The Lush Poetry Of The Lustful: INFERNO, Canto V, Lines 25 - 51

Our pilgrim, Dante, turns from Minos to discover the hellish hurricane that's the punishment of lustful.

It's hard to miss the lush language in this passage: verdant, almost overgrown, especially in a beautiful, double simile . . . which sets up the problems ahead.

Who are the lustful? What is the root of their sin? And what is our poet up to with these grand similes?

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I try to answer some of these questions and begin to explore this second circle of hell with the pilgrim.

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

[01:05] My English translation of INFERNO, Canto V, Lines 25 -52. If you'd like to read along, find a study guide for much more, or continue the conversation with me by dropping a comment on this passage, please find its entry on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[02:58] My mixed bag of commentary on the passage. First, a question about weather in hell. Second, a note to the reader from the poet. Third, a bit about synesthesia. Fourth, the problem of how our pilgrim immediately knows these are the lustful up on the wind. And fifth, our first definition of lust (which won't prove true in the canto!).

[11:50] An initial exploration of the gorgeous double simile in the passage: starlings and cranes.

[16:03] A more nuanced exploration of the double simile.

[18:36] What is our poet doing with these similes? Four answers: 1) tapping the brakes on plot, 2) opening a digressive space to explore the emotions, 3) inviting the reader into a space of multiplicity, and 4) teaching the reader how to turn from the poem back to the natural world and read our own world anagogically.