Dante Alighieri

Cato of Utica: Canto I of Purgatory by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) translated from Italian by Stephen Binns Dante and Virgil emerge from the Inferno, having followed the course of the Lethe, the  river of forgetfulness. Here they are once again under sky and stars, though unfamiliar  stars: this is an...

  Beatrice Departs, St. Bernard Arrives: Canto XXXI of Paradise by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) translated by Stephen Binns It was in semblance of a bright white rose______Celestial Rose, holding souls in Heaven __that I was shown the sacred soldiery, ______the souls __which by the blood He shed Christ would espouse,______Church...

. Eternal Rose, with Rows and Rows: Canto XXX of Paradise by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) translated by Stephen Binns Six thousand miles away, high overhead, __perhaps noon blazes, while our world’s shadow __inclines, almost, as on a level bed, ____it’s daybreak in Italy and heaven’s zenith now begins to show...

. Book Reviewed: Doorway: The English Cantos, Volume III, by James Sale, 2025 by Cynthia Erlandson It’s been several years since I’ve read Dante’s Divine Comedy; yet as I read James Sale’s Doorway, memories of it echoed in my mind. Clearly, Sale has immersed himself in Dante’s masterpiece and has...

. The Dark Wood: Canto I of Dante’s Inferno by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) translated by Stephen Binns Midway along the journey of our days __I found myself astray in a dark wood, __for lost was right direction in that maze. How hard a thing to speak of how it stood:...

. Consideration in Friendship In The Inferno Canto Twenty-Nine, When Dante pauses, looks with longing for His uncle’s son amid the suffering line Of falsifiers---Virgil, growing sore, Asks brusquely if he means to count them all, To which Dante responds he merely sought His kin, and hopes Virgil will let...

. Dante in Modern Times If I were Dante, and the quest were mine To reprise chapters of his Comedie For modern times, perhaps no less Divine For being steeped in modern tragedie, I’d start with Hell, where sinners roast in fires Fueled by falsehoods told, retold and spun Into...

. Dante Enters Hell: Canto III of Dante's Inferno by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) translated by Stephen Binns THROUGH ME YOU REACH THE CITY OF LAMENT. __THROUGH ME YOU PASS TO EVERLASTING PAIN. __THROUGH ME YOU GO WHERE ALL LOST SOULS ARE SENT. HIGH JUSTICE MOVED MY MAKER. THIS DOMAIN __WAS...

. Rising with the Sap You would not call them blocks, those obscure streets Where people live. Their driftings trace the hem Of Manchester. I drove there once at dusk My windows down, in the sleepy perfume Of gardens and the insects’ dreamy jaw And passed a house whose screen...

. The Monster Geryon: Canto XVII of Dante’s Inferno by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) translated by Stephen Binns “Behold the stinger tail upon that freak! ____a mythical monstrous king of Spain __He soars o’er mounts, breaks walls and weaponry. __Behold the one that makes the whole world reek!” These were the...

. Our Faith Is What?--- Canto XXIV of Paradise by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) translated by Stephen Binns “O fellowship elected to the feast  ____Beatrice says to those amid the fixed stars __of our blessed Lamb, who ever keeps you fed, __so that your every want has ever ceased: Since by...

. Death in Life, Life in Death: Canto XXXIII of Inferno by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) translated by Stephen Binns The sinner raised his face from that foul meal ____shade eating another’s head __and wiped his mouth then with hair that once was __upon the head that he consumed with zeal....

. . Traitors on Ice: Canto XXXII of Inferno by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) translated by Stephen Binns . If I could summon up such raucous rasp __in rhymes as could apply to that sad sluice____Ninth Circle of Hell __where all the stones converge, and then could grasp my theme more...

. The Lowest Heaven: Canto III of Paradise by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) translated by Stephen Binns The sun which with first love had warmed my breast ____Beatrice __now showed, in her reproving, proving way, __the lovely truth’s sweet face, all manifest. I lifted more erect my head to say __that...

. . Wings of Desire: Canto I of Paradise by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) translated by Stephen Binns . God’s glory, which moves all, sends beams to bless __each thing in space, reflected just as bright __as that thing’s worth is deemed, here more, there less. Now to that Heaven that...

. . Virgil Departs, Beatrice Arrives: Canto XXX of Purgatory by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) translated by Stephen Binns . Now when the primal Heaven’s Septentrion—____seven lights of the Holy Spirit __which does not rise nor set, and whose report __goes unveiled to us but by mists of sin, which guided...

. Virgil Recalls Meeting Beatrice: Canto II of Inferno by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) translated by Stephen Binns . The light was failing and the air embrowned, __relieving every creature of the curse __of toil. I alone in that surround was getting ready to endure much worse, __both of the road...

. Beatrice and the Ineffable Smile: Canto XXIII of Paradise by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) translated by Stephen Binns Just as a bird that stands watch to ensure __the safety of her brood, beside the nest __throughout the night which hides all things from her, who, eager to behold them after...

. DoorWay Canto 2, Extract The Poet has gone through the ‘DoorWay’ and entered heaven. Here in the second Canto and in the constellation of Libra he meets his dead grandfather (who was a Libran: 30/7) and his uncle Jim, who died only ten years old and long before the...

. Beatrice Does Not Smile: Canto XXI of Paradise by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) translated by Stephen Binns And now my eyes were fastened once again __upon my lady’s face, and all the while __Beatrice __my soul could not another sight retain. She was not smiling. “Were I to smile, __she...

