.
I’m now resigned to torment without hope...

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Author notes

Like Dante’s epic, this poem is penned in a Terza Rima in English instead of Italian. A mathematical consequence of this pattern is that the number of lines in any given canto is always a multiple of three with one left over to start the next. I solved the conclusion by making it a stand alone sentence.

Footnotes:
*1: a marginal place-inside the gate of hell but before the river Acheron-for souls neither good enough for heaven nor evil enough for hell proper is a product of Dante's imagination, pure and simple.

*2: Included among these cowardly souls-also known as fence-sitters, wafflers, opportunists, and neutrals-are the angels who refused to choose between God and Lucifer.

*3: (Revelation) 3: 16: 'But because thou art lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth.'

*4: Charon is the pilot of a boat that transports shades of the dead-newly arrived from the world above-across the waters into the lower world.