First from the ancient world those giants came, With many a vain exploit, though then renowned; The builders next of Babel on the plain Of Sennaar, and still with vain design New Babels, had they wherewithal, would build; Others came single: he who, to be deemed A god, leaped fondly into Aetna flames, Empedocles; and he who, to enjoy Plato’s Elysium, leaped into the sea, Cleombrotus; and many more, too long, Embryos and idiots, eremites and friars, White, black, and grey, with all their trumpery. Here pilgrims roam, that strayed so far to seek In Golgotha him dead who lives in Heaven; And they who, to be sure of Paradise, Dying put on the weeds of Dominic, Or in Franciscan think to pass disguised. They pass the planets seven, and pass the fixed, And that crystalline sphere whose balance weighs The trepidation talked, and that first moved; And now Saint Peter at Heaven’s wicket seems To wait them with his keys, and now at foot Of Heaven’s ascent they lift their feet, when, lo! A violent cross wind from either coast