Come al orlo dell'acqua d'un fosso Stan gli ranocchi _pur col muso fuori_, Sì che celano i piedi, e l'altro grosso.--_Inf._ 22.[116] [Footnote 111: _Parad._ 7, 1-3.] [Footnote 112: To describe the pinched face of famine;-- Parean l'occhiaje annella senza gemme. Chi nel viso degli uomini legge OMO Ben avria quivi conosciuto l'_emme_ (M).--_Purg._ 23. Again, Quella reverenza che s'indonna Di tutto me, pur per B e per ICE.--_Parad._ 7. Nè O sì tosto mai, nè I si scrisse, Com'ei s'accese ed arse.--_Inf._ 24.] [Footnote 113: Like to a sapling, lighted at one end, Which at the other hisses with the wind, And drops of sap doth from the outlet send: So from the broken twig, both words and blood flow'd forth.--WRIGHT.] [Footnote 114: Like burning paper, when there glides before The advancing flame a brown and dingy shade, Which is not black, and yet is white no more.--IBID.] [Footnote 115: On either hand I saw them haste their meeting, And kiss each one the other--pausing not-- Contented to enjoy so short a greeting. Thus do the ants among their dingy band, Face one another--each their neighbour's lot Haply to scan, and how their fortunes stand.--WRIGHT.] [Footnote 116: As in a trench, frogs at the water side Sit squatting, with their noses raised on high, The while their feet, and all their bulk they hide-- Thus upon either hand the sinners stood. But Barbariccia now approaching nigh, Quick they withdrew beneath the boiling flood. I saw--and still my heart is thrill'd with fear-- One spirit linger; as beside a ditch, One frog remains, the others disappear.--IBID.] It must be said, that most of these images, though by no means all, occur in the _Inferno_; and that the poet means to paint sin not merely in the greatness of its ruin and misery, but in characters which all understand, of strangeness, of vileness, of despicableness, blended with diversified and monstrous horror. Even he seems to despair of his power at times: S'io avessi le rime e aspre, e chiocce, Come si converrebbe al tristo buco, Sovra 'l qual pontan tutte l'altre rocce; Io premerrei di mio concetto il suco Più pienamente; ma perch'io non l'abbo, Non senza tema a dicer mi conduco: Che non è 'mpresa da pigliare a gabbo Descriver fondo a tutto l'universo, Nè da lingua, che chiami mamma, o babbo.--_Inf._ 32.[117] [Footnote 117: