The life, times, and poetry of the poet Dante

Highlights of Poetry. Index of poetry. How to Write Poetry. New Books read.

How to write specific forms:
Haibun. Haiku. Hay(na)ku. Rengay. Tanka.
Ballade. Concrete. Ghazal. Lai. Pantoum. Prose poem. Rondeau. Rubáiyát.
Sestina. Skaldic verse. Sonnet. Terza rima. Triolet. Tritina. Villanelle.

Poets: Adam Zagajewski. Aleda Shirley. Anne Carson. The Beowulf Poet. Billy Collins. Billy Collins exercise.
Snorri's Edda. Carl Dennis. Charles Atkinson. Corey Marks. Dante. English Romantic Poets.
François Villon Franz Wright. Galway Kinnell. Gary Young. The Gawain Poet.
Jack Gilbert. Jane Hirshfield. J. Zimmerman. J. Zimmerman (haiku). Jorie Graham. Karen Braucher. Karl Shapiro. Kay Ryan.
Laureate Poets: Britain; USA.
Louise Glück. Len Anderson. Li-Young Lee. Linda Pastan. Nordic Skalds. Pulitzer Poetry Prize (U.S.A).
Richard Hugo. Robert Bly. Sara Teasdale. Shiki (haiku). Snorri's Edda. Stephen Dunn. Ted Kooser. W.S. Merwin.

Buy John Ciardi's translation:
his version is the best of all!
Buy Clive James' 2013 translation
of Dante's 'Comedy'
In both translations, the opening third,
The Inferno,
is a gloriously fourteenth-century equivalent
of a modern tell-all revenge book
and a block-buster horror film.

Comparison of some translations
of Dante's 'Comedy'

Buy John Ciardi's translation of Dante's 'Comedy'

Buy Clive James' 2013 translation of Dante's 'Comedy'

Translations into English of Dante's The Divine Comedy, ranked with most recent translation at the top:

Translator Public'n year Books Format Lines capitalized Language Footnotes or Alteration of text Lines in canto 1 Header/ footer My impression

Clive James 2013 All three Rhymed quatrains (ABAB) without stanza breaks. Always. Often clumsy. Includes hackneyed expressions, reversal of normal word order, and the inserting superfluous words (especially adverbs or adjectives); this is particularly annoying when included for his rhyme scheme. Adds material to the poem (instead of putting it into footnotes) claiming it will help the reader. 173 The book — one of three. (I would prefer to also know the Canto.) The monoliths of poetry are hard to read with every line capitalized and without stanza breaks.

Ciaran Carson 2002 The first In terza rima crossed with ballad. [p. xxi] Only when needed by grammar. Reads well except when its temporarily modern slang intrudes. 52 pages of end-notes. 136 Which canto. Easy to grasp with the aid of its stanza breaks, line indentation, and no line capitalized unless required by grammar.

Robert Pinsky 1992 The first In terza rima Always. 51 pages of end-notes. 109 Which canto.

John Ciardi 1954-1970 All three Rhymed tercets (ABA) with stanza breaks. Only when needed by grammar. Reads well. The language is natural being neither awkwardly posh nor arduously slangy. The most poetic of the translations read so far. Helpful footnotes at the end of each of the 100 cantos (on average about two pages per canto). 128 The book — one of three. (I would prefer to also know the Canto.) Easy to read, helped by its stanza breaks, line indentations, and capitalization of a line unless required by grammar.

Dante's original Italian Early 14th century (1300-1321) All three Terza rima without stanza breaks. Only when needed by grammar. — 136 (See Pinsky's bilingual version) — I wish I read Italian fluently!

Clive James' 2013 translation
of Dante's 'Comedy'

Buy Clive James' 2013 translation
of Dante's 'Comedy'

Its opening third, The Inferno,
is a gloriously fourteenth-century equivalent
of a modern tell-all revenge book
and a block-buster horror film.

