Dante Alighieri
Biography
Collected Works
Sample Poems
Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
Presented by Matt Bonn
Biography
The Supreme Poet, Dante Alighieri
Biography
Collected Works
Sample Poems
Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
"Heaven wheels above you, displaying to you her eternal glories, and
still your eyes are on the ground." This quote said by Alighieri himself can be
used to describe him as a person because he was both religious and wise and he
noticed that even though above is the eternal bliss of heaven people still look to
the ground in the sorrows of life (Brainy Quote 1).
Alighieri was born sometime in 1265 into a noble Florentine family
(Amari-Parker 7). Alighieri’s mother, Gabriella degli Abati, died when Alighieri
was seven years old. After the death of Alighieri’s mother, his father, Alighiero II,
who made his living off of renting property and money-lending, remarried. By
the time Alighieri was twelve he was promised to Gemma Donati, who would
later become his wife. However, Alighieri was already in love with a woman
named Beatrice Portinari, who he would stay affectionate for throughout his life.
Before Alighieri reached manhood his father died and Brunetto Larini, a
politician, became Alighieri’s father figure in his life. (Liukkonen) One of the
most notable events in Alighieri’s life was the rivalry of Alighieri’s clan, the
Guelphs, who supported the pope and the Ghibellines who supported the
German emperor (Amari-Parker 7). Alighieri fought as a cavalryman in the battle
of Campaldino in 1289, which led to the defeat of the Ghibellines. However,
things were not good with the Guelphs; who divided into two rival factions the
White Guelphs, of which Alighieri was a member, and the Black Guelphs. In
1302, with support of the pope the Black Guelphs seized power in Florence,
exiling all White Guelphs and promising them they’ll be burned alive should they
ever return (Merriman). Alighieri’s exile was spent wandering Northern Italy and
was when he produced the majority of his works including his most famous The
Divine Comedy (Amari-Parker 7).
Biography
Collected Works
Sample Poems
Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
Not much is known about Alighieri’s education except that he was
well taught in both Christian and classical literature which had a tremendous
effect on his works and was the start of them. However, the main inspiration
Alighieri had for his poems was Beatrice, his childhood love. Alighieri never
mentioned his wife in any of his works, yet he mentioned Beatrice in many of
them. One of his sonnets about Beatrice was sent to a poet named Guido
Cavalcanti, which was the start of their friendship. Alighieri’s friendship with
his fellow poet Cavalcanti led to Alighieri dedicating his first book, La Vita
Nuova, which celebrated Alighieri’s love for Beatrice (Liukkonen). Alighieri’s
other inspirations were Aristotle, a Greek philosopher, and Virgil, a Roman
poet. Alighieri also went on to inspire poets such as Geoffrey Chaucer and
William Blake as well as many authors, poets and playwrights today
(Merriman).
Dante Alighieri is hard to classify under one type of poetry. He
wrote in many different styles and forms including sonnets, books, and epic
poems. The majority of his ideas came from the classic works he had learned
when he was young and from his love Beatrice, who he made out to be semidivine in his works. Alighieri’s biggest contribution to poetry and to the
Italian language is The Divine Comedy, Alighieri’s best known work. The
Divine Comedy is a narrative poem written in vernacular Italian in terza rima,
a concept first used by Alighieri, which is a three line stanza using chain
rhyme. The poem is composed of 14,233 lines, arranged into 100 cantos and
tells of Dante’s journey through Hell to Purgatory and finally to Paradise (or
Heaven). The Divine Comedy is the reason the Italian language is what it is
today. It is also Alighieri’s gift to the world taking people today on a journey
through the afterlife. In the words of Dante Alighieri, “From a little spark may
burst a flame.” What he meant by this is from the littlest of things something
bigger may come. This can be related to many things but I think Alighieri
might have been referring to himself, an exile who became the father of the
Italian language (Liukkonen).
Collected Works
Biography
Collected Works
Sample Poems
Inspired Poems
Divine Comedy (Inferno, Purgatory, and Heaven)
Death, Always Cruel
My Lady Carries Love Within her Eyes
My Lady Looks so Gentle and so Pure
Of Beauty and Duty
Of the Lady Pietra degli Scrovigni
Whatever While the Thought Come’s Over Me
Read Poems at http://www.poetry-archive.com/a/alighieri_dante.html
Original Poems
Bibliography
Inferno Canto I
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Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself within a forest dark,
For the straightforward pathway had been lost.
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And even as he, who, with distressful breath,
Forth issued from the sea upon the shore,
Turns to the water perilous and gazes;
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Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say
What was this forest savage, rough, and stern,
Which in the very thought renews the fear.
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So did my soul, that still was fleeing onward,
Turn itself back to re-behold the pass
Which never yet a living person left.
