Dante notices that the light has doubled in brightness. He also hears the music of the spheres. He’s too busy trying to measure and understand those to realize that he’s already left earth to fly up toward the planets and stars. Fortunately, Beatrice is there to set him straight . . . and to redefine “home.”
Read MoreDante moves from his scholastic and even (medieval) scientific introduction to PARADISO and into an invocation . . . to Apollo? How is a pagan god the object of his prayers in this most Christian part of his poem, COMEDY? This passage is polyvocal, an uneasy alliance of Christian and classical texts, resulting in striking dissonances throughout.
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