The Love That Dares To Speak Its Name: PURGATORIO, Canto XXVI, Lines 94 - 114

Guido Guinizzelli has named himself and our pilgrim, Dante, is aghast.

He gets lost in a classical simile that almost loses its sense, only to finally find his love for this poetic father and express himself in the straightfoward, new style from which his own poetry was born.

Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we work through another complicated but ultimately satisfying passage on the seventh terrace of Mount Purgatory among the lustful penitents.

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

[01:22] My English translation of PURGATORIO, Canto XXVI, lines 94 - 114. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment to continue the conversation, please find this episode's entry on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:21] Guido Guinizzelli substituted a philosophical ideal for feudal love.

[07:06] A ridiculously complex simile in the midst of a discussion of the sweet new style.

[11:18] Dante finds a father, perhaps one of the goals of COMEDY.

[13:06] The pilgrim backs off from homoeroticism with feudal pledges.

[15:50] Guinizzelli gets Dante's footprint that even Lethe won't wash away.

[17:24] Poetry may ironically offer a hint of its immortality in its materiality.

[21:47] Rereading PURGATORIO, Canto XXVI, lines 94 - 114.