Collected Works
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So bitter is it, death is little more;
But of the good to treat, which there I found,
Speak will I of the other things I saw there.
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After my weary body I had rested,
The way resumed I on the desert slope,
So that the firm foot ever was the lower.
Sample Poems
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I cannot well repeat how there I entered,
So full was I of slumber at the moment
In which I had abandoned the true way.
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And lo! almost where the ascent began,
A panther light and swift exceedingly,
Which with a spotted skin was covered o'er!
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But after I had reached a mountain's foot,
At that point where the valley terminated,
Which had with consternation pierced my heart,
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And never moved she from before my face,
Nay, rather did impede so much my way,
That many times I to return had turned.
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Upward I looked, and I beheld its shoulders,
Vested already with that planet's rays
Which leadeth others right by every road.
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The time was the beginning of the morning,
And up the sun was mounting with those stars
That with him were, what time the Love Divine
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Then was the fear a little quieted
That in my heart's lake had endured throughout
The night, which I had passed so piteously.
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At first in motion set those beauteous things;
So were to me occasion of good hope,
The variegated skin of that wild beast,
Biography
Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
Analysis
Biography
Collected Works
Sample Poems
Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
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The hour of time, and the delicious season;
But not so much, that did not give me fear
A lion's aspect which appeared to me.
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'Sub Julio' was I born, though it was late,
And lived at Rome under the good Augustus,
During the time of false and lying gods.
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He seemed as if against me he were coming
With head uplifted, and with ravenous hunger,
So that it seemed the air was afraid of him;
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A poet was I, and I sang that just
Son of Anchises, who came forth from Troy,
After that Ilion the superb was burned.
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And a she-wolf, that with all hungerings
Seemed to be laden in her meagreness,
And many folk has caused to live forlorn!
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But thou, why goest thou back to such
annoyance?
Why climb'st thou not the Mount Delectable,
Which is the source and cause of every joy? '
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She brought upon me so much heaviness,
With the affright that from her aspect came,
That I the hope relinquished of the height.
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And as he is who willingly acquires,
And the time comes that causes him to lose,
Who weeps in all his thoughts and is despondent,
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E'en such made me that beast withouten peace,
Which, coming on against me by degrees
Thrust me back thither where the sun is silent.
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While I was rushing downward to the lowland,
Before mine eyes did one present himself,
Who seemed from long-continued silence hoarse.
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When I beheld him in the desert vast,
'Have pity on me, ' unto him I cried,
'Whiche'er thou art, or shade or real man! '
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He answered me: 'Not man; man once I was,
And both my parents were of Lombardy,
And Mantuans by country both of them.
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'Now, art thou that Virgilius and that fountain
Which spreads abroad so wide a river of speech?
'
I made response to him with bashful forehead.
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'O, of the other poets honour and light,
Avail me the long study and great love
That have impelled me to explore thy volume!
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Thou art my master, and my author thou,
Thou art alone the one from whom I took
The beautiful style that has done honour to me.
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Behold the beast, for which I have turned back;
Do thou protect me from her, famous Sage,
For she doth make my veins and pulses tremble.'
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'Thee it behoves to take another road, '
Responded he, when he beheld me weeping,
'If from this savage place thou wouldst escape;
Analysis
Biography
Collected Works
Sample Poems
Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
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Because this beast, at which thou criest out,
Suffers not any one to pass her way,
But so doth harass him, that she destroys him;
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To whom, then, if thou wishest to ascend,
A soul shall be for that than I more worthy;
With her at my departure I will leave thee;
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And has a nature so malign and ruthless,
That never doth she glut her greedy will,
And after food is hungrier than before.
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Because that Emperor, who reigns above,
In that I was rebellious to his law,
Wills that through me none come into his
city.
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Many the animals with whom she weds,
And more they shall be still, until the
Greyhound
Comes, who shall make her perish in her pain.
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He governs everywhere, and there he reigns;
There is his city and his lofty throne;
O happy he whom thereto he elects! '
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He shall not feed on either earth or pelf,
But upon wisdom, and on love and virtue;
'Twixt Feltro and Feltro shall his nation be;
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And I to him: 'Poet, I thee entreat,
By that same God whom thou didst never
know,
So that I may escape this woe and worse,
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Of that low Italy shall he be the saviour,
On whose account the maid Camilla died,
Euryalus, Turnus, Nisus, of their wounds;
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Through every city shall he hunt her down,
Until he shall have driven her back to Hell,
There from whence envy first did let her loose.
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Therefore I think and judge it for thy best
Thou follow me, and I will be thy guide,
And lead thee hence through the eternal place,
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Where thou shalt hear the desperate
lamentations,
Shalt see the ancient spirits disconsolate,
Who cry out each one for the second death;
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And thou shalt see those who contented are
Within the fire, because they hope to come,
Whene'er it may be, to the blessed people;
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Thou wouldst conduct me there where thou
hast said,
That I may see the portal of Saint Peter,
And those thou makest so disconsolate.'
