Spiraling Upward

Of Nature's ministers the chief and prime,
Who sets on earth the seals of heavenly sway,
And makes his light the measure of our time,

Had reached that point we named, and on his way
through heav'n was moving up the spiral stair
Whereon he shows him earlier day by day.

And I was with him, but no more aware
Of my ascent than as a man may know,
Ere a though strikes him, that a thought is there.

- Dante, Paradise, Canto X