Since this is poetry, not a novel, the phrasing is intentionally flowery...and therefore obfuscated and hard to follow sometimes. However, no one reads Dante on a whim so I'm assuming you expected that. Two paragraphs of run-on sentences describing how a character turned to leave is a bit much for me though.

In addition, Dante uses many political and social references that would have been relevant to his contemporaries but make no sense to me. Names of Italian nobles, artists, political... (show more)

Since this is poetry, not a novel, the phrasing is intentionally flowery...and therefore obfuscated and hard to follow sometimes. However, no one reads Dante on a whim so I'm assuming you expected that. Two paragraphs of run-on sentences describing how a character turned to leave is a bit much for me though.

In addition, Dante uses many political and social references that would have been relevant to his contemporaries but make no sense to me. Names of Italian nobles, artists, political figures and the like, references to fairly obscure events from mythology and ancient history, and other information is all used to paint a particular mood or to describe an environment or character and fails to enlighten me because I have no preconception of Dante's references.

Furthermore, the premise (Dante's understanding of the after-life) is flawed from my belief system and therefore may be interesting fiction but doesn't help me in life other than to make me sound more cultured in certain circles. I'd rather read Randy Alcorn's "Heaven". (show less)