We've come a long way down into INFERNO and we'already passed dozens, even hundreds of similes. (It all depends on how you count them.)
This podcast episode is an interpolated one in our slow-walk across Dante's masterwork COMEDY. Here, I'd like to look at the six basic types of similes Dante has used to craft his work (so far).
Join me, Mark Scarbrough, for this admittedly literary episode of WALKING WITH DANTE. Are these the only types of similes Dante uses? Of course not! But they're a good start to a larger discussion about this classic and classical poetic technique.
Here are the segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[01:55] Similes used to describe Dante the pilgrim's inner, emotional landscape.
[08:31] Derived, balanced, and highly crafted similes from various literary traditions and classical authors.
[15:43] Simple similes to describe complex, external, imaginative environments.
[22:40] Ironic, discordant similes toward the bottom of INFERNO.
[28:49] The beginning of metaphysical similes that will become more prominent in the next two canticles, perhaps a development of the similes about the pilgrim's emotional inner landscapes.
[31:23] The misguided, mismatched, almost "red herring" similes of lower hell.