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Seven hundred years after his death, Dante Alighieri's poetry continues to intrigue and move us. Donald Carlson invites us to relive the journey of The Divine Comedy in one hundred excerpts, one from each canto of the poem, that he tweeted over the course of one hundred days in observation of the septicentennial of Dante's death. He accompanies each excerpt with a reflection based on his own experiences of having studied and taught the poem for thirty-plus years. This reimagining of Dante's poem helps to underscore that the journey is not just Dante's, but that it is truly "our life's journey."
“Using the vehicle of the tweet, Donald Carlson takes us on two
journeys at once. First, he shares a short review of the canto he
surveys. Second, within that summary, he weaves his own
interpretive insights—his own Divine Comedy—grasped through
his rich, nuanced imaginal reading of each canto and its relevance
to today’s world. We are gifted with a double vision: Dante’s and
Don’s. What a rich journey!”
—Dennis Patrick Slattery, author of Day-to-Day Dante: Exploring
Personal Myth Through “The Divine Comedy”
“Who else but the boundlessly inventive writer and teacher
extraordinaire Dr. Donald Carlson would think of dispensing gems
from Dante’s Inferno via Twitter, and then reel us even
further in with one hundred ever-so-thoughtful pontifications that
mesh seamlessly with this timeless work of the Italian poet,
writer, and philosopher? I would characterize Professor Carlson
much as Dante would Virgil—namely, as ‘he who is guide, who leads
my eyes on high.’”
—Christopher Phillips, author of Socrates Café: A Fresh Taste of
Philosophy
“Don Carlson’s selection of Tweet-sized excerpts from Dante’s poem,
accompanied by his illuminating commentary, succeeds marvelously in
doing what it sets out to do: capturing the essence of each canto
as we relive Dante’s journey through the poem. The commentaries are
so good—each one a masterfully condensed interpretation based on
long experience and study of the poem—I would recommend them to
anyone seeking greater understanding and enjoyment of Dante’s
epic.”
—Stephen Shivone, Thomas Aquinas College
Donald Carlson lives and teaches in North Texas. His poems have
appeared in a number of journals. He has also published essays on
the plays of William Shakespeare. In 2015, he collaborated on a
volume of poetry, Road Frame Window, with two friends and fellow
poets, Timothy Donohue and Dennis Patrick Slattery.