Contents:

A ten-page Introduction. Some quotations:

Dante's overt rhyme scheme is only the initial framework by which the verse structure moves forward. Within the terzina, ... Dante is the greatest exemplar in literary history of the principle ... that good poetry does not just rhyme at the end of the lines, it rhymes all along the line. [p. xiv]

For this project, if the quatrains could be augmented with extra lines whenever the occasion demanded or opportunity offered, it would yield the ideal combination of strictness and ease. [p. xviii]

The reservoir of material at the foot of the page of a scholarly text (sometimes there are five lines of text and fifty of apparatus) provides the translator of the poem with an ideal opportunity to upload salient facts into the verse narrative and make things clear. ... In numerous instances I felt justified in lifting it out of the basement and putting it on display in the text. [pp. xix - x]

A three-page Translator's Note. A quotation:

As to my chosen stanza form, ... The form is a quatrain, either simple or augmented, and any augmentation uses the same rhymes, so abab might grow to ababa or ababab or sometimes more. The aim is an easy-seeming outward flow, except at the end of a canto, where a couplet closes the action with a snap. [p. xxiv]

A two-page "A Note on the Translation" by Dennis Looney.
Book One has 34 cantos: The Inferno: the fourteenth-century equivalent of a modern tell-all revenge book and a block-buster horror film. Canto One is 173 lines; Canto Two is 188 lines; and so on to Canto 34 which is 162 lines.
Book Two has 33 cantos: Purgatory: easier to read than James' translation of The Inferno because the material is less sadistic: Dante still subjects his enemies to carrying back-collapsing loads, having their eyes sewn shut, etc. But all this will only last for many lifetimes, not eternity. So much less horrible than the endless pains of Inferno. Canto One is 150 lines; and so on to Canto 33 which is 166 lines.
Book Three has 33 cantos: Heaven: a slog to read. Canto One is 160 lines; and so on to Canto 33 which is 168 lines.

Ciaran Carson's 2002 translation
of The Inferno of Dante Alighieri

Contents:

An eleven-page Introduction. A quotation:

When I began looking into the Inferno, it occurred to me that the measures and assonances of the Hiberno-English ballad might prove a model for translation. It would allow for some extravagant alliteration, for periphrasis and inversion to accommodate rhyme, and for occasional assonance instead of rhyme; it could accommodate rapid shifts of register. So I tried to write a terza rima crossed with a ballad. [p. xxi]

Book One has 34 cantos: The Inferno. In this version, Canto One is 136 lines; Canto Two is 142 lines; and so on to Canto 34 which is 139 lines.

Robert Pinsky's 1994 translation
of The Inferno of Dante

(coming)

John Ciardi's translation
of Dante's 'Comedy'

Buy John Ciardi's translation
of Dante's 'Comedy'

Some quotations from his seven-page Translator's Note:

In looking at other translations I was distressed by the fact that none of them seemed to be using what I understood to be Dante's vulgate. They seemed rather to fall into literary language, the very sort of thing Dante took pains to avoid...
I began to experiment out of curiosity. I rendered a number of Cantos in terza rima and satisfied myself that it could not do ... I tried blank verse. But there the language and it movement went askew on another characteristic of English verse ... blank verse pauses to complete its sub-thoughts about once every fourteen lines. But Dante sets his pauses ... every three lines, and I take that fact to be, above all else, what determines the pace and sparseness of Dante's writing. [p. xxi]

Robert Hollander's Dante: A Life in Works

Biography of Dante Alighieri. Very informative.

Orientation:

It is the Comedy that directs our attention to all the rest. And yet ... it is clear that when he undertook them, the other works were in his eyes not 'minor' in any sense at all. All of them are marked by the signs of his considerable excitement at assuming a new role in the nascent history of Italian letters, whether as a poet or commentator, apologist or polemicist. And each of them begins either with an unblushing announcement of its importance (Convivio, De vulgari Eloquentia, Monarchia) or with an absorbed self-awareness that has a similar effect (Vita nuova).

Sections:

Preface.
Chronology. Some data are used for the timeline below.
Introduction.
Dante's Life.
First Lyrics.
Vita nuova.
Later Lyrics.
Convivio I.
De vulgari Eloquentia.
Convivio II and III.
Convivio IV.
Commedia.

Truth and Poetry
Allegory
The Moral Situation of the Reader
The Moral Order of the Afterworld
Virgil
Beatrice
Bernard
Politics
The poetry of the Comedy [sic]

Monarchia.
Late Latin Works.
Notes.
Biographical Notes.
Index.

CliffNotes: On Dante's Divine Comedy

Three separate books, one for each of the three sections:

James Roberts and Nikki Moustaki's CliffNotes: On Dante's Divine Comedy: Inferno.
CliffNotes: On Dante's Divine Comedy: Purgatory.
CliffNotes: On Dante's Divine Comedy: Paradise.

