In Italy, Dante is called “Il Sommo Poeta” - the Supreme Poet.
He wrote in the Tuscan dialect, which in time became the basis of the Italian language. He is best known for his beautiful love poetry.
Dante was banished from Florence and never allowed to return to his native land. He wrote about it in Il Paradiso in the following lines:
e mai continga che ‘l poema sacro
If it ever comes to pass that the sacred poem
al quale ha posto mano e cielo e terra,
to which both heaven and earth have set their hand
sì che m’ha fatto per molti anni macro,
so as to have made me lean for many years
vinca la crudeltà che fuor mi serra
should overcome the cruelty that bars me
del bello ovile ov’io dormi’ agnello,
from the fair sheepfold where I slept as a lamb,
nimico ai lupi che li danno guerra;
an enemy to the wolves that make war on it,
con altra voce omai, con altro vello
with another voice now and other fleece
ritornerò poeta, e in sul fonte
I shall return a poet and at the font
del mio battesmo prenderò ‘l cappello ...
of my baptism take the laurel crown ...
As a poet, he has no peers in the Italian language.
This makes sense. I’ve read “The Divine Comedy” a number of times. Once I made it all the way through in the Italian. It is a great poem, and I think this essay suggests some of the reasons.
She lit a burner on the stove
And offered me a pipe
“I thought you’d never say hello,” she said
“You look like the silent type”
Then she opened up a book of poems
And handed it to me
Written by an Italian poet
From the thirteenth century
And every one of them words rang true
And glowed like burnin’ coal
Pourin’ off of every page
Like it was written in my soul from me to you
Tangled up in blue
This illustrates why the Great Books were eliminated from the curricula of our children by the Socialist John Dewey (for the collective “group think” and conditioning of dependency and ignorance). If any Classics are taught in Common Core (like Jane Austin) they use her book to demean traditional marriage.
All Classics are clear on Good and Evil and what creates happy lives and what destroys lives (like in Jane Austin).
Socrates stated that Wisdom is being able to discern “Good and Evil”. Kids graduating even from college are devoid of Wisdom.
Our public schools not only sexualize children, destroying that awe and mystery and wonder and respect for other humans, which destroys the Search for Knowledge, the publick schools also deliberately blur truth and flip it....so children have a really warped ethical system (like pagan/occult cultures)....where Up is Down and Virtue is Vice. They embed irrational concepts like “guns are evil”.
Only Classical Education gives children the tools to use Reason and be Wise.
“...and regain a sense of direction...”
“Che la diritta via era smarrita.”