Analysis of Paradiso: Canto II

Dante Alighieri 1265 (Florence) – 1321 (Ravenna)



Paradiso Canto 2

O Ye, who in some pretty little boat,
Eager to listen, have been following
Behind my ship, that singing sails along,

Turn back to look again upon your shores;
Do not put out to sea, lest peradventure,
In losing me, you might yourselves be lost.

The sea I sail has never yet been passed;
Minerva breathes, and pilots me Apollo,
And Muses nine point out to me the Bears.

Ye other few who have the neck uplifted
Betimes to th' bread of Angels upon which
One liveth here and grows not sated by it,

Well may you launch upon the deep salt-sea
Your vessel, keeping still my wake before you
Upon the water that grows smooth again.

Those glorious ones who unto Colchos passed
Were not so wonder-struck as you shall be,
When Jason they beheld a ploughman made!

The con-created and perpetual thirst
For the realm deiform did bear us on,
As swift almost as ye the heavens behold.

Upward gazed Beatrice, and I at her;
And in such space perchance as strikes a bolt
And flies, and from the notch unlocks itself,

Arrived I saw me where a wondrous thing
Drew to itself my sight; and therefore she
From whom no care of mine could be concealed,

Towards me turning, blithe as beautiful,
Said unto me: 'Fix gratefully thy mind
On God, who unto the first star has brought us.'

It seemed to me a cloud encompassed us,
Luminous, dense, consolidate and bright
As adamant on which the sun is striking.

Into itself did the eternal pearl
Receive us, even as water doth receive
A ray of light, remaining still unbroken.

If I was body, (and we here conceive not
How one dimension tolerates another,
Which needs must be if body enter body,)

More the desire should be enkindled in us
That essence to behold, wherein is seen
How God and our own nature were united.

There will be seen what we receive by faith,
Not demonstrated, but self-evident
In guise of the first truth that man believes.

I made reply: 'Madonna, as devoutly
As most I can do I give thanks to Him
Who has removed me from the mortal world.

But tell me what the dusky spots may be
Upon this body, which below on earth
Make people tell that fabulous tale of Cain?'

Somewhat she smiled; and then, 'If the opinion
Of mortals be erroneous,' she said,
'Where'er the key of sense doth not unlock,

Certes, the shafts of wonder should not pierce thee
Now, forasmuch as, following the senses,
Thou seest that the reason has short wings.

But tell me what thou think'st of it thyself.'
And I: 'What seems to us up here diverse,
Is caused, I think, by bodies rare and dense.'

And she: 'Right truly shalt thou see immersed
In error thy belief, if well thou hearest
The argument that I shall make against it.

Lights many the eighth sphere displays to you
Which in their quality and quantity
May noted be of aspects different.

If this were caused by rare and dense alone,
One only virtue would there be in all
Or more or less diffused, or equally.

Virtues diverse must be perforce the fruits
Of formal principles; and these, save one,
Of course would by thy reasoning be destroyed.

Besides, if rarity were of this dimness
The cause thou askest, either through and through
This planet thus attenuate were of matter,

Or else, as in a body is apportioned
The fat and lean, so in like manner this
Would in its volume interchange the leaves.

Were it the former, in the sun's eclipse
It would be manifest by the shining through
Of light, as through aught tenuous interfused.

This is not so; hence we must scan the other,
And if it chance the other I demolish,
Then falsified will thy opinion be.

But if this rarity go not through and through,
There needs must be a limit, beyond which
Its contrary prevents the further passing,

And thence the foreign radiance is reflected,
Even as a colour cometh back from glass,
The which behind itself concealeth lead.

Now thou wilt say the sunbeam shows itself
More dimly there than in the other parts,
By being there reflected farther back.

From this reply experiment will free thee
If e'er thou try it, which is wont to be
The fountain to the rivers of your arts.

Three mirrors shalt thou take, and two remove
Alike from thee, the other more remote
Between the former two shall meet thine eyes.

Turned towards these, cause that behind thy back
Be placed a light, illuming the three mirror


Scheme A BCX DEX FAX XGH IJX FIX KXX EXL CIX XXM MXC XXN XEI MXO XPQ IXX IXX NRX IXX LXX KAH JIP XXI XNX DEE XXQ XEA EXI EGC OXR LST IIS XBX TE
Poetic Form
Metre 001010 1110110101 1011011100 0111110101 1111010111 11111111 0101110111 0111110111 01010101010 0101111101 11011101100 11111110011 1110111011 1111010111 11010111011 0101011101 1100111011 0111011111 11011011 01010001001 10111111 1111101001 1011000110 0011011101 010101101 0111110101 110111011 1111111101 0111011100 1101110011 11110011111 1111010101 100101001 11001101110 0101100101 01110110101 01110101010 11110011011 1101010010 11111101010 1001011101 1101010111 110101100010 1111110111 110011100 0110111101 11010101010 1111111111 1101110101 111101111 0111010111 11011100111 11110110010 1101010011 1001111101 1011101111 111100010 111010111 1111111111 0111111101 1111110101 0111011101 0101011111 01001111011 1100110111 1011000100 110111100 1101110101 1101011101 1111011100 1001110101 1101000111 11111100101 0111000111 011110101 11010100110 11100101010 0101101101 101100101 0101000101 1111010101 111111001 11111111010 01110101010 110110101 11110011101 1111010011 11000101010 010101001010 1010110111 01010111 111101101 1101100101 1101010101 11010100111 11011111111 0101010111 1101110101 0111010101 0101011111 1011110111 110110110
Closest metre Iambic pentameter
Characters 4,190
Words 782
Sentences 27
Stanzas 35
Stanza Lengths 1, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 2
Lines Amount 102
Letters per line (avg) 33
Words per line (avg) 8
Letters per stanza (avg) 96
Words per stanza (avg) 22
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

3:54 min read
100

Dante Alighieri

Durante degli Alighieri, simply referred to as Dante, was a major Italian poet of the Middle Ages. more…

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