. Beatrice Smiles: Canto XXXI of Purgatory by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) translated by Stephen Binns “You, on the other side of the sacred river,” __Lethe __she called to me, and sharply to the point, __Beatrice __after her blade’s edge left a cut so bitter, and then commenced: “Say, say, if...

. Dante Meets Paolo and Francesca: Canto V of Inferno by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) translated by Stephen Binns And so from that first circle I went down __into the second, where there is less space __and much more grief, and toward a distant moan. There Minos grinds the teeth within...

The Best Poems of 2022: Winners of the 11th Annual SCP International Poetry Competition Judges Joseph S. Salemi, James Sale, Evan Mantyk Past First Place Winners James A. Tweedie (2021) Susan Jarvis Bryant (2020) Joseph Charles MacKenzie (2019) Adam Sedia (2018) C.B. Anderson (2017) James Sale (2016) Ron L. Hodges...

. Canto 8: Covid-Priest from The English Cantos Volume 2: StairWell StairWell is the Poet’s Purgatory, and as in HellWard where we met with contemporary challenges such as Brexit, so here in StairWell the Poet, led on by his guides Dante and Virgil, runs into another---Covid.  …With Dante facing a...

. Moments from Dante’s Inferno Prepared to travel, if the gods allowed, I saw the woods were dreary, dark as death. I chose to heed a blessing there endowed, before emerging spirits took a breath. And that was Virgil, orator and font of god-like wisdom. He began to speak: "The...

. “Where Ever-present Joy Knows Naught of Time” ---Dante, Paradiso, Canto X, D.L. Sayers translation a rondeau redouble Where ever-present joy knows naught of time, The music of infinity is sung In full-toned harmony and richest rhyme, In higher speech than any earthly tongue. Outside the bounds of days or...

. StairWell Canto 10 extract 2 Context: In the 10th Canto of HellWard we met 4 poets condemned to Hell. Now in the 10th Canto of StairWell, we meet another 4 poets stuck in Purgatory. This extract takes us to meet the fourth poet in the sequence of meetings, which...

. StairWell Canto 10 extract Context: In the 10th Canto of HellWard we met 4 poets condemned to Hell. Now in the 10th Canto of StairWell, we meet another 4 poets stuck in Purgatory. This extract takes us to meet the third poet in the sequence of meetings, which is...

. Judge Not We notice, Signor Alighieri, that You have a rather well developed bent For taking your opponents to the mat And showing them that in the Main Event They will be pinned like insects to a wall To illustrate their faults and consequent Amercements handed out to one...

Judges Angela Alaimo O’Donnell James Sale . OVERALL WINNER . Papa’s Commedia by Nicholas Walz That was hellish—the hulking chopper plunging Through the top: the battered fuselage yawed, Dipped, and dove, while like a lunging weed-eater, The stuttering, feckless blade chawed the trees. There’s no war, nor downed helicopter now....

. The English Cantos: StairWell Canto 4 Leaving a broken relationship of the past behind in Canto 3, the poet enters a new world of education and what that means. Before entering a specific establishment, the poet has to catch up with Dante and Virgil who have forged ahead. But...

100 Days of Dante Poetry Contest Sponsored by the Calvin Center for Faith & Writing with the Society of Classical Poets . . Introduction 100 Days of Dante is a collaborative resource aimed at educating readers and forming new readers of Dante’s Divine Comedy. Through videos that explore its literary,...

. The Argument: The Poet, with Dante and Virgil, has arrived on the third step of the StairWell, or Purgatory. Dante at the start of Canto 3 has been at pains to explain to the shocked Poet what just has happened on step 2. It has been an incredible, almost...

. Advice from Dante “If you hear nostrums* in the market cried, Behave like men, and not like witless sheep.” ---Dante, Paradiso, Canto V Behave like men, and not like witless sheep. The CDC has shown no evidence That covering one’s face with cloth will keep The people near us...

. The poet has now escaped Hell, and has arrived in Purgatory or what he calls the StairWell. But he seems to have been abandoned by Dante, and has a fresh set of problems to confront. In this first section of the Canto he encounters an unexpected companion to help...

  Personae and scene: Vergil and Dante, somewhere in the mid-region of Hell. Dante: Honored Vergil, tell me where we’re going— It’s hard for me to take in what you’re showing Without some preparation. I can’t deal With shocking sights that make my blood congeal. Already I’m a quaking nervous...

The following are excerpted from James Sale's upcoming book Divine Comedies.   Exit from Hell I did well in life. But everything is real in Hell –Dante, Canto 29 The exit from Hell is always difficult –Colonel Percy Harrison Faucett Surely, the way is simple, I did well, So why...

By David B. Gosselin The nature of the subject matter discussed in Dante Alighieri’s lyric poetry, his canzoni, has been debated time after time, generation after generation. While the Dantisti as they are called, the Dante scholars, will often take up the habit of prating on individual details and individual poems,...

  Re-visiting Dante “For Dante it was a strict rule not to rhyme the word ‘Christ’ with any other word except itself” – Clive James Inferno Down we went like no other care were there; No sense we’d be bedraggled, drowned, doomed, or lost; All that mattered was now, that...

Dante’s Inferno, Canto I (Poem by Dante Alighieri / translation by J. Simon Harris in terza rima) In the middle of the journey of our life I found myself again in a dark forest, for I had lost the pathway straight and right. Ah how hard it is to describe,...