Quali colombe dal disio chiamate,
Con l'ali aperte e ferme al dolce nido
Volan per l'aer dal voler portate.—Inf. 5.[129]

Take, again, the times of the day, with what is characteristic of them—appearances, lights, feelings—seldom dwelt on at length, but carried at once to the mind, and stamped upon it sometimes by a single word. The sense of morning, its inspiring and cheering strength, softens the opening of the Inferno; breathes its refreshing calm, in the interval of repose after the last horrors of hell, in the first canto of the Purgatorio; and prepares for the entrance into the earthly Paradise at its close. In the waning light of evening, and its chilling sense of loneliness, he prepared himself for his dread pilgrimage:

Lo giorno se n'andava, e l'aer bruno
Toglieva gli animai che sono 'n terra
Dalle fatiche loro; ed io sol uno
M'apparechiava a sostener la guerra
Sì del cammino, e sì della pietate.—Inf. 2.

Indeed there is scarcely an hour of day or night, which has not left its own recollection with him;—of which we cannot find some memorial in his poem. Evening and night have many. Evening, with its softness and melancholy—its exhaustion and languor, after the work, perhaps unfulfilled, of day—its regrets and yearnings—its sounds and doubtful lights—the distant bell, the closing chants of Compline, the Salve Regina, the Te lucis ante terminum—with its insecurity, and its sense of protection from above—broods over the poet's first resting-place on his heavenly road—that still, solemn, dreamy scene—the Valley of Flowers in the mountain side, where those who have been negligent about their salvation, but not altogether faithless and fruitless, the assembled shades of great kings and of poets, wait, looking upwards, "pale and humble," for the hour when they may begin in earnest their penance. (Purg. 7 and 8.) The level, blinding evening beams (Purg. 15); the contrast of gathering darkness in the valley or on the shore with the lingering lights on the mountain (Purg. 17); the rapid sinking of the sun, and approach of night in the south (Purg. 27); the flaming sunset clouds of August; the sheet-lightning of summer (Purg. 5); have left pictures in his mind, which an incidental touch reawakens, and a few strong words are sufficient to express. Other appearances he describes with more fulness. The stars coming out one by one, baffling at first the eye:

Ed ecco intorno di chiarezza pari
Nascer un lustro sopra quel che v'era,
A guisa d'orizzonte, che rischiari.
E sì come al salir di prima sera
Comincian per lo Ciel nuove parvenze,
Sì che la cosa pare e non par vera;—Parad. 14.[130]

or else, bursting out suddenly over the heavens:

Quando colui che tutto il mondo alluma,
De l'emisperio nostro si discende,
E 'l giorno d'ogni parte si consuma;
Lo ciel che sol di lui prima s'accende,
Subitamente si rifà parvente
Per molte luci in che una risplende;—Parad. 20.[131]

or the effect of shooting-stars: