Circle 7: Round 1
verses: 1-15

The scene that opened from the edge of the pit
was mountainous, and such a desolation
that every eye would shun the sight of it:

a ruin like the Slides of mark near Trent
on the bank of the Adige, the result of an earthquake
or of some massive fault in the escarpment-

for, from the point on the peak where he mountain split
to the plain below, the rock is so badly shattered
a man at the top might make a rough stair of it.

Such was the passage down the steep, and there
at the very top, at the edge of the broken cleft,
lay spread the Infamy of Crete, the heir

of bestiality and the lecherous queen
who hid in a wooden cow, And when he saw us
he gnawed his own flesh in a fit of spleen.


The diction and imagery in the post above, taken from Circle Seven: Round One verses 1-15, uses diction and imagery to show details about the sinners and their environments. Dante uses such vivid descriptions to portray his feelings and thoughts on the sinners, by explaining there environments in a way that relays what the sinners have done.

Dante uses many vivid words to describe the places he visits in Hell. Dante uses the word "desolation", in line two of stanza one, to describe the overall area of Round One of Circle Seven. The word desolation, gives the reader an eerie feeling of disgust. Compared to other sections of Hell Dante describes this circle in more a of mild diction. Dante also uses the words "badly shattered" in stanza two. The words shattered are usually related