Paradiso: Canto 22 Dante Alighieri (Ft. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)

Paradiso: Canto XXII

Oppressed with stupor, I unto my guide
   Turned like a little child who always runs
   For refuge there where he confideth most;

And she, even as a mother who straightway
   Gives comfort to her pale and breathless boy
   With voice whose wont it is to reassure him,

Said to me: "Knowest thou not thou art in heaven,
   And knowest thou not that heaven is holy all
   And what is done here cometh from good zeal?

After what wise the singing would have changed thee
   And I by smiling, thou canst now imagine,
   Since that the cry has startled thee so much,

In which if thou hadst understood its prayers
   Already would be known to thee the vengeance
   Which thou shalt look upon before thou diest.

The sword above here smiteth not in haste
   Nor tardily, howe'er it seem to him
   Who fearing or desiring waits for it.