Inferno of Dante, The
Robert Pinsky
Number of quotes: 28
Book ID: 235 Page: 7
Section: 2B2
Canto I lines 61-65---
“Then are you Virgil? Are you the font that pours
So overwhelming a river of human speech?”
I answered, shamefaced. “The glory and light are yours,
That poets follow – may the love that made me search
Your book in patient study avail me, Master!
Quote ID: 5860
Time Periods: 07
Book ID: 235 Page: 11
Section: 2E6
Canto I lines 6-8---
Help me escape this evil that I face,
And worse. Lead me to witness what you have said,
Saint Peter’s gate, and the multitude of woes-”
Quote ID: 5862
Time Periods: 07
Book ID: 235 Page: 15
Section: 2A4
Canto II lines 6-8---
O Muses, O genius of art, O memory whose merit
Has inscribed inwardly those things I saw-
Help me fulfill the perfection of your nature.
John’s note: Prayer to the Muses
Quote ID: 5863
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 235 Page: 15
Section: 2E6
Canto II lines 16-19---
Such favor on him befits him, chosen for glory
By highest heaven to be the father of Rome
And of Rome’s empire-later established Holy,
Seat of great Peter’s heir.
Pastor John’s note: Aeneas
Quote ID: 5864
Time Periods: 07
Book ID: 235 Page: 19
Section: 2E5
Canto II lines 78-84----
To Lucy she said: “Your faithful follower
Needs you: I commend him to you.” Lucy, the foe
Of every cruelty, found me where I sat
With Rachel of old, and urged me: “Beatrice, true
Glory of God, can you not come to the aid
Of one who had such love for you he rose
Above the common crowd?
Pastor John notes: John’s note: ? Mary prompts Lucy; Lucy sends Beatrice; Like Hera!!
Quote ID: 5866
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 235 Page: 29
Section: 2B2
Canto III lines 67-68---
Then, at the river - an old man in a boat:
White-haired, as he drew closer shouting at us,
Pastor John’s note: charon
------
lines 87-92 (Does this fall under 2E7?)
With wails
and tears they gathered on the evil shore
That waits for all who don’t fear God. There demon
Charon beckons them, with his eyes of fire;
Crowded in a herd, they obey if he should summon,
and he strikes at any laggards with his oar.
Quote ID: 5868
Time Periods: 07
Book ID: 235 Page: 47
Section: 2B2
Canto V lines 1-9----
So I descended from first to second circle -
Which girdles a smaller space and greater pain,
Which spurs more lamentation. Minos the dreadful
Snarls at the gate. He examines each one’s sin,
Judging and disposing as he curls his tail:
That is, when an ill-begotten soul comes down,
It comes before him, and confesses all;
Minos, great connoisseur of sin, discerns
For every spirit its proper place in Hell,
Quote ID: 5869
Time Periods: 07
Book ID: 235 Page: 49
Section: 4B
Canto V lines 55-57---
And wanton Cleopatra. See Helen, too,
Who caused a cycle of many evil years:
And great Achilles, the hero whom love slew
Pastor John’s note: Dido - The poem is glutted with mixture of mythical and historical people
Quote ID: 5870
Time Periods: 07
Book ID: 235 Page: 57
Section: 2B2
Canto VI lines 10-17Steadily through the shadowy air of Hell;
The soil they drench gives off a putrid odor.
Three-headed Cerberus, monstrous and cruel,
Barks doglike at the souls immersed here, louder
For his triple throat. His eyes are red, his beard
Grease-black, he has the belly of a meat-feeder
And talons on his hands: he claws the horde
Of spirits, he flays and quarters them in the rain.
Quote ID: 5871
Time Periods: 07
Book ID: 235 Page: 61
Section: 2A3
Canto VI lines 85-90“He will not wake again,” my master said,
“Until the angel’s conclusive trumpet sounds
And the hostile Power comes-and the waiting dead
Wake to go searching for their unhappy tombs:
And resume again the form and flesh they had,
And hear that which eternally resounds.”
Quote ID: 5872
Time Periods: 07
Book ID: 235 Page: 71
Section: 2B2
Canto VII lines 75-78; 92-95Your wisdom cannot resist her; in her might
Fortune, like any other god, foresees,
Judges, and rules her appointed realm. No truces
Can stop her turning. Necessity decrees
.....
Where a foaming spring spills over into a fosse.
The water was purple-black; we followed its current
Down a strange passage. This dismal watercourse
Descends the grayish slopes until its torrent
Discharges into the marsh whose name is Styx.
Quote ID: 5873
Time Periods: 07
Book ID: 235 Page: 89
Section: 2B2
Canto IX lines 35-36; 46-47; 54-56For at its glowing top three hellish Furies
Suddenly appeared:
....
“O let Medusa come.” the Furies bayed
As they looked down, “to make him stone!
.....
