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Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) was an Italian poet and the author of The Divine Comedy, a narrative poem that is considered the greatest poetic work in the Italian language. According to Matthew Arnold, Dante’s work was “the first literature of modern Europe to strike the true and grand note” and is a paradigmatic example of Arnold’s concept of high seriousness. What distinguishes Dante’s work from that of lesser poets, in Arnold’s view, is its capacity to give readers consolation and matter for contemplation in life’s difficult moments.
Dante Alighieri Quotes in The Study of Poetry
The The Study of Poetry quotes below are all either spoken by Dante Alighieri or refer to Dante Alighieri . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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The Study of Poetry Quotes
Only one thing we may add to the substance and matter of poetry, guiding ourselves by Aristotle’s profound observation that the superiority of poetry over history consists in its possessing a higher truth and a higher seriousness… Let us add, therefore, to what we have said, this: that the substance and matter of the best poetry acquire their special character from possessing, in an eminent degree, truth and seriousness.
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Dante Alighieri Character Timeline in The Study of Poetry
The timeline below shows where the character Dante Alighieri appears in The Study of Poetry. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
The Study of Poetry
...examples to prove what kinds of lines he has in mind, including verses by Homer, Dante Alighieri, William Shakespeare, and John Milton. These examples, he insists, are enough in themselves to...
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...the mere mention of the name of the first great poet of the Christian world, Dante Alighieri. Dante’s name is associated with the kind of “high and excellent seriousness” that, according...
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...falling short of the most important of Arnold’s standards, that of high seriousness. Pointing to Dante once more, Arnold claims that Burns’s verse is not fully sincere but is more akin...
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...same method he applied to Burns—comparing Burns’s verse to that of classic poets such as Dante—should allow readers to arrive at a real estimate. Arnold points out once more that an...
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