Introduction
Memory is the sunrise to the landscape of reading where meanings dim are often brightened, and where those dazzling colors come to fill the mind. The echo of lines emerge again in the still air with wings wide outspread. Behold these words-feathered — they fly swiftly, they come streaming, they pour forth with might wondrous.
As reading canto 2 of the Inferno, amor and mosse flapped before me with glorious vigor. I recalled these words, in the very first canto they once did soar,
Inferno 1:39-40 - “…quando l’amore divino mosse prima quelle cose belle (“..when God’s own love first set in motion those fair things”)
I looked at canto 2 now with eyes sphered and not circled, there was an insight budding as I compared the two verses. It was Beatrice speaking to Virgil,
Inferno 2:72 - “amor mi mosse, che mi fa parlare” (The love that moved me makes me speak”
What does all this mean? I began to wonder, is the combination of “amor” and mosse” (“love” and “moves’) and their proximity intentional? If so, what is Dante trying to tell us? O, how they appeared before me. I say appear because they did appear, they jumped out as if in flight with a movement fierce and wild.
It was not mere reading, but memory that caught these words, as with the care of cupped hands. I am convinced if it didn’t memorize Canto 1, I wouldn’t have seen these words on the page shining forth as fireflies. As it is in the zipping of cars that one misses the mark of local trees, it is the fast and passive reading that misses the mark of words.
Reflections on Love and Power
Now back to these two verses from Canto 1 and 2. Perhaps, Dante wanted to display the grandeur of love? As it was love that set creation in motion, it was love that set Beatrice’s feet in motion, a love that descended from the heights of heaven to the very depths of hell itself. There is power.
Did you know that you can fit 1.3 million earths in the sun? It is God who made the universe and all the astronomers seek to fathom. What power, what grandeur and immense glory on display. Perhaps Dante wanted to point us to another wonder. Have you ever thought of love as a powerful act? A love that moves — a love from above that can move a man to disadvantage himself for the sake of another.
The Heart within the Heart of Canto 2
As I reflected upon 1.39-40, 2.72, I reflected on the structure of Canto 2. It seems that as Dante spirals, so does the structure — the poetic form itself imitates the movement of the Pilgrim’s journey. In Canto 2, there is the descending and ascending pattern of dialogue. Notice how it moves from Dante to Virgil and from Virgil to Dante.
Dante (10-36) A
2. Virgil (43-57) B
3. Beatrice (58-75) C
4. Virgil (75-84) X
5. Beatrice (85-114) C
6. Virgil (115-126) B
7. Dante (133-140) A
In poetics, this is known as a chiasm, a rhetorical device that repeats words, phrases, and concepts in reverse order to form an X shape, a type of crossing of ideas: ABCDXDCBA. In this literary technique you will discover that the climax is the center. In other words, the heart of the message is found in the heart of the canto. So, what do we find in at the core of this text? Unlike the center of earth as depicted by Dante there is not darkness and the coldness of hell, but the light of Divine love and warmth of heaven. Put your hands to the chest and hear the text beat the beats of love,
“But tell me why you do not hesitate
to descend into the center of the earth”
(Inferno 2.83-84, trans. Hollander)
God heard Dante’s cry and his “miserere di me.” Behind that dark and frowning forest there is the smile of God sweet and mighty, for it was love that moved the heavens. As the three beasts in Canto 1 pushed the Pilgrim back to fear — it was the three blessed ladies in Canto 2 that moved to bring him words of comfort.
When our fears rage, and sin growls to tear us to despair, we need to hear the words, “God loves you”. Not the “you” impersonal, or the “you”, a number among many, but the "you” personal, and particular. For there is Another that came down for us. In the words of George Herbert,
Now heal thy self, Physician; now come down.
Alas! I did so, when I left my crown
And fathers smile for you, to feel his frown:
Was ever grief like mine?
Canto 3: The Three-Headed Line and its Fearsome Growl
As I was reading Canto 3 in light of Canto 1 and 2, I felt that Canto 3 imitated the actions and movements of the three beasts. Notice how it starts with an anaphora, three repeating phrases to create a strong emotional effect,
“Through me the way to the city of woe,
Through me the way to everlasting pain,
Through me the way among the lost” (3.1-3)
Perhaps the gate of hell should remind us of the three beasts in Canto 1. There is this fear that trembles the page itself. Notice how there is an emphasis upon “sound” in verses 22 through 27: “sighs, loud wailing, lamentation, resounded through the starless air”, “unfamiliar tongues, horrendous accents, words of suffering, cries of rage, voices loud and faint, the sound of slapping hands.”
There is a darkness to this passage, it as if the opening of this Canto is a three-headed line that roars at us like a hellish beast. But there is a mightier roar, the roar that bellowed from the Cross. There is One who wins by losing, and swallows Death through dying. As we pass through this Canto, we should be reminded that Christ delivered us from this city of woe. As Herbet penned,
O all ye who passe by, behold and see;
Man stole the fruit, but I must climbe the tree;
The tree of life to all, but onely me:
Was ever grief like mine?
Conclusion
Memory is the attentive eye. It is the hand that holds, it cups meaning. Release the lines of poetry from the hands of reflection, and watch butterflies of insight flit with dazzling colors before you. Memorizing requires us to slow-down and through this ancient pace we can hear the birds sing. Discover that words too have feathers, they are winged, they are swift, they are bright and beautiful.
The only line of the entire poem I have memorized is the last one, but it is relevant here: “The Love that moves the sun and all the other stars.” - “l’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle”