The imagery and sound of Dante

The infamous poet Robert Frost named sound the “golden ore of poetry” In Inferno’s 3rd Canto, through vowels, Dante creates sounds. Canto 3 is hell’s entry gate. Indifferent angles, neither loyal nor against God, reside here. Line 19-21 starts:

“And after he had laid his hand on mine   19

With joyful mien, whence I was comforted, 20

He led me in among the secret things.”       21

-Dante, 19-21, p.13

The 30 syllabled line is iambic pentameter. Iambic pentameter is a series of unstressed syllables followed by stressed syllables (de DUM de DUM de DUM).

The poem’s visual and sound mirror one another. Line 19 contains four a vowels, four e vowels. The author attributes the first-the a vowel-to Virgil. The heavy a is rough, establishes Virgil’s leadership.

Lines 19-21 eliminate a. Dante switches to ē’s, the softness comforts Dante, to whom the letters refer to. The ē’s quiet; they are less bold than line 19’s four strong a’s.

In lines 22-30, the visuals and imagery grow louder.

“There sighs, complaints, and ululations loud      22

Resounded through the air without a star,      23

Whence I, at the beginning, wept thereat.      24

Languages diverse, horrible dialects,      25

Accents of anger, words of agony,      26

And voices high and hoarse, with sound of hands,     27

Made up a tumult that goes whirling on      28

For ever in that air for ever black,      29

Even as the sand doth, when the whirlwind breathes.” 30

Lines 22-30 eliminate e. i’s, a’s, ou’s fortify the poem’s volume. Lets look at the verb resounded

“Resounded” is line 23’s first word. Writing the verb at the line’s start, Dante filled empty space with an audible verb: the ou creates more poem volume.

In line 24, an ē appears in “wept.” The ē is attributed to Virgil’s follower, Dante. The soft ē establishes Dante as Virgil’s follower.

Lines 26-30 drastically raise the volume. Seven hard a’s ring in the ten syllable line. With other sounds, a works in conjunction to grow the poem’s volume.

Line 27 raises the volume more. As the lines descend on the page, the poem’s volume becomes louder and louder.

Line 27 repeats two rough i’s. A hard h repeats in line 27 three times. Line 27 ends with “sounds of hands,” leading the reader into line 28.

The last lines, 22-27, established the scene’s sound. Lines 28-30 focus on the visual. In volume the sounds are lowered. Line 28 possesses 1 hard a at the beginning; the same line, 28, contains three u vowels, ends with the phrase “whirling on.” The word on begins line 29 and is the first soft o. Line 29 completes the picture, which leads to line 30.

Line 30 uses the simile “as.” The simile helps the reader picture the established scene. Notice the last clause at the end of line 30: “when the whirlwind breathes.” With its w’s, the phrase can only be protracted by a strong breath.

Robert Frost remarked sound is the “golden ore of poetry.” Dante’s 3rd Canto married visuals and sounds.