The Whole World Is On Fire: PURGATORIO, Canto XXVII, Lines 1 - 18
Walking With Dante17 Syys 2025

The Whole World Is On Fire: PURGATORIO, Canto XXVII, Lines 1 - 18

Our pilgrim has come to an impasse: the flames of lust. There's no way forward except to step into them. He must finally feel the sufferings that he has witnessed over the course of COMEDY to this point.

This suffering comes after a discussion of the craft of poetry, after a unifying vision of the world, and after Dante's own memories of both seeing people be burned alive as capital punishment and being sentenced to the same fate if he returns from exile.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we begin the first lines of the most important canto in PURGATORIO.

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Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:53] My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXVII, lines 1 - 18. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please find this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:52] The unifying, globalizing view to begin this transitional canto.

[08:36] The global, totalizing perspective v. the confusion of personal references in the passage.

[11:52] The difficulties of handling multiple perspectives in narratives.

[16:29] The global perspective v. Dante's personal memories and experience.

[24:00] The beatitude in the passage: "Blessed are the pure in heart."

[25:42] The beatitudes in all of PURGATORIO . . . and the missing one of the seven from the Gospel of Matthew.

[28:26] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXVII, lines 1 - 18.

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