As sails full spread and bellying with the wind
Drop suddenly collapsed, if the mast split,
So to the ground down dropp’d the cruel fiend. 

          
                                                                  (Inferno.)

            As, near upon the hour of dawn,

Through the thick vapours Mars with fiery beam
Glares down in west, over the ocean floor. 

          
                                                        (Purgatorio.)

            As ’fore the sun

That weighs our vision down, and veils his form
In light transcendent, thus my virtue fail’d
Unequal. (Purgatorio.)

As sunshine cheers
Limbs numb’d by nightly cold, e’en thus my look
Unloosed her tongue.

And now there came o’er the perturbed waves,
Loud crashing, terrible, a sound that made
Either shore tremble, as if of a wind
Impetuous, from conflicting vapours sprung,
That, ’gainst some forest driving all his might,
Plucks off the branches, beats them down, and hurls
Afar; then, onward pressing, proudly sweeps
His whirlwind rage, while beasts and shepherds fly. 

          
                                                                    (Inferno.)

As florets, by the frosty air of night
Bent down and closed, when day has blanch’d their leaves
Rise all unfolded on their spiry stems,
So was my fainting vigour new restored. 

          
                                                                    (Inferno.)

    As fall off the light autumnal leaves,

One still another following, till the bough
Strews all its honours on the earth beneath. 

          
                                                                    (Inferno.)

Bees, dolphins, rays of sunlight, snow, starlings, doves, frogs, a bull, falcons, fishes, larks, and rooks are all used, generally with characteristic touches of detail.

Specially tender is this: 

E’en as the bird, who ’mid the leafy bower
Has, in her nest, sat darkling through the night
With her sweet brood; impatient to descry
Their wished looks, and to bring home their food,
In the fond quest, unconscious of her toil;

  She, of the time prevenient, on the spray
  That overhangs their couch, with wakeful gaze
  Expects the sun, nor, ever, till the dawn
  Removeth from the east her eager ken,
  So stood the dame erect.

The most important forward step was made by Petrarch, and it is strange that this escaped Humboldt in his famous sketch in the second volume of Cosmos, as well as his commentator Schaller, and Friedlander.

For when we turn from Hellenism to Petrarch, it does not seem as if many centuries lay between; but rather as if notes first struck in the one had just blended into distinct harmony in the other.