Brace Yourself For The Gate Of Purgatory: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, Lines 64 - 78

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Dante undergoes a total transformation: from the scared guy who burned up in his dream to the fully confident pilgrim who walks right up to the gate of Purgatory.

In the meantime, he asks his reader to change, too: to read the poem as fearlessly as he journeys across the known universe.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we explore the first approach to the gate of Purgatory itself.

Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:55] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 64 - 78. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please go to my website: markscarbrough.com.

[03:55] The passage opens with a curious simile that doesn't need to be a simile.

[06:48] The change in the pilgrim is found in a reflexive verb.

[10:53] The apparently open gate is actually shut, in contrast to the gate of hell.

[12:53] The second address to the reader in PURGATORIO: Dante asks his reader to commit fearlessly to the more difficult material ahead.

[18:40] Rereading PURGATORIO, Canto IX, lines 64 - 78.