Second post: The Rape of the Lock Vs. The Divine Comedy

Dear readers, I have decided to compare the two epic works that appear in the title of this post, my second post, and I hope you enjoy it. I know that all of you have read  The Rape of the Lock, our second reading, but perhaps you don't know very much about The Divine Comedy. This is an epic poem written by Dante Alighieri between 1308 and 1321. 

As you can easily infer, both of them are epic poems, so they share the typical characteristics of this kind of literary work; but the way these characteristics are presented is a little bit different.

The first feature is the invocation of the muse. In The Rape of the Lock the muse invoked is Pope's friend, John Caryll; while in The Divine Comedy, Dante invokes his love, Beatrice. 

The second feature is the division of the poems into cantos. The English poem contains only five cantos, very few if we compare them with the thirty- four cantos in which the Italian poem is divided.

The third feature is the account of a voyage. In Pope's work, the voyage is presented through the river Thames and in Dante's work it is presented in a more spiritual way: Dante starts his journey in Hell, then he goes to Purgatory and finally he ascends into Heaven.

The fourth feature is the participation of deities or spirits in the action. In The Rape of the Lock spirits like sylphs, gnomes and nymphs intervene in it, while in The Divine Comedy creatures like for example the harpies and the furies are the one who participate.

The fifth and final feature I'm going to deal with is the mentioning of mythological personages. In Pope's work appears Thalestris and in the italian work appears personages like Cerberus, Ulysses, Achilles, etc.

I would like to finish up by saying that both of them are considered masterpieces so, as you have studied The Rape of the Lock, I encourage you to read Dante's work, one of my favourite books.