Beatrice finishes her second salvo at Dante with a master class in a high, elevated style. She also carries on with her balancing act between literal and metaphoric speech. In all these ways, she is directing both the pilgrim to the journey ahead and the poet to the sort of poetry he will have to craft to explain the PARADISO experience.
Read MoreEver since INFERNO, Canto I, we’ve wondered exactly why Dante got lost in that dark wood. Here, at the top of Purgatory, Beatrice finally brings out his full confession. It was all about her. Or about what he wrote. Or about another woman. Or maybe all of them at once.
Read MoreWailing, Dante is silent in the face of Beatrice’s indictment. She is impatient to hear his confession. But she’s also done the unthinkable: she’s robbed a poet of his words. He’s left speechless in front of her . . . about the way he was in front of Francesca back in INFERNO.
Read MoreLet’s read through the next chunk of PURGATORIO: Cantos XXX and XXXI. In many ways, these cantos are the climax of the first part of COMEDY: Beatrice arrives and is nothing like what we might have expected.
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