You Don't Always Get The Poem You Want: PURGATORIO, Canto VI, Lines 76 - 105

Please consider supporting this work in WALKING WITH DANTE by donating to help me cover hosting, streaming, website, and licensing fees for this podcast by visiting this Paypal link here.The story (or narrative) of PURGATORIO comes to a halt in Canto VI and the poem turns into a political invective. There are interesting problems here: with metaphors, with history, with poetics, and with (perhaps) our own expectations. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I have to face my own expectations about COMEDY in this difficult canto of PURGATORIO.Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[02:16] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto VI, lines 76 - 105. If you'd like to read along, print it off, or continue the conversation with me, please go to my website, markscarbrough.com.[05:48] Who was Justinian and why was he important to Dante?[09:58] Who was "German Albert," as well as his successors? And why were they important to Dante?[15:12] The opening third of the invective moves from a messy jumble of metaphors to a single, controlling metaphor. Is this movement enacting Dante's own political hopes?[19:47] Dante's politics are deeply troubling, as are our own: chaos calls for an iron fist.[21:52] Sordello is a crouching lion, a threat, because he represents the sort of poet Dante could have become.