...O you whose mind is clear:
Understand well the lesson that underlies
The veil of these strange verses I have written
Quote ID: 5876
Time Periods: 07
Book ID: 235 Page: xi
Section: 5D
ForewordIn spite of Dante’s reputation as the greatest of Christian poets
Quote ID: 5857
Time Periods: ?
Book ID: 235 Page: xi
Section: 2E6
The moral system of Hell owes more to ancient philosophy than it does to medieval classifications of virtues and vices, while the landscape of the underworld derives from Virgil more than from the poetically impoverished visions of the Middle Ages.
Quote ID: 5858
Time Periods: 07
Book ID: 235 Page: 155
Section: 1B
Canto XV lines 72-73In which the sacred seed is living yet
Of Romans who remained when Florence went wrong,
Quote ID: 5877
Time Periods: 1
Book ID: 235 Page: 181
Section: 2A4
Canto XVIII lines 27-28As when the Romans, because of the multitude
Gathered for the Jubilee.
Pastor John’s note: AD 1300 1st Christian Jubilee. Dante died in 1321
Quote ID: 5878
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 235 Page: 197
Section: 3C
Canto XIX lines 108-111Ah Constantine! What measure of wickedness
Stems from that mother- not your conversion, I mean:
Rather the dowry that the first rich Father
Accepted from you!”
Pastor John notes: John’s note: Donation of Constantine
Quote ID: 5879
Time Periods: ?
Book ID: 235 Page: 211
Section: 2A3,2B2
Canto XXI lines 28-35Hurrying from behind us up the rock
Was a black demon. Ah, in his looks a brute,
How fierce he seemed in action-running the track
With his wings held outspread, and light of foot:
Over one high sharp shoulder he had thrown
A sinner, carrying both haunches’ weight
On the one side, with one hand holding on
To both the ankles.
Quote ID: 5880
Time Periods: 07
Book ID: 235 Page: 241
Section: 2E6
Canto XXIII lines 105-118For as I spoke my eye was caught by one
Upon the ground, where he was crucified
By three stakes. When he saw me there he squirmed
All over, and puffing in his beard, he sighed;
Fra Catalano, observing this, explained:
“The one impaled there you are looking at
Is he who counseled the Pharisees to bend
The expedient way, by letting one man be put
To torture for the people. You see him stretch
Naked across the path to feel the weight
Of everyone who passes; and in this ditch,
Trussed the same way, are racked his father-in-law
And others of that council which was such
A seed of evil for the Jews.”
Pastor John’s note: Caiaphas the high priest
Quote ID: 5881
Time Periods: 017
Book ID: 235 Page: 253
Section: 2E6
Canto XXIV lines 104-106Resumed on the ground, the dust spontaneously
The Phoenix in is flames, great sages agree,
To be born again every five hundred years;
Quote ID: 5882
Time Periods: 07
Book ID: 235 Page: 321
Section: 2B2
Canto XXX lines 96-98. . . This false one made
Her accusation defaming Joseph; the other
Is the false Sinon, Trojan Greek,” he responded.
Quote ID: 5883
Time Periods: 07
Book ID: 235 Page: 331
Section: 2E5
Canto XXXI lines 37-41....here, arrayed
All round the bank encompassing the pt
With half their bulk like towers above it, stood
Horrible giants, whom Jove still rumbles at
With menace when he thunders.
Quote ID: 5884
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 235 Page: 333
Section: 2E6
Canto XXXI lines 87-89“This proud one had a wish to test his power
Against supreme Jove: this is how he is paid,”
My guide said. “Ephialtes is his name;
Quote ID: 5885
Time Periods: 0
Book ID: 235 Page: 335
Section: 4B
Canto XXXI lines 121-124This man can yield
The thing that’s longed for here; therefore bend down
And do not curl your lip. He can rebuild
Your fame on earth.
Quote ID: 5886
Time Periods: ?
Book ID: 235 Page: 341
Section: 2E5
Canto XXXII lines 10-11May the muses help my verse
As when they helped Amphion wall Thebes
Pastor John notes: John’s note: Prayer to the muses
Quote ID: 5887
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 235 Page: 345
Section: 4B
Canto XXXII lines 89-92“Alive is what I am,”
I told him, “and if fame is what you crave,
Then you might value having me note your name
Among the others.”
Quote ID: 5888
Time Periods: ?
Book ID: 235 Page: 367
Section: 1B
Canto XXXIV lines 61-66“That soul,” my master said, “who suffers most,
Is Judas Iscariot; head locked inside,
He flails his legs. Of the other two, who twist
With their heads down, the black mouth holds the shade
Of Brutus: writhing, but not a word will he scream;
Cassius is the sinewy one on the other side.
Quote ID: 5889
Time Periods: 17
Book ID: 235 Page: 426
Section: 2B2
Notes: Cantos XXXIII-XXXIV65-66. In 44 B.C., Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longus conspired to kill Julius Caesar. Their crime was seen in the Middle Ages as an offense not only to the murderers’ great benefactor, but to the progress and history of the Roman Empire and the Church.
Quote ID: 5891
Time Periods: 07
End of quotes