Figurative Language in Circle Four

For his Commedia, Dante invented a rhyming system called terza rima.
Translated, this means third rhyme, and it refers to the fact that it's structured by tercets in
the following rhyming pattern: aba bcb cdc, and so on. Most of the lines are in
hendecasyllabic form, meaning that it they have 11 syllables (although some only have
10 syllables). Following is an example from the original Italian version of Il Inferno (pg.
41, Canto III lines 1-9), with the rhyming pattern highlighted:
Per me si va la città dolente,
per me si van e l’etterno dolore
per me si va tra la perdute gente.

Giustizia mosse il mio alto fattore;

fecemi la divina podestate,
la soma sapïenza e ‘l primo amore.

Dinazi a me non fuor cose create

se non etterne, e io etterno duro.
Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate!

As you can see, the terza rima pattern is firmly in place. (By the way, the quoted
passage is the “ABANDON ALL HOPE, YE WHO ENTER HERE” section.)
But rhyming isn’t the only literary device Dante uses. He also employs figurative
language to great effect. The entire Commedia is built upon allegory and symbolism, but
in addition, the author fills his text with similes and more detailed metaphors to clarify
his descriptions and put them into context for the average reader. He uses personification
to bring the account to life and make it more personal.
Within the explanation of Circle 4, these literary devices are used in almost every
tercet. One case is lines 13-15 of Canto VII (pg. 72), after Virgil scolds Plutus for trying
to obstruct his and Dante’s travel:
As sails, swollen by the wind,
fall in a tangle when the mainmast snaps,
so fell that cruel beast to the ground.

This is both a simile and an inverted form of personification. Dante compares the
god Plutus to both an animal and a sail in an effort to transmit his impressions of the
scene and connect it with something the reader would be knowledgeable about.
Another instance of Dante’s use of figurative language is a couple tercets later,
when Dante tries to describe seeing the Avaricious and Prodigals for the first time (pg.72,
lines 21-24):
Just as the waves clash above Charybdis,
one breaking on the other when they meet,
so here the souls move in their necessary dance.
 In this tercet Dante refers the mythical whirlpool Charybdis, which was
mentioned in the Aeneid and multiple Greek myths (notably the Odyssey); he compares it
to the way the sinners must clash against each other with rocks. He also uses metaphor by
calling their actions a popular dance (the dance is the ridda, in which the participants link
arms and circle around each other, reversing direction with each verse).
As if that wasn’t enough, Dante even uses kennings (although he most likely
didn’t call them that), as evidenced by the following lines (pg.73, lines 46-47):
“These were clerics who have no lid of hair
upon their heads, and popes and cardinals…”

In these lines Virgil refers to monks indirectly as clergymen who are missing their
caps of hair.
Finally, Dante uses personification to make the idea of Fortune more
understandable. Through Virgil, Dante calls Fortune a heavenly lady who turns her great
wheel in bliss and distributes earthly goods according to her own whim and judgment
(endorses by God, of course). As if that weren’t enough, he even uses a simile to make
this already relatable idea even more clear (pg.74, lines 82-84):
“One people comes to rule, another languishes,
in keeping with her judgment,
as secret as a serpent hidden in the grass.”

The comparison used in the last line has become cliché because of Dante’s
influence on modern culture. For instance, in the movie The Little Prince, the snake
character (played by Bob Fosse) sings to the prince:
The finest travel agent
You’ll ever meet
Is right at your feet
A snake in the grass

Dante could only have this lasting effect because of his mastery of language,
rhyme and literary device.