"The Divine Comedy" (lines 49-102)

 "The Divine Comedy"

This classical work is written by Dante Alighieri. This long narrative poem is Dante's magnum opus and considered to be the most important poem of the middle ages. This work is instrumental in shaping and establishing the literature of Italy. The Divine Comedy is divided into three parts:

  • Inferno (Hell)
  • Purgatory (place of sinners/ repentance)
  • Paradiso (Heaven)
Summary of Canto 1 lines 49-102


A she-wolf appeared before the poet as he was climbing the mountain through a thick forest. She was lean and hungry. She was bursting with greed and desire to eat the flesh of the prey. She had killed many and put them to great pain and suffering. When the poet saw the beast he was terrified and could no more climb the mountain.
 
He stood there like a miser who is happy when he gets and loses all hope when he meets with loss. The beast came nearer moving step by step, and he moved down to the valley where there was no light because of the dense forest.(back to his sinful nature)

Suddenly he saw someone approaching him. He was pale and rough, perhaps because of the long silence. The poet called him to help him whether he was a man or spirit. He said he was once a man. He was born in Mantua, Lombardy. Though he lived during the time of Julius Caesar, he was a bit late in time, and could not meet him. He was a poet and sang about Aeneas, the son of the Trojan Anchises. He came from Troy after the burning of the city to find Rome. He asked the poet why he hesitated to climb the mountain, and why is still at the foot of the mountain. The top of the mountain is the source of perfect happiness. 

The poet recognized the stranger as the Latin poet, Virgil, the spring and stream of eloquence. He is the guiding light of every poet, the glorious model. He used to spend endless nights and days reading Virgil's poem. Virgil is the only master, the supreme author. He has borrowed from Virgil's style and gained honour.

The poet requests Virgil to save him from the beast which frightened him, and made his blood cold. 

Virgil told him that he must travel by a different road in order to escape from the wild beast. And since he is a pagan he cannot enter heaven and his lover Beatrice will help him to the heaven. This beast does not allow anyone to go by this way, and is waiting to kill them. She is an evil creature by her very nature; her hunger never dies. She mates with many animals, but she will be killed by a hound that will soon appear. It is this hound that they are waiting for. 
This poem is an allegorical representation of a sinful man to attain salvation or to reach heaven.


Prepared by:
Dr. Susan Mathew
CMS College Kottayam


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