Mercury Is So Bright, You Can See The Poetry: PARADISO, Canto V, Lines 115 - 139

About this episode

In the sphere of Mercury, the souls have come up like fish in a pond. One now comes forward to speak. At first, Dante can see his eyes and maybe his laughing mouth. But even those features are obliterated in the light that flashes from his eyes. The poetry, too, is getting brighter as Dante highlights his rhetorical skills so that we understand he is fulfilling his vow to his readers to craft a beautiful journey across the known universe. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we hear from the first of the souls in Mercury. To help underwrite this work, please use this PayPal link right here. Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE: [01:01] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto V, Lines 115 - 139. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment on this episode, please find its entry on my website, markscarbrough.com. [03:15] The passage's structure: an interplay of what's hidden and what's revealed. [06:23] The increasing brightness that hides the first soul in Mercury. [09:00] Two dominant images in the passage: battlements and nests. [12:39] Theological slippage in the narrative flow: a hint of predestination in a hymn to free will and the concept of gods i