Pure Poetry
One tends to forget the beauty and power of Dante’s poetry while trying to unravel all the symbolism, history, politics and theology of this great work. It takes something like the opening lines to Canto 8 to remind us that Dante the Poet will simply take one’s breath away through sheer lyric beauty. Canto 8: 1-21 has been admired throughout history. Indeed we need reminding time and again that there are parallels of powerful poetry in every Canto and in all the sections of the Commedia, not just the harsh images, soulless evil and scatological humor in the Inferno. We miss more that 75% of the beauty, power and insight of Dante when we read only the Inferno. Shame on the Literature Depts of our schools who give only selections of Inferno to their students! 
    When reading Dr. Shaw Prue of University College, London, who writes on Dante, I was reminded of what Seamus Heaney said when defining the power of poetry. He called it “forcibleness . . . the attribute that makes you feel the lines have been decreed, that there has been no fussy picking and choosing of words but instead a surge of utterance.” While Dante the Poet is obviously aware that he is creating a legacy of beauty, there are very few times when one can see a blatant attempt to be clever or cute. What we have here is that which rings true and pure. If I might paraphrase Psalm 12:6

“The words of [DANTE] are pure words, Like silver refined in a furnace of earth, Purified seven times.”

Indeed, it is instructive to compare the opening stanza’s in the Hollander translation with Lord Byron’s adoring attempt to emulate this piece in Don Juan. 

1 It was now the hour that melts a sailor's heart
2 and saddens him with longing on the day
3 he's said farewell to his belovèd friends,
4 and when a traveler, starting out,
5 is pierced with love if far away he hears
6 a bell that seems to mourn the dying light,
7 and I began to listen less and fix my gaze,
8 intent upon a soul who suddenly stood up


Byron translated these lines in Don Juan (canto iii, stanza 108), adding a concluding couplet to round off his stanza: 

Soft hour, which wakes the wish and melts the heart 
Of those who sail the seas on the first day 
When they from their sweet friends are torn apart, 
Or fills with love the pilgrim on his way 
As the far bell of vesper makes him start, 
Seeming to weep the dying day’s decay. 

Is this a fancy which our reason scorns? 
Ah, surely nothing dies but something mourns.

[Shaw, Prue (2014-02-10). Reading Dante: From Here to Eternity (p. 150). Liveright.]

I agree with Dr. Shaw that Dante is cleaner but I also enjoy Byron’s own take on this reflection of the sensual closing of day with the recognition that in any journey, there will be reflections on what is being left behind in order to move ahead.

Never Do Today What You Can Put Off Till Tomorrow
We must also remind ourselves who exactly is in this place, for we are not yet in Purgatory proper. Yes, these kings and people of power in these last few Cantos will ultimately make it to Paradise, but they must first wait. They must wait and learn here because they made God wait. Yes, yes, they felt good about themselves because many of them were out doing good for others, or for the church, or for their political party, etc. But truth to tell, they were at heart, serial procrastinators. I know many people like this, and I’ve been caught up in one or two frantic, last minute flurries by dear friends who put off preparing a brief until the 12th hour, or had an Emmaus talk to give but continually waited for inspiration rather than trudging through the outlines with perspiration and dedication. There seems to be many of these folk out there. While I was the odd duck who began reading all the texts the first week of class, and prepared homilies six weeks ahead so I could live with the text and research, make no mistake that in other areas of my life [repairing the backyard fence, mowing the lawn, etc.] I was as fierce a procrastinator as the rest.
    Yet, Dante the Poet and Dante the Pilgrim seem to embody both sides of this issue: inspiration and perspiration. Virgil will whack Dante the Pilgrim to get him to climb and scramble when it seems too hard, or when he wants to stay and observe. Perspiration is needed at times. Dante the Poet, as in this opening lays out such beauty that one’s heart will break and the words, in fact, seem as though they were given from sheer inspiration. But truth to tell, surely Dante used both to create this greatest of pieces of literature. I think, indeed, that we are all called on this walk of faith through this world and the next, being lifted, being urged forward by both sides of the coin: inspiration and perspiration. 
    Hence, we come up against the quotidian demands of Purgatory: time matters. Perspiration and hard work will be required for we indeed are moving toward a goal. There are places in Dante’s universe where time does not matter. In fact, two-thirds of the Dante’s universe fit this definition, but in one [Inferno] all that matters is self and in the other [Paradiso] all that matters is God. Here in Purgatory, both inspiration and perspiration are needed to empty one of Selfishness and fill one instead with God. This is especially true for these souls waiting outside the doors of Purgatory: they had no time for setting aside their own agendas in order to care for the other. They are now learning to sing together, to pray together, to trust God’s angels to protect them while they grow into a shared community that moves slowly, surely, to the place of learned love. 

Structure of Reality
As we slowly move toward the gate of Purgatory, we are given more and more hints as to the differences between this part of the Medieval Christian Worldview as seen through Dante the Poet’s eyes and our own modern world. It is in some ways a polar opposite of the Inferno, and yet there are dialectical parallels here and in Paradiso that will inform and enlighten as we compare and contrast the Cantos with each other. This is what continues to feed so many of us who return to the Commedia time and time again. 