Then he moved on, and I behind him
followed.
Analysis
Inferno (Canto I) Analysis
Biography
Collected Works
Sample Poems
Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
Dante Alighieri’s famous Inferno is one of his greatest works; it is
well known for two reasons the first being it was the first literary work to be
written in vernacular Italian and is believed to be the reason the Italian
language is what it is today and the second is that it possess a famous poetic
element first used by Alighieri, terza rima. Terza rima is a poetic element
composed of three line stanzas using a rhyming chain; however because of
translations only the Italian version is composed of rhymes. The first Canto of
Inferno tells about Dante a man lost from the path of God wandering a dark
forest unable to find the path back to the Lord. The poem tells an entire story
while sticking to the terza rima format as seen from these two stanzas
describing Dante being lost; Midway upon the journey of our life / I found
myself within a forest dark, / For the straightforward pathway had been lost.
/Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say / What was this forest savage, rough, and
stern, / Which in the very thought renews the fear. Throughout the poem very
rarely did Alighieri break this format and yet somehow it is still descriptive and
flows smoothly. Alighieri might have chosen this format because there three is a
holy number in his Christian religion, he might have also used it to symbolize
the three books in the trilogy Paradise, Purgatory, and Hell or he might have
used it because like any good poet he had an idea and he used it. For whatever
reason Alighieri wrote like he did there is no denying that Inferno is a
masterpiece and it along with all the new poetic devices Alighieri used were his
gifts to poetry.
Introduction Poems
Biography
This poem really stuck out to me not because it was just some
love poem but because of why the poem was written. This poem was
written for a woman named Beatrice, Dante Alighieri’s love. However
Alighieri was promised to another woman and even though he was wed he
still remained in love with his childhood love and never forgot her beauty
and grace.
My Lady Carries Love Within Her Eyes
Collected Works
Sample Poems
Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
By: Dante Alighieri
My lady carries love within her eyes;
All that she looks on is made pleasanter;
Upon her path men turn to gaze at her;
He whom she greeteth feels his heart to rise,
And droops his troubled visage, full of sighs,
And of his evil heart is then aware:
Hate loves, and pride becomes a worshiper.
O women, help to praise her in somewise.
Humbleness, and the hope that hopeth well,
By speech of hers into the mind are brought,
And who beholds is blessèd oftenwhiles,
The look she hath when she a little smiles
Cannot be said, nor holden in the thought;
'Tis such a new and gracious miracle.
Introduction Poems
Biography
Collected Works
Sample Poems
Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
No matter how many times I reread this poem I always come to
a different conclusion of what it is about. The poem starts out fairly simple
to understand with Alighieri having two women on his mind one beautiful
and one wise. However once Alighieri throws in the word duty the poem
becomes less simple and it’s then that the reader has to interpret it in their
own way.
Of Beauty and Duty
By: Dante Alighieri
Two ladies to the summit of my mind
Have clomb, to hold an argument of love.
The one has wisdom with her from above,
For every noblest virtue well designed:
The other, beauty's tempting power refined
And the high charm of perfect grace approve:
And I, as my sweet Master's will doth move,
At feet of both their favors am reclined.
Beauty and Duty in my soul keep strife,
At question if the heart such course can take
And 'twixt the two ladies hold its love complete.
The fount of gentle speech yields answer meet,
That Beauty may be loved for gladness sake,
And Duty in the lofty ends of life.
Inspired Poems
My Lady Looks so Gentle and so Pure
Biography
Collected Works
Sample Poems
Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
By: Dante Alighieri
My lady looks so gentle and so pure
When yielding salutation by the way,
That the tongue trembles and has naught to say,
And the eyes, which fain would see, may not endure.
And still, amid the praise she hears secure
She walks with humbleness for her array;
Seeming a creature sent from Heaven to stay
On earth, and show a miracle made sure.
She is so pleasant in the eyes of men
That through the sight the inmost heart doth gain
A sweetness which needs proof to know it by:
And from between her lips there seems to move
A soothing essence that is full of love,
Saying for ever to the spirit, "Sigh!"
Inspired Poems
My Mother Scolds and Yells at Me
Biography
Collected Works
Sample Poems
Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
By: Matt Bonn (inspired by Dante Alighieri)
My mother scolds and yells at me
When she catches me being bad,
That her tongue never stops screeching I am amazed,
And the eyes, I try not to see, filled with wrath and tears.
And still, amid the anger she hears my protest
She leaves after she makes her point;
Seeming a creature of the dark spawn of night
On earth, should she not be allowed.
