Dante’s invective against political strife comes to an end in PURGATORIO, Canto VI, with two familiar moves: a reference back to the poet’s own experience (never letting the poem get too far from his body) and to an image that brilliantly sums up Florentine strife while also perhaps offering a glimpse of the poet’s dawning, new stance.
Read MoreDante the poet has finally lost control! In the middle of his invective about Italian strife in PURGATORIO, Canto VI, he seems to question God’s counsel, to limit God’s power to that of a human body, and to turn the Christian God into a pagan entity. What is going on in this most complex passage in PURGATORIO?
Read MoreThe story of Dante’s walk across his known universe breaks in PURGATORIO, Canto VI, right after Virgil and Sordello embrace. The rest of the canto is dedicated to the poet’s rage at the constant warfare on the Italian peninsula and his hope for an iron fist to set things right. Along the way, many of us have to confront our expectations that COMEDY may not be the poem we want it to be.
Read MoreDante and Virgil encounter the second guide across the known universe: Sordello, a late troubadour poet from Italy who is deeply connected to characters across COMEDY and who practiced a sort of poetry that Dante himself wrote earlier in his career. Sordello is isolated and alone, a strange figure in this broken-in-half sixth canto of PURGATORIO.
Read MoreReading Purgatorio, Cantos VI - VIII in my English translation. These are three tough cantos before we arrives at the gate of Purgatory proper. Before we break them down into smaller chunks to study them, let’s read them straight through to discover the issues Virgil, Dante, and the reader face as the journey becomes increasingly difficult.
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