Helpful to review after reading Dante's Divine Comedy. Includes:

Dante's life and times.
A summary of the poem's story.
A list of characters.
Character analyses of Virgil and Dante.
Sample critical essays
A canto-by-canto summary of the contents of each canto, an interpretation, and explanation of references to people of history and mythology.

Poems

Timeline

Much information gleaned from Robert Hollander's Dante.

Early and mid-12th century: Flourishing Provençal vernacular (and specifically non-Latin) love poetry that would later influence Dante.
1265: Birth of Dante.
1274: Dante's first meeting with his muse, Beatrice Portinari.
1277: Dante's marriage contract with Gemma Donati.
1283: Approximate year when Dante (age 18) begins writing poetry. Both his parents are now dead.
1290: Death of Dante's muse, Beatrice Portinari.
Approximately 1290-93: Vita Nuova written: " a theory of poetry and poetics" ["Introduction to Dante's Rime" by Giuseppe C. Di Scipio].
1295: Dante's begins his political career.; His name already inscribed in the guild of doctors and apothecaries.
1297: Financial troubles.
1300: The year in which the Commedia is set.; Became one of six governing Priors of Florence.
Approximately 1300-1308: Inferno (part 1 of Commedia) written.
1302: Dante banished from Florence for two years, with a fine on his return. Sentence later increased to death-by-burning should he return.
Approximately 1303-1305: De Vulgari written.
Approximately 1304-1307: Convivio written.
Approximately 1308-1312: Purgatorio (part 2 of Commedia) written.
1312-1318: Dante's residence in Verona.
Approximately 1316-1321: Paradiso (part 3 of Commedia) written.
1318-1321: Dante's residence in Ravenna.
1321: Death of Dante, of malarial fever, on return from mission as ambassador to Venice.
1576: Vita Nuova's first printed edition appeared in Florence ["Introduction to Dante's Rime" by Giuseppe C. Di Scipio].
1954-1970: Publication of John Ciardi's translation of The Divine Comedy of Dante.
1992: Publication of Robert Pinsky's translation of The Inferno of Dante in a bilingual edition.
2002: Publication of Ciaran Carson's translation of The Inferno of Dante Alighieri.
2013: Publication of Clive James' translation of The Divine Comedy: Dante.

[Thanks for visiting.]

Translator	Public'n year	Books	Format	Lines capitalized	Language	Footnotes or Alteration of text	Lines in canto 1	Header/ footer	My impression
Clive James	2013	All three	Rhymed quatrains (ABAB) without stanza breaks.	Always.	Often clumsy. Includes hackneyed expressions, reversal of normal word order, and the inserting superfluous words (especially adverbs or adjectives); this is particularly annoying when included for his rhyme scheme.	Adds material to the poem (instead of putting it into footnotes) claiming it will help the reader.	173	The book — one of three. (I would prefer to also know the Canto.)	The monoliths of poetry are hard to read with every line capitalized and without stanza breaks.
Ciaran Carson	2002	The first	In terza rima crossed with ballad. [p. xxi]	Only when needed by grammar.	Reads well except when its temporarily modern slang intrudes.	52 pages of end-notes.	136	Which canto.	Easy to grasp with the aid of its stanza breaks, line indentation, and no line capitalized unless required by grammar.
Robert Pinsky	1992	The first	In terza rima	Always.		51 pages of end-notes.	109	Which canto.
John Ciardi	1954-1970	All three	Rhymed tercets (ABA) with stanza breaks.	Only when needed by grammar.	Reads well. The language is natural being neither awkwardly posh nor arduously slangy. The most poetic of the translations read so far.	Helpful footnotes at the end of each of the 100 cantos (on average about two pages per canto).	128	The book — one of three. (I would prefer to also know the Canto.)	Easy to read, helped by its stanza breaks, line indentations, and capitalization of a line unless required by grammar.
Dante's original Italian	Early 14th century (1300-1321)	All three	Terza rima without stanza breaks.	Only when needed by grammar.		—	136 (See Pinsky's bilingual version)	—	I wish I read Italian fluently!

The life, times, and poetry of the poet Dante

Comparison of some translations of Dante's 'Comedy'

Clive James' 2013 translation of Dante's 'Comedy'

Ciaran Carson's 2002 translation of The Inferno of Dante Alighieri

Robert Pinsky's 1994 translation of The Inferno of Dante

John Ciardi's translation of Dante's 'Comedy'