You Don't Always Get The Poem You Want: PURGATORIO, Canto VI, Lines 76 - 105

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The story (or narrative) of PURGATORIO comes to a halt in Canto VI and the poem turns into a political invective.

There are interesting problems here: with metaphors, with history, with poetics, and with (perhaps) our own expectations. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I have to face my own expectations about COMEDY in this difficult canto of PURGATORIO.

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

[02:16] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto VI, lines 76 - 105. If you'd like to read along, print it off, or continue the conversation with me, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.

[05:48] Who was Justinian and why was he important to Dante?

[09:58] Who was "German Albert," as well as his successors? And why were they important to Dante?

[15:12] The opening third of the invective moves from a messy jumble of metaphors to a single, controlling metaphor. Is this movement enacting Dante's own political hopes?

[19:47] Dante's politics are deeply troubling, as are our own: chaos calls for an iron fist.

[21:52] Sordello is a crouching lion, a threat, because he represents the sort of poet Dante could have become.