Here Dr. White instructs the listener on how to approach literature. He advises a reader of Dante to first gain some background knowledge about the poet, who was born in 1265 and died in 1321, making him a true mediaeval writer. The significance of this, according to White, is that modern man sees a scientific universe, while mediaeval man saw God’s order; and Dante even defined hell as an ordered place. The Divine Comedy, according to Dr. White, takes the reader on a spiritual journey.
In this commentary, Dr. White describes Dante’s problems in writing The Purgatorio since he wrote it in the order in which it was to be read. And it was problematic because Dante had no literary framework –– no imagery of purgatory, so to speak, to draw on –– as he had of hell when he wrote The Inferno. Punctuated with inspired readings, White describes how Dante the pilgrim joins other pilgrim souls as they journey up the “mountain” of purgatory –– a place, unlike hell, of motion and movement.
Dr. White continues his discussion of The Purgatorio with a description of the role art and music play in Dante’s vision of purgatory. And though purgatory is, according to White, filled with song, the depictions of art that Dante explores as he travels through purgatory are instructive rather than entertaining. And unlike the loveless Inferno, souls in purgatory are taught the nature of love. Which brings Dante to a meeting with the lovely Beatrice –– the moment he had hoped for and the climax of the poem.
Dr. White refers to The Paradiso as the least often read part of The Divine Comedy. But it is here, according to White, that Dante outdoes himself in trying to describe heaven, even though the poet himself admits to a sense of inadequacy by acknowledging that no man can truly know what it is like in paradise, or capture the true vision of God. In The Paradiso Dante uses medieval astronomy as a vehicle for the lovely Beatrice to explain the “spheres” of heaven and the will of God.
In this conclusion of his series on Dante, Dr. White follows the poet as he moves upward through the spheres of heaven. Dante contrasts the cosmic order –– the perfection in which God dwells –– with the earthly order that, in reality, tends toward disorder and the failure of man. Dr. White brings several passages to life with his dramatic reading, culminating in Dante being tested on his faith by none other than St. Peter himself who, perhaps prophetically, rails against the corruption of the future Church.
Sonnets were the most popular verse form of the Renaissance. If a poet wanted to prove himself, he wrote sonnets. It is a rigid form, only 14 lines with set rhyming patterns. Almost all sonnets are love poems. Why this strict form for love poetry? It is the recognition that the nature of love must be disciplined. The emotions may be sincere but they need discipline. Poets did not just write one love sonnet, they wrote dozens, even hundreds to show the different forms of their love. Shakespeare wrote 153 sonnets: the first 126 are about platonic love, and sonnets 127 – 151 were addressed to “the dark lady.” He wrote his sonnets early in his career, from 1592-1595. The English form is known as the Shakespearean sonnet. Sonnet 18 Shall I compare these to a summer’s day? is one of his best-known. He begins expressing doubt that he can adequately do justice. He compares his love to the beauty of nature; but everything in nature fades. Beauty can change. But his love is outside of nature, outside of time. As long as men have breath and eyes to read this poem, your beauty will live on. Beauty is eternal.
