If I were asked to name the greatest poets in human history, I would likely name five: Homer, Virgil, Dante Alighieri, Geoffrey Chaucer, and John Milton. There they are: a Greek, a Roman, a Florentine, and two Englishmen. Yes, the list reflects my Eurocentric perspective, but there it is.
Dante (1265-1321) serves as a pivot point between the classical world of Greece and Rome and the more recognizable modern world of Milton. Chaucer (ca. 1340s-1400) is chronologically close to Dante and is believed to have memorized at least parts of Dante’s The Divine Comedy by heart. While many of the people mentioned in The Divine Comedy are not well known today outside their own historical era, that doesn’t detract from the greatness of the poetical work.
In the summer of 2021, to mark the 700th anniversary of Dante’s death, poet Angela Alaimo O’Donnell decided to reread The Divine Comedy by one canto a day (100 cantos, she wrote, and about 100 days of summer, seemed an almost perfect match).
Some Tuesday Readings
“The Lake Isle of Innisfree” by William Butler Yeats – Sally Thomas at Poems Ancient and Modern.
“The calm after the storm,” poem by Giacomo Leopardi – Beverley Bie Brahic at The New Criterion.
Pax – artwork by Sonja Benskin Mesher.
A Conversation with Maurice Manning – Ben Palpant at Rabbit Room Poetry.
No wait – poem by Franco Amati at Garbage Notes.
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