We've had two dreams in PURGATORIO, one at Canto IX and one at Canto XIX (although it actually started in the last line of Canto XVIII).Let's take a moment to compare and contrast these two dreams. What can they tell us about the changing nature of PURGATORIO, especially given my thesis that this is a poem in process, one in which the poet is learning how to write the poem as he moves forward?Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:21] A reading of the first two dreams in PURGATORIO: Canto IX, lines 13 - 42; and Canto XIX, lines 1 - 13.[05:11] Both dreams occur near dawn, startle the pilgrim awake, and rob the pilgrim of his free will.[08:40] Both dreams are about (different versions) of the future.[12:14] Both dreams have problems about who saves the pilgrim: the terrifying eagle or Virgil?[14:20] Both dreams are full of classical imagery (with important differences in the placement of that imagery).[16:15] Both dreams have songs: the first, outside the dream; the second, inside it.[17:35] There are two characters in the first dream, four character in the second--allowing for a larger interpretive space in the second dream.

Ask this episode

“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.