She is so evil and filled with phantom hatred
That through seeing her, my soul becomes slightly darker
A mother’s love be underneath her anger:
And perhaps it be me who is the one who is at fault
A sudden realization of my fault comes,
Saying and cursing forever, “Oh be gone anger that has blinded me!”
Inspired Poems
Death, Always Cruel
By: Dante Alighieri
Biography
Collected Works
Sample Poems
Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
Death, always cruel, Pity's foe in chief,
Mother who brought forth grief,
Merciless judgment and without appeal!
Since thou alone hast made my heart to feel
This sadness and unweal,
My tongue upbraideth thee without relief.
And now (for I must rid thy name of ruth)
Behoves me speak the truth
Touching thy cruelty and wickedness:
Not that they be not known; but ne'ertheless
I would give hate more stress
With them that feed on love in very sooth.
Out of this world thou hast driven courtesy,
And virtue, dearly prized in womanhood;
And out of youth's gay mood
The lovely lightness is quite gone through thee.
Whom now I mourn, no man shall learn from me
Save by the measure of these praises given.
Whoso deserves not Heaven
May never hope to have her company.
Inspired Poems
Death
By: Matt Bonn (inspired by Dante Alighieri)
Biography
Collected Works
Sample Poems
Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
Death, always cruel,
The taker of sons, the fear of mothers
Painful or sweet
Joyful or sorrowful
Death, always cruel,
The entrance to bliss
Or the way to damnation
Possibly a never ending oblivion
Death, always cruel,
What gives Death the right to steal away our family and lovers
Why does the merciful Lord allow for painful Deaths?
Death, always cruel,
The merciless end
The feared journey
Death the cruelest of creatures,
The worst of fates
The Journey
By: Matt Bonn
Biography
Collected Works
Sample Poems
Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
A sea of blissful smiles
A valley of frolicking faces
An unknown twist
All alone masked in emotions
Burnt by the dark thoughts
And Forgotten in grave danger
Where has my gentle God gone
The gates of Heaven, replaced by Hell’s disastrous cliffs
The chorus of angles turned to the mournful faces of demons
The chaos and torture echoing through the cave
While the scorching fire burns the soles of my feet
Below me waits my Paradise,
Through the sinister caves of Hell
There waits my love along with my graceful Lord
The Blond
By: Matt Bonn
Biography
Collected Works
Sample Poems
Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
The blond curly locks flow down her gentle face
The beauty of her seems to much to behold
Her grace and elegance I can not believe
How could one be so sweet and pure
However with that hair comes a faulty personality
She trips ups stairs and forgets what she’s saying
She knows not how to read an analog clock or how to open a lock
Yet for some reason I find no problem in it
I wonder why?
Skyrim
By: Matt Bonn
Biography
Collected Works
Sample Poems
Here there be evils
Vast in nature and frightening in appearance
The last in the lines of those who vanquish the false gods
The noble blood does flow unknown
A hero must rise to protect his people
An unknown peasant to become fabled like the ender of Oblivion
Here there be dragons
And you must rise to defeat them
Inspired Poems
(based on the upcoming game Skyrim)
Original Poems
Bibliography
Bibliography
Biography
Collected Works
Sample Poems
Inspired Poems
Original Poems
Bibliography
1) http://kirjasto.sci.fi/dante.htm by Petri Liukkonen (biography info)
2) http://www.online-literature.com/dante/ written by C.D. Merriman (biography info)
3) Dante’s Divine Comedy Hell~Purgatory~Paradise by Dante Alighieri, edited and with
introductory text by Anna Amari-parker (biography info)
4) http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/d/dante_alighieri.html quote
5) http://www.poetry-archive.com/a/alighieri_dante.html poems
6) http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/inferno-english/ Inferno poem
Pictures
7) http://www.web-books.com/eLibrary/ON/B1/B1550/07MB1550.html Dante red
8)
http://www.esteri.it/MAE/EN/Sala_Stampa/ArchivioNotizie/Approfondimenti/2008/20080916
_Dante.htm Dante statue
9) http://playstationlifestyle.net/2009/04/22/enter-portable-hell-next-year-with-dantesinferno/ Inferno
10) http://fiftysophomoricsummers.blogspot.com/2007_05_01_archive.html dante with poem
11) http://ebookee.org/The-Divine-Comedy-of-Dante-Alighieri_126509.html Divine comedy
12) http://www.lamaisonnumismatique.com/News_Pagina_6-36489.html dante coin
13) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gustave_Dor%C3%A9_-_Dante_Alighieri__Inferno_Plate_7_(Beatrice).jpg Beatrice
14) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dantes_tomb_ravenna.jpg tomb
15) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dante.deathmask.jpg death mask
16) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Dante_Luca.jpg dante 2 books
17) http://www.thechristianclipart.com/page/3/ background
18) http://gamerant.com/elder-scrolls-skyrim-behind-the-scenes-videos-dyce-61501/ skyrim