Walking With Dante21 Des 2025

No Time For Poetry: PURGATORIO, Canto XXIX, Lines 88 - 105

The parade goes on, now that the pilgrim, Dante, is in a good spot to see it.

After the twenty-four lords in white come four animals with green fronds as crowns. They are like the Cherubim in both the prophecies of Ezekiel and in the Apocalypse of St. John (or the book of Revelation).

Except not really. Or sort of. Well, the poet doesn't have time to explain. Go read the text yourself. And especially the one that doesn't quite agree with what I saw.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we find Dante's irony alive and well, even during the grand parade of divine revelation.

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

[01:20] My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXIX, Lines 88 - 105. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please find the entry for this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[02:56] The naturalistic, lush landscape à la Guido Cavalcanti's pastoral poem.

[04:49] The constellations, Argus, and the peacock.

[06:35] The four "animals" from Ezekiel and the Apocalypse of St. John (or the New Testament book of Revelation).

[09:19] Allegorical interpretations of the four animals.

[11:19] "Unmoored" allegories in COMEDY: here and with the three beasts in INFERNO, Canto I.

[14:02] Dante, the Biblical text, and questions of its inerrancy.

[16:25] The direct address tot he reader, perhaps a wild bit of Dantean irony even here in the divine parade.

[21:34] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XXIX, lines 88 - 105.

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