Poetry Review - Dante Inferno - Canto 2

Tweet

As darkness falls and the animals depart, Dante realizes the daunting scale of the journey through the centre of the Earth, Hell, Limbo and Heaven ahead of him. He is afraid. The only mortals he recalls reading of as travelling to Heaven or Hell and returning alive are St. Paul and Aenias, a character in the works of the poet Virgil, who’s ghost is Dante’s companion for the journey. Dante does not feel holy enough to match their survival chances. Oddly he does not recall John, the author of the Apocalypse, visiting Heaven, or Orpheus’s visit to Hades. Virgil tells Dante that he was sent to watch over the spiritually bewildered bard by his dead wife, Beatrice, who watches over him from Heaven. The news of her being there inspires Dante’s journey anew. Beatrice is comforted and advised by two saintly women. One is Saint Lucia, the other is un-named but almost certainly the Virgin Mary. Dante takes his first tentative steps towards Hell now. The mention of Beatrice explains how Dante being lost. Her death has left him bereft and uncertain of his own future or faith. His journey will be his path to rediscovery and redemption. Arthur Chappell