Lucy Bamboo · October 23, 2026The last line of the Inferno, the two letters that carry it, and the rhyme Dante engineers three cantos in advance to land on the same word three times.
Lucy Bamboo · July 22, 2026
Dante doesn’t do anything by accident. This principle—sacred to anyone who has spent time in the Commedia—becomes almost painfully obvious. Just look at what happens at the end of each canticle. Inferno closes with “stelle.” Purgatorio ends with “stelle.” Paradiso concludes with “stelle.” Three canticles. One final word. Repeated three times. The endings deserve quotation: … Read more
Lucy Bamboo · July 17, 2026
Most people know that Henry Wadsworth Longfellow translated Dante. Far fewer realize that his notes are arguably more valuable than the translation itself—and they’re completely free. I discovered this by accident. While hunting for a modern Dante edition, I stumbled onto Project Gutenberg. There I found Longfellow’s 1867 Divine Comedy with full scholarly apparatus. What … Read more
