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A Song for
Virgil: Dantean References in Eliot's "A Song for
Simeon"
Daniela. Cavallaro
From: Journal of Modern
Literature
Volume 24, Number 2, Winter
2000/2001
pp.
349-352 |
excerpt
// [M]ost critics studying the
sources of "A Song for Simeon," focus on Luke's or Mark's Gospel. Some,
such as Leonard Unger, have connected the image of the stairs to the
mystical ascent described by St. John of the Cross. Yet the presence of
Dante, or any Dantean influence in this poem, has apparently gone
unobserved. An analysis of the Dantean references in Eliot's "A Song for
Simeon," however, reveals new parallels between the character of Simeon
and that of Virgil.
The first example of the Dantean influence
which can be found in "A Song for Simeon" is "the wind that chills
towards the dead land." This wind is similar to that created by the
moving wings of Lucifer which freeze the waters of Cocytus (Inferno
XXXIV). The "cords, scourges and lamentation," furthermore, recall the
punishments of the damned in Hell. And the "stations of the mountain of
desolation," besides their obvious reference to the martyrdom of Christ
on the way to Calvary, can be associated with the various stations
through which Dante, together with Virgil, had to pass on their ascent
of Mount Purgatory.
Particularly evocative is a passage from the
fourth stanza of the poem, in which Simeon lists those experiences of
Christianity that "are not for him": "Light upon light, mounting the
saints' stair./ Not for me the martyrdom, the ecstasy of thought and
prayer,/ Not for me the ultimate vision." Several images in this passage
resonate with the experience that is offered to Dante in Purgatory. In
the course of his ascent of Mount Purgatory, Dante undergoes a series of
purifications, which include dreams, ecstasies, and visions. In the
third "cornice," images of the meek (Purgatorio XV, 85-114) and the
wrathful (Purgatorio XVII, 13-39) appear to Dante "in una visione
estatica di subito . . . tratto" [rapt of a sudden in an ecstatic
vision] (Purgatorio XV, 85-86). In addition, prayer -- above all,
collective prayer -- is the most constant means of purification in
Purgatory, as in the case of "Te lucis ante" of the Anti-purgatory
(Purgatorio VIII, 13-18), or of the "Our Father," recited by the proud
(Purgatorio XI, 1-24).
On the other hand, the martyrdom, the
passage from light to light, the saints' stair, and the ultimate vision
may have their source in Dante's Paradise. Martyrdom, for example, was
the necessary passage for some blessed souls to reach that same peace
which Simeon asks of God, as we see in the case of Boezio: "l'anima
santa . . . da martiro e da essilio venne a questa pace" [the holy soul
. . . came from martyrdom and exile to this peace] (Paradiso X,
125-129). Further on, in Paradiso XV, Cacciaguida repeats the same
words: "venni dal martiro a questa...//
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_modern_literature/summary/v024/24.2cavallaro.html
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