
Canto XI, lines 91–93 (tr. Longfellow).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Inferno
The Everlasting Gospel (c. 1818)
Context: The vision of Christ that thou dost see
Is my vision's greatest enemy.
Thine has a great hook nose like thine;
Mine has a snub nose like to mine.
Thine is the Friend of all Mankind;
Mine speaks in parables to the blind.
Thine loves the same world that mine hates;
Thy heaven doors are my hell gates.
Canto XI, lines 91–93 (tr. Longfellow).
The Divine Comedy (c. 1308–1321), Inferno
Four Riddles, no. II
Rhyme? and Reason? (1883)
Letter to Gordon Smith, January 1, 1959, as quoted in Abstract Expressionism Creators and Critics, edited by Clifford Ross, Abrams Publishers New York 1990, p. 196
1950s
Canto I, XIII
The Fate of Adelaide (1821)
“Vision is the Art of seeing Things invisible.”
Thoughts on various subjects (Further thoughts on various subjects) (1745)
“Visions of your chestnut mare shoot through my head and are makin' me see stars.”
Song lyrics, Blood on the Tracks (1975), Idiot Wind
“I never thought before my death to see
Youth's vision thus made perfect.”
Source: Epipsychidion (1821), l. 41
Source: The Uncommon Wisdom of Oprah Winfrey: A Portrait in Her Own Words