three fourth of my life is gone, and I have let
The years slip from me and have not fulfilled
The aspiration of my youth, to build
Some tower of song with lofty parapet.
Not indolence, nor pleasure, nor the fret
Of restless passions chat would not be stilled,
But sorrow, and a care that almost killed,
Kept me from what I may accomplish yet;
Though, half way up the hill, I see the Past
Lying beneath me with its sounds and sights,–
A city in the twilight dim and vast,
With smoking roofs, soft bells, and gleaming lights.–
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who translated the Divine Comedy into English, also wrote a poem titled “Mezzo Cammin” (“Halfway,” 1845), alluding to the first line of the Comedy
