Oh, man. Stop giving me work. I recognized 'our life' in the first line and you're making me hunt for the rest. I did the same. If I ever really liked a poem or piece of lit I'd want to know something of the writer's bio and and the history and culture in which he lived. Context. Pretty words in isolation are shallow. If we continue any exchange, don't press me much. As far as literature and poetry go, I'm entirely self taught out of curiosity and you seem to have an impressive academic background. Math majors can be kind of dumb. Save me some trouble and give us the Anglo. The first lines I translated seemed quite moving and profound.
Midway upon the journey of our life I found myself within a forest dark, For the straightforward pathway had been lost. The best poetry tells us about ourselves. The above describes the way my life was for many years and makes me want to cry. I've often thought that Dante and others were rebelling against the powers that be of their time, but how could someone with a silly name like 'Percy Bysshe' be a political activist? Pardon my random nonsense.
It's from the Divine Comedy, which consists of over 14,000 lines. It was written with no aids like libraries or even references like encyclopedias back in the fourteenth century. It's one of my favorite works, but I usually use only the Inferno (those are the first lines of the poem), and for some odd reason I read it together with Conrad's Heart of Darkness and then watch the movie Apocalypse Now. For supplement, I go back to Machiavelli's The Prince and the book The Renaissance at War. It has multiple philosophical ramifications, especially in light of what I view is a Catholic cosmology, views of St. Thomas Aquinas, and an impressive merging of ancient Greek and Roman philosophies and medieval ones, e.g., the meaning of the Gorgon, the river of forgetfulness, and lussuria. When taught together with works like Goethe's Faust, Milton's Paradise Lost, and Homer's The Odyssey, it can lead to very fascinating views of the development of the human mind across centuries, especially in particular classes. That reminds me of an article by a professor who shared such when he discussed Hamlet with retired police detectives who volunteered to attend continuing liberal education classes.
I always felt I missed most of what Dante was talking about. Milton escaped me also. Goethe was a little easier to grasp. Explain a little to us about the circles of Hell.
Dante divided his underworld cosmos into three parts: incontinence, violence, and fraud. The three beasts that block his path as he tries to return to the path stand for them. There's a lot more, but I can't remember much because the last time I taught the work was almost two decades ago. The books I strongly recommend in light of that are, besides Ciardi's comments, Freccero's Poetics of Conversion (he passed away last year!) and Erich Auerbach.
For Milton, check out the idea of the anti-hero. My favorite's Raskolnikov from Crime and Punishment. You can throw in some Hollywood stuff in the mix, like maybe Paul Newman's Hud. For Faust (Part I) I was planning once to write about it in light of the idea of forbidden knowledge as seen in stories like those of Ugetsu. That said, you can check out the ff. Roger Shattuck's Forbidden Knowledge The fantastic film Ugetsu coupled with the book Ugetsu Monogatari Murnau's wonderful silent film about the same topic: Part II's too weird for me.
That's a tough one to like. It's sad to miss what you once had. Pared down, what you felt is what you miss. We just have to find other things to love, and the world is full of them.