1. Midway in our life’s journey, I went astray/from the straight road and woke to find myself/alone in a dark wood.
2. He will rise between Feltro and Feltro, and in him/shall be the resurrection and new day/of that sad Italy for which Nisus died . . .
3. “Are you there already, Boniface? Are you there/already?” he cried. “By several years the writ/has lied.
4. Joy to you, Florence, that your banners swell,/beating their proud wings over land and sea,/and that your name expands through all of Hell!
5. “Why do you kick me? If you were not sent/to wreak a further vengence for Montaperti,/why do you add this to my other torment?”
6. And I did not keep the promise that I had made,/for to be rude to him was a curtesy.
7. If he was once as beautiful as now/he is hideous, and still turned on his Maker,/well be he the source of every woe!
8. You are under the other hemisphere where you stand;/the sky above us is the half opposed/to that which canopies the great dry land.
Answers: (1) The opening of the Inferno, Canto I (2) Referencing Can Grande Della Scalla, Canto I (3) Said by Pope Nicholas III, mistaking Dante for Boniface, Canto XIX (4) Dante uttering scathing remarks about Florence, Canto XXVI (5) Said by Bocca, a traitor, after Dante accidentially kicks him in the head, Canto XXXII (6) After Dante promised to remove the ice from Friar Albergio’s eyes but then refuses, Canto XXXIII (7) Describing Satan, Canto XXXIV (8) Virgil to Dante, explaining where they are after leaving the last circle of Hell, Canto XXXIV
