Poem by Dante, “From Canto III of Inferno”

Fr. Dave Fleming

Balaswamy

Date: 9/10/2010

Poem by Dante, “From Canto III of Inferno”

I find this poem very interesting to go through the story of the author and his inspirational thoughts. The other important thing that attracted me from this poem is, this poem is written by the famous Italian poet Dante Alighieri. He was a great figure during the time of renaissance which was between 1300 to 1600B.C. After going through this poem, I understand that the author of this poem, Dante falls in love with Beatrice Portinari when he was barely nine years old. After her early death, she became the inspiration of this great poet. I feel that Dante became a renowned poet due to the invisible guidance of his first lover who shook the life of this poet to an extent that he could jot down his ideas and thoughts to a greater heights that everyone in this world felt the inner urge of this great poet.

As it is known that the poem of Dante was names only as “comedy” but for the readers of his poem it also became an inspiration by raising the level of its heights to as, “Divine Comedy”. Dante was born in the time of great period known as Renaissance. At that time there were lot of changes were taking place not only in the field of Architecture and painting but also in the field of literature. There were many great people who were the cause of the great thoughts and thinking. I strongly feel that, it is in this time, Dante too penned down his feelings and inspirational thoughts from his early love Beatrice Portianri.

After reading the poem, I understand that Dante’s journey into different places gives me an idea that Dante is looking for joy in his life. It is the joy from grief of all these years of living with pain in the life of Dante. Dante” life portrays the hell in his dream. Dante experiences hell as the eternal place of grief and sorrow. According the words of the poem, I am struck with the sentence that is “Abandon every hope, who enter here”. Though there is the inscription of writings in hell, I feel Dante felt hard to understand the words like that of justice, primal love.

For every unsolved questions, there is a solution, I feel for the Dante’s inability to understand the words which are written on the inscription, he found the solution in the form of his guide that is vigil the Roman Poet. Dante was led by vigil thorough the places of hell. He experienced lamentation of the people; their souls were craving for salvation. All the souls in the hell were crying for something that is eternal and joyful. It was a journey in the hell for Dante that he experiences the sufferings of the people in hell. His guide the Virgil asks him to put everything behind and follow the way ahead in the hell.

Dante’s feeling towards the people living in the hell is the people who did not do their duty well in the past world and I could feel to say that the dharma the principle of truthfulness is not practiced by these people where they were in another world.

The result for their actions is the suffering in hell. He feels that hell represents terrible suffering, pain and various other pains which one cannot stand in front of the pains of the hell. When I read a part of the poem where Dante experiences the confused minds of the people, at one point Dante himself feels to weep for these people. It was his nature towards fellow human being to be a kind fellow being. Dante’s guide Virgil explains him that people who are in hell have no hope to hope for. People who could not choose between good and the evil in their lives are here now to face the wrath of suffering in the hell. He continuously experiences the sufferings of the people in various ways, some people were crying and others were groaning and some others were fainted due to the heavy stress in the hell.

Dante is a poet of various kinds of notions, especially he is very good at explain the metaphors. In this poem he compares that dead souls which are on the riverbanks are similarly compared to the falling leaves in autumn and later to hunting falcons returning to their masters when called. Finally the guide Virgil clearly explains his follower that only sinners ever have to undertake this kind of trials and tribulations in the hell. Dante sees a crowd of people gathered on the banks of the river, he did not understand what these people were doing there. His guide the Virgil tells him to observe them, it was only when Char on the boat man arrives and takes the people to the other side Dante clearly understands that these people were the dead people who were no longer have no access to the life of this world but they only have the access to the place where no life is found that is the hell. When the earthquake occurs, then Dante comes into the present world from his so called dream state. I feel that in this poem, Dante experiences his grief in this world merely a symbol of hell and for the joy in this life Dante feels that one should do his duties properly in order to avoid facing the wrath of the hell which he experienced in his dream.

The notion of this poem is entirely based upon the poet’s experiences of the real world and its pains purely reflected with the sufferings of the hell. The complete truth of the story is that he could not forget his love towards his child love that influenced Dante to go through the suffering of this world without her presence. I found the last lines of this poem are the most touching part of the story. It is when Dante tells that the wretches have no hope of truly dying, and this blind life that they lead is so hopeless. I feel that Dante completely realizes that the life that we live on this planet must be lived to its full extent with good deeds and good attitudes towards one another, lest even the life in the hell would be broken into two groups even among the sufferers in the hell. In the hell, even people were suffering and have no mutual contact among them.

This poem asserts each one of us that life and death are two different elements and I feel that the poet of this poem tries to say that life towards death would be more of suffering if at all we failed to practice our dharma. If we do not practice our dharma that is to live the life in a meaningful manner then this poem is a guidance for us to tell that we too would be lost like that of Dante who lost himself in the forest.

Thus I feel that this poem is an eye opener for me to see that I need to live the life in a meaningful way, lest the result would be like that of the hell which is completely represented as an everlasting place of suffering.