“Dear Dante”
Angela Alaimo O’Donnell, Paraclete Press (2024)
93 pages, $21
Anyone looking to appreciate Dante Alighieri’s “Divine Comedy” without having to wade through the 100 cantos will welcome this new collection from writer and educator Angela Alaimo O’Donnell.
A poet in her own right, and a professor of English, Catholic studies and creative writing at Fordham University in New York, Alaimo O’Donnell’s new work “Dear Dante” is a lively and engaging love letter of sorts to one of civilization’s preeminent literary artists.
This Dante-focused collection complements her previous works of poetry, which include “Andalusian Hours” (a Flannery O’Connor tribute) and “Love in the Time of Coronavirus.”
“The Divine Comedy” – or “La Commedia” as it was originally known – was written in 1321 and for more than 700 years has inspired generations of poets and readers for its literary and stylistic virtuosity.
Alaimo O’Donnell’s slim volume consists of 39 original poems, 13 for each of the three canticles in the Divine Comedy, plus a prologue and two epilogues. The author has addressed each poem to the master himself, and draws the reader forward by positioning an epigraph from Dante’s epic atop each of her works.
The poem “On Leaving the Inferno” features two contrasting epigraphs: Dante’s own “Then we came forth, to see again the stars,” and John Milton’s “Paradise Lost” lament, “No matter where I fly, I myself am Hell.” The pairing contrasts the suffering, hope and redemption of Dante’s vision with the resignation to eternal damnation in Milton’s Lucifer.
Alaimo O’Donnell pays homage to Dante by emulating the sonnet style and the “terza rima” verse form that color the great master’s timeless work.
As with the “Divine Comedy” itself, “Dear Dante” is divided into three sections – Inferno, Purgatorio and Paradiso – to celebrate the trinity of division in the main work. The poems within the three cantos correspond to the “action” of Dante himself as he retells his journey from hell, through to purgatory and eventually the heavenly paradise.
In the poem “Christ in Hell,” Alaimo O’Donnell muses on Dante’s thoughts on the Savior’s descent into the underworld:
“He was leaving behind. How could He not grieve?
Though He rescued many, more were bereft.
Does he still think of those He did not retrieve?
I can’t help but believe that Jesus wept.”
Moving on to the Purgatorio, one of the more delightful verses arises in Alaimo O’Donnell’s “Postcard From Purgatory #1,” a letter from Dante, slowly being purified, to his mother:
“The pool is full of algae and slime,
a thick stew of goo chartreuse. Yet I find
swimming in it cures my blues. There’s no time
to wallow in guilt and rue. They keep
us busy. Gentle devils cheer as we
fall and try, time & time again, to climb
steep hills of garbage, compost of our sin.”
The phrase, “compost of our sin” is especially effective as a description of one’s time in purgatory. Note how Alaimo O’Donnell, through Dante, hints that there is still a chance for redemption as one’s transgressions are examined, confessed and absolved.
The hopeful element while in Purgatory comes through clearly in Alaimo O’Donnell’s poem “Dante Meets Beatrice.” In the Purgatorio, Beatrice takes over from the Latin poet Virgil in guiding Dante through the final stages of his journey:
“The human soul’s capacity to care
Is endless. Beatrice’s love is tough.
His sins confessed, they vanish in the air.
Love can never be too much or enough.”
Like Dante himself, Alaimo O’Donnell has her protagonist stumbling into paradise at the end of his journey. The 13 poems in the Paradiso section of “Dear Dante” anticipate the bliss, wonder and beauty to be experienced on admission to paradise.
The poem “Dante among the Blessed Souls,” for example, imagines the great poet’s sense of thanksgiving and relief as his journey nears its final end:
“What life can compare
with the one we live, the gift that was given
to our first parents, poisoned by death,
but now redeemed and rectified?
No sin or sickness, the chance to draw breath
in a world without passing or pain?
Every human prayer and shibboleth
has conjured this dream. The souls give voice
to our own ‘Amen,’ and Dante’s too.
Together all of us rejoice
In the hope of salvation come true.”
Quite a feat for any poet to rhyme breath and shibboleth.
In the final analysis, “Dear Dante” succeeds on a number of levels. Readers more familiar with the “Divine Comedy” will no doubt appreciate the weaving of complexity and simplicity in this retelling. Those who haven’t read the “Divine Comedy” meanwhile, might consider this 39-poem collection a primer of the venerable work.
Inspiring new readers to take up the “Divine Comedy” in earnest would mark an additional success for Alaimo O’Donnell.
“In writing the poems, my hope was that the epigraphs from the ‘Commedia’ would help to establish context and make them accessible to the reader,” she told OSV News in an interview. “Certainly, the more one knows about the ‘Commedia,’ the more rich the experience of reading the book will be, but even a cursory familiarity with who Dante is and his great masterpiece should be enough to make the poems interesting. My hope is that the poems will arouse the reader’s curiosity and make him/her want to read Dante.”
It’s a worthy goal, as the book’s final entry, “Dante’s Bargain,” makes clear: “No poet’s better known. He earned his fame, he paid the price. A Dante doesn’t happen twice.”