From Lofty To Lyrical In The Prophetic Voice: PURGATORIO, Canto XXIII, Lines 91 - 111
Having praised his wife, Nella, Forese Donati launches into the prophetic voice, the new "high style" that Dante has developed, a screed with a lyrical undertow.This complicated poetic act can only be...
22 Jun 202528min
The Heroic Nella Donati: PURGATORIO, Canto XXIII, Lines 76 - 90
Dante the pilgrim and his rival/friend/fellow poet Forese Donati continue to talk about their concerns: suffering, placement on the mountain, and the role of the living in the service of the dead.Alo...
18 Jun 202526min
Pain, Solace, And Being Human: PURGATORIO, Canto XXIII, Lines 49 - 75
Having met his poetic rival, Forese Donati, Dante the pilgrim must make sense of the clear and present pain he sees in friend's face.This passage is a curious example of felix culpa, the fortunate fal...
15 Jun 202529min
Gluttons For Poetry: PURGATORIO, Canto XXIII, Lines 28 - 48
Dante now walks with the skeletal gluttons who have God's writing on their faces.Along the way, there are increasingly complex and almost gaming literary references that litter the text until Dante th...
11 Jun 202533min
Starved For Affection: PURGATORIO, Canto XXIII, Lines 1 - 27
Our pilgrim must move beyond the mystical tree on the sixth terrace of Mount Purgatory. So he sets off behind Virgil and Statius, only to overtaken by a group of cadaverous, skeletal penitents, whose ...
8 Jun 202527min
Did Dante Think The Characters In Classical Poems Were Real?
Did Dante think that the characters in Virgil's and Statius's poems were real? Did he believe that the characters who changed shape, being, and even substance in Ovid's METAMORPHOSES were actual and h...
4 Jun 202519min
You Are What You Eat . . . And Read: PURGATORIO, Canto XXII, Lines 130 - 145
Virgil and Statius begin to trek around the sixth terrace of Mount Purgatory but are stopped by an upside-down tree . . . that causes more questions than it provides answers.A voice in the tree warns ...
1 Jun 202527min
Going In Circles To Go Forward: PURGATORIO, Canto XXII, Lines 115 - 129
Our pilgrim, Virgil, and Statius arrive on the otherwise empty sixth terrace of Mount Purgatory. Virgil seems more hesitant. And our pilgrim, Dante, more passive, as he listens to the two older, wiser...
28 Mai 202523min
