Last class on The Triumph of Life

We conclude our read through of The Triumph of Life, considering its relation to Dante and the pessimism of its view of human freedom as always perverting itself into the freedom to oppress ("signs of thought's empire over thought").  The beauty of the rhymes and the evocations.  Rousseau as Wordsworth again, and the terza rima version of the Intimations Ode.  A quick consideration then of "Music when soft voices die," as a poem about the residue of experiences, as an intro to the Lines Written in the Bay of Lerici, with which we conclude.