Hell's Biggest Crack Is In The Poetry, Not The Landscape: INFERNO, Canto VIII, Lines 1 - 6

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Previously titled “The Biggest Crack In Hell Is In The Poetry, Not The Landscape: Inferno, Canto VIII, Lines 1 - 6” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 2, 2026

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Recorded31 Jan 2021

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Show notes

Among the wrathful, the poem seems to back up and start over. While Boccaccio had a giant story to explain this break, I feel that it may be more in terms of the Dante-the-poet coming to terms with the expanding nature of the work he's writing. He needs to give himself time to slow down. And he needs to figure out his relationship with Virgil, his poetic master. Mostly, he needs to break with Virgil ("I got the beautiful style from you") to find a more powerful and deliberate poetry in the vernacular.Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as I talk about some of the theories of this break in INFERNO, right in the middle of the fifth circle of hell, right among the wrathful. It's here that the poet seems to slow down, to settle in, to find a stronger voice, and not to find himself hurried across the universe. Yes, Virgil will goad him on in future passages. But that's Virgil. Dante-the-poet will take the time he needs.Here are the segments of this episode:[00:30] My English translation of this passage of INFERNO: Canto VIII, lines 1 - 6.[02:40] Boccaccio's (suspect?) answer to why the poem seems to shift gears.[03:33] Some of my proposed answers for what I see as a shift in narrative strategy in the poem. For one thing, Dante-the-poet must come to terms with his poetic father, Virgil. THE AENEID has been taking over the Dante's poem. All of this needs to shift for the poem to find its voice.[13:33] Another important shift is that the poet must become more committed to the vernacular for the poem to find its voice.[15:41] From here on out, the notion of what "sin" is will change dramatically.

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