A Polyvocal Passage With All Its Dissonances: PARADISO, Canto I, Lines 13 - 36

Our poet moves from his scholastic and even (medieval) scientific opening of PARADISO into his invocation . . . to Apollo?

This passage has often embarrassed Dante scholars who feel the need to excuse various pieces of it.

But we can let those pieces stand as part of the polyvocality of the text.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we move back and forth from the Christian to the pagan as we walk through this second part of Dante's opening lines of PARADISO.

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

[01:11] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto I, Lines 13 - 36. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me via a comment on this episode, please find its entry on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:09] This passage embarrasses too many Dante scholars.

[09:14] This passage is polyvocal, a two-part fugue or invention.

[17:59] These two voices lead to dissonances in the passage.

[23:36] Did Dante intend these dissonances?

[25:20] Three small dissonances: Dante crowns himself, fights in an arena, and find his worth in two places at once.

[28:32] Marsyas, a comedic tragedy.

[32:01] The flame of the tongue, Pentecost, or maybe Ulysses.

[34:48] A high-toned, perhaps red-flag reference to Cyrrha.

[35:55] An inaccurate but telling reference to Parnassus.

[39:07] Rereading the passage: PARADISO, Canto I, lines 13 - 36.

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(498)

Go Home: PARADISO, Canto II, Lines 1 - 18

Our poet steps out of the shadows with an important message: "Go home."Because PARADISO is hard. Because we might get lost. Because we're not prepared.The stark address to all readers--or perhaps to a...

16 Aug 25min

Of Natural Instincts and Their Natural Ends: PARADISO, Canto I, Lines 115 - 142

Beatrice continues in her discourse about our natural instincts, making the bold claim that they can lead us to our natural ends . . . which are the good, not the catastrophic bad.Her Scholastic theol...

12 Aug 23min

Sailing Across the Great Sea of "To Be": PARADISO, Canto I, Lines 94 - 114

Beatrice has answered Dante's first doubt, but he has another. He can't quite understand how he, maybe in his body, can make his way across the universe.She doesn't have a quick answer. Instead, she h...

9 Aug 25min

Returning Home Through the Music of the Spheres: PARADISO, Canto I, Lines 61 - 93

Our pilgrim finds everything doubled in brightness . . . because he's begun to fly up to the heavens, although he doesn't know it at first.He's too busy figuring out all that light . . . and listening...

5 Aug 37min

Staring at the Sun: PARADISO, Canto I, Lines 37 - 60

The plot gets underway in PARADISO.Our pilgrim Dante turns to Beatrice . . . who is paying him no attention. She's staring at the sun.So he does the same! He hasn't even left earth, yet the miraculous...

2 Aug 36min

Welcome to a Renegotiated Poem: PARADISO, Canto I, Lines 1 - 12

From its opening lines, it's clear that PARADISO is not like what has come before in COMEDY. Dante seems to be renegotiating the terms of his poem, establishing a new voice, a new model, and a new met...

26 Jul 37min

Final Thoughts On PURGATORIO

We've reached the end of our time on the great mountain of Purgatory . . . and in the great second canticle of COMEDY.Here are some final thoughts, an attempt to bring our time with this part of the p...

26 Apr 19min