Dante’s Devine Comedy
With the exception of the gospels, little in Western literature has the evocative power and transforming effect of Dante’s Divine Comedy. Gil Bailie, in these presentations, analyzes in detail Dante’s Inferno – his brilliant poetic tour of sin and its inexorable consequences; Purgatorio – continuing with Dante and his guide Vergil as they climb the purgatorial mountain to meet at its summit Beatrice, his beloved; and Paradiso – entering the earthly paradise, having been purged of sin, Dante undergoes transformations culminating in the beatific vision of the Godhead.
(Note: the audio quality of some of the cassette tapes these audio files were made from were less than optimal. We have done some editing to mitigate the worst audio deficiencies.)
Introduction to Dante: Romance Mythology
Reflections on Dante’s Inferno
Mr. Bailie infuses his reflections on Dante’s poem with echoes from poems that help shed light on the path ahead. The first is Leonard Cohen’s “The Only Poem”:
This is the only poem I can read
I am the only one can write it
I didn’t kill myself when things went wrong
I didn’t turn to drugs or teaching
I tried to sleep but when I couldn’t sleep
I learned to write, I learned to write what might be read
on nights like this by one like me