Honor the Other
What a lovely beginning we have as Canto VII continues from Canto VI without missing a beat. The two poets from Mantua embrace in celebration of a shared home city. What a remarkable change this is from Farinata’s fierce demand of Dante’s family legacy when they meet in Inferno Canto X:

40 When I stood at the foot of his [Farinata’s] tomb
Com' io al piè de la sua tomba fui,
 
41 he looked at me a moment. Then he asked,
guardommi un poco, e poi, quasi sdegnoso,
 
42 almost in disdain: 'Who were your ancestors?'
mi dimandò: "Chi fuor li maggior tui?"
 
43 And I, eager to obey, held nothing back,
Io ch'era d'ubidir disideroso,
 
44 but told him who they were,
non gliel celai, ma tutto gliel' apersi;
 
45 at which he barely raised his eyebrows
ond' ei levò le ciglia un poco in suso;
 
46 and said: 'They were most bitter enemies
poi disse: "Fieramente furo avversi
 
47 to me, my forebears, and my party --
a me e a miei primi e a mia parte,
 
48 not once, but twice, I had to drive them out.'
sì che per due fïate li dispersi."

All that is shared here is hatred and dismissal of those whom he believes are beneath him, even though they are from the same city. Unlike Farinata, the reaction of Sordello and Virgil is of respect and comradeship and acceptance. Indeed, the opening couplet was so admired by Boccaccio in The Decameron that he used it verbatim as part of the tale of the mother Beritola in Decameron 2 – 6 – 96. She celebrates finding her son with Dante the Poet’s description in Canto 7:

1 Once the courteous and joyful greetings
Poscia che l'accoglienze oneste e liete
 
2 had been repeated a third time and a fourth…
furo iterate tre e quattro volte,

Respect for the other without a need to build up oneself is all through the Purgatorio. Sordello’s embrace of Virgil, once he actually learns that here is the greatest poet of his age, simply completes the honor that was being shared merely as a brother. In Purgatorio, those on the journey are learning to move out of the self-referent sphere that defines the Inferno. It is telling, therefore, that Virgil now shares more of himself than at any other time. In this Canto, Dante the Pilgrim is never mentioned. At all. If some have wondered why Cato is included in Purgatory while Virgil is kept in Hell, we might have one hint here: Virgil takes center stage and seems to enjoy it.

The Rhythm Method
We learn here as well that unlike in the Inferno, there is a rhythm to the journey here, day and night matter. Dante the Pilgrim and Virgil plowed ahead through the Inferno, only stopping to talk or when they were stymied by hateful guards at the City of Dis or the fierce Giants. They moved on and on with a vengeance. But now, they are unable to travel once the sun [God’s Grace] is gone from the sky. Yes, one could MOVE if one cannot stay still, but that will only result in losing ground on one’s spiritual journey toward Paradise. To everything there is a time and a season. Yes, one must climb and suffer in order to cleanse one’s heart. But one must also take time to rest, recover and become, in fact, Mary who chose the better part, sitting at the feet of Jesus in contemplative presence while Martha remained bustling and busy. [Luke 10:38-42] 
   Of course there is a need in the spiritual journey for goal-driven hard work, to sacrifice and study and measure one’s progress and follow in obedience. But there is also the necessity to simply sit in silence and hear the still small voice of God. I love the fact that here in Purgatory, rest is mandated. Here one can dream. Here one can sit and sing with others. Here one must wait upon the Lord. I have found that the statement “God cannot drive a parked car” to be profoundly damaging to the spiritual life. And truth to tell, it is rooted deeply in many traditions of the Western Church in Christianity.

Togetherness

82 Seated in the grass and flowers, I saw
"Salve, Regina" in sul verde e 'n su' fiori
 
83 souls not visible from beyond the sunken valley.
quindi seder cantando anime vidi,
 
84 'Salve Regina' was the song they sang.
che per la valle non parean di fuori.

Another lesson learned as we move toward the gate of Purgatory is that one is not alone and will never progress without the community. There is no sense of the solipsistic soul such as we had in the Inferno, where even Farinata shared a tomb with many others, but refused to acknowledge their presence. Here, the pilgrims sing together, travel together, rest together. Repentance must be a communal experience because sin affects and destroys the community. Sin cannot simply be surrendered by one person alone, but forgiveness must be asked of those who have been wounded by the betrayal. Yes, confession is crucial and God in Jesus Christ is part of this process, but so is the entire community of faith. Dante the Poet makes that clear as people help each other, travel together, suffer with and for each other. This is the shared air of love now. 
   We are also reminded that we are in a monastic world, where the hours of monastic worship are part of Purgatory. Monasteries were part of Dante’s world, with one in Florence [Fra Angelico’s monastic community], and many more dotting the countryside. In fact, monasteries often served as Inns for travelers, who then joined the community in their prayers while they were there. The Salve Regina is sung at Vespers, as the sun goes down, both in Florence and in Purgatory. Monasteries followed the Medieval Opus Dei is the “Work of God” which is to gather eight times a day to sing and pray the Psalms, to serve one another and to ask for repentance. Here we are in the world of ritual that is guided by the Word of God and is shared by all those who are on the same journey. It is a hard lesson for the 21st century, to hear that according to Dante the Poet, one cannot be a Christian by oneself. No, we don’t need to sing the Psalms eight times a day, but there is a real assumption here that one will lose one’s way spiritually without a community of faith and a guide to follow. As I’ve mentioned earlier, my fear is that we in the modern world follow blind guides, and prefer to travel alone. I must return time and again to these wise texts and to the community of faith so I do not lose my way.