![]() ![]() In exile, he paid homage to his true love, Beatrice, and by choosing to write in his Tuscan vernacular instead of Latin, transformed the Italian language. ![]() Dante wrote his masterpiece on the move, banned from Florence by political enemies. As a one-time admirer of the troubadour poets, Dante was well versed, pardon the pun, in the intricate forms then in practice, such as the sestina, but his paean to Beatrice called for something new and even more demanding, a flexible and muscular form he invented precisely for the new undertaking, the terza rima. ![]() Thus began Dante’s famed journey, one that would take him through the depths of hell. Dante was transformed by his grief and vowed to write in Beatrice’s honor a poem unlike any ever written. Then one day, the young woman, Beatrice, in reaction to rumors of the poet’s increasingly worldly ways, refrained from the greeting, causing anguish in the young Dante. Since childhood they had exchanged in passing the one word their families would allow- Salute! (Health!). ![]() As a young man, Dante tried to woo a beautiful and devout Florentine girl of his own age. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |