PURGATORIO, Episode 216. Our Pilgrim Let Loose (Again) In A Dark Wood: PURGATORIO, Canto XXVIII, Lines 1 - 21

Our pilgrim is again loose in a dark wood, a forest that’s this time divine and alive. He’s been in places like this at least four times so far in COMEDY. But for now, we’re given naturalistic details from his point of view about the top of Mount Purgatory . . . before everything gets layered in sedimentary meaning that changes the purpose and focus of the poem as a whole.

Mark ScarbroughNovember 16, 2025Purgatorio XXVIII, The Garden of Eden, The Earthly Paradise, A dark woodComment

PURGATORIO, Episode 215. The Top of the Mount (Page One): A Read-Through of PURGATORIO, CANTOS XXVIII - XXIX

Our pilgrim, Dante, has climbed the last staircase of Mount Purgatory. He’s been crowned and mitered by Virgil and so is free to wander about this unprecedented landscape at the top of the world’s tallest mountain, the closest point humans will ever get to the heavens above.

Mark ScarbroughNovember 12, 2025Purgatorio XXVIII, Purgatorio XXIX, The Garden of Eden, The Earthly ParadiseComment