DETAILS: https://classroom.ruthstonehouse.org/product/each-blessed-will-step-from-its-cave/

As closed eyes struck by light will open quickly–our sleep disturbed now, though it may linger before we are fully awake, so this state of fantasy left me as a new light, more brilliant than anything on earth, appeared in front of me.

—Brother Michael F. Meister [prose translation]

When strong light beats against a man’s closed eyes
his sleep is broken in him, yet, though broken,
gives a last twitch before it wholly dies:

my visit fell from me exactly so
the instant a new light beat on my face
a light outshining any that men know.
—John Ciardi

When you’re suddenly smacked in the face
By a light that wrecks your sleep,
You snap back—and it all collapses.

The second my eyes were struck by a light
Far brighter than anything we’re used to,
Just like that, my fantasy fell apart.

—Mary Jo-Bang

“The Divine Comedy expresses everything in the way of emotion, between depravity’s despair and the beatific vision, that man is capable of experiencing. It is therefore a constant reminder to the poet, of the obligation to explore, to find words for the inarticulate, to capture those feelings which people can hardly even feel, because they have no words for them….”

—T. S. Eliot, “A Talk on Dante”

“[Poets and the poetic medium are] essential components in the transition for Dante between the poet’s beginning and end, and the pilgrim’s damnation and salvation. Between the two eternals Purgatory lies temporal, transitory, pullulating with generative activity; it is decidedly medial, for in this middle book Dante had, in effect, to show us ‘the way.'”
—James F. Wilson, “Poets and Poetry in Purgatory,”

Join us on a journey through purgatory. Continuing RSH’s series of classes focused on discussing epic poetry, and having made it through hell last year, we continue through purgatory. A selection of secondary sources will help further our understanding of how the poem intertwines dreams, penitence, poetry, and poverty in order to arrive at a grand vision of humanity. Each week, students will also have the opportunity to select their favorite passages and lead a discussion on it! Students will have the opportunity to choose from translations by John Ciardi, Mary Jo-Bang, or a prose translation by Michael F. Meister, and we will compare and deepen our understanding of the poem further! These classes are known for lively discussion in which everyone is involved, and we work together to build a deeper appreciation of the work in question.

Secondary Sources to be read and discussed during class:

Cervigni, Dino. S.”Dante’s Poetry of Dreams” in Pacific Coast Philology, 1982.

Havely, Nicholas R. “Poverty in Purgatory: From ‘Commercium’ to ‘Commedia'” in Dante Studies, with the Annual Report of the Dante Society, 1996.

Singleton, Charles S. “The Poet’s Number at the Center,” in Modern Language Notes, 1965.

Webb, Heather. “Postures of Penitence in Dante’s ‘Purgatorio,'” in Dante Studies, with the Annual Report of the Dante Society, 2013.

Wilson, James F. “Poets and Poetry in Purgatory,” in The Bulletin of the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association, 1972

Image: William Blake – Dante Stands before the Griffin (1824)