Dante and his poetry

Undoubtedly, as a poet, Dante is bound to his immediate rhetoric teacher Bruno Latini, a writer written in Latin, Retorica, as well as to the authors from whom he drew Bruno, Cicero and Quintinian. The term sweetness in Dante's early poetic practice has contributed to the meaningful coverage of adjective. It is accepted by the formula "Sweet New Style" to mean the second stage in Dante's poetry when he created the last sonnes of "New Life", and then the Cantons, with whom the different parts of his moral-philosophical treatise "Feast". Later, literary historians began to apply it when assessing the intimate lyrics of the Bologna, and later Florentine poets, of the author of the Divine Comedy.

"Dante's Dream" by Dante Rossetti, 1871 image source

Compared to the poetry of Dante's predecessors, the philosophical argumentation was considerably strengthened. With him, love is not as much a feeling, an experience as a worldly beginning. It is therefore elevated to a degree of pure spirituality, and the term reason proves to be key to his poetry. The works of the most authoritative representatives of theological thought of that time also did not remain without Dante (I will only mention the volumes of Aquinas, Bernard de Clairvo and Bonaventura), at least as far as the frequency with which his poems appear a number of basic notions of theological mysticism such as "sweetness", "mercy", "hope", "fire", etc. The New Life collection consists of 30 sonnets associated with confessed fragments written in prose, in which the poet follows the birth and evolution of his pure, relentless love for Beatrice. In the poetry statement used by Dante in this collection, as well as in the poetry of his contemporaries who have proclaimed themselves as "stylists", the main pictorial techniques are laid which facilitate the analysis of the original poetics of "The New Style". According to Prof. Hadjikosev, Dante's "remarkable merit" in New Life is that "while in the other representatives of the" New Style "the innovative understanding of love is presented in a fragmentary manner, in separate works, in New Life it is systematized motivated aesthetically, morally and philosophically.

This collection of Dante, which many explorers describe as a "love novel in poetry and prose", is dedicated to Beatrice. Let us be content to note its" meaningful "name / it comes from blessed and can be interpreted as bearing bliss . Here is an acceptable analogy with the Provincial lyric, in which the presence of a hunter / nickname is a prerequisite for preserving the secret of the courteous love. From this point of view, the names of Petrarka's Laura are also nicknamed - the poet skillfully uses the laur and Madonna Fiameta / Plamena, Ogniana / Boccaccio, who conceals under the name of the false beloved Maria d'Aquino. In fact, the lyrical messages of "New Life" are entirely focused on the elucidation of the essence of the love experience, focus on the admiration of the beloved woman, which is constantly enriched by "crystallization". For the poet Dante love is a blessed devotion, praising the beloved god-goddess, in which he finds both a foundation for his self-esteem and a source of his joy. The fragments tracking the birth of Dante's love and the stages in his growing admiration of Beatrice. Dante is still a nine-year-old child when she meets Beatrice for the first time as she enters her ninth year. He feels the "Spirit of Life" trembles in the depths of his soul and from that day his soul is subordinate to the love god Amur. Nine years later, he sees his beloved dressed in white: "As she walked down the street, she looked to the place where I was shivering and, guided by her kindness, she greeted me so kindly that it seemed to me that I was touching the bliss Dante closes himself in his room and, after experiencing this deep excitement, he wrote his first sonnet. Later, he perceives Beatrice in the church, and in order to conceal what the woman is causing his excitement, he pretends to be courting another lady, then third, so that his conduct raises the reproaches of the others. Beatrice is offended by what happened and gives him the impression that he does not approve of his act by not responding to his greeting.

Not long after that, a friend takes the poet to a wedding. There, Dante meets Beatrice, who, having noticed his embarrassment, entertains his girlfriends with his awkwardness. He, mad with grief, leaves the wedding and, after shedding a lot of tears, decides not to seek an opportunity to meet his beloved because he does not stand the sight of her. The bliss he has felt so far from Beatrice's greeting, in the praise that he dedicates to her.