Let's Compare The First Two Dreams In PURGATORIO
We've had two dreams in PURGATORIO, one at Canto IX and one at Canto XIX (although it actually started in the last line of Canto XVIII).Let's take a moment to compare and contrast these two dreams. What can they tell us about the changing nature of PURGATORIO, especially given my thesis that this is a poem in process, one in which the poet is learning how to write the poem as he moves forward?Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:[01:21] A reading of the first two dreams in PURGATORIO: Canto IX, lines 13 - 42; and Canto XIX, lines 1 - 13.[05:11] Both dreams occur near dawn, startle the pilgrim awake, and rob the pilgrim of his free will.[08:40] Both dreams are about (different versions) of the future.[12:14] Both dreams have problems about who saves the pilgrim: the terrifying eagle or Virgil?[14:20] Both dreams are full of classical imagery (with important differences in the placement of that imagery).[16:15] Both dreams have songs: the first, outside the dream; the second, inside it.[17:35] There are two characters in the first dream, four character in the second--allowing for a larger interpretive space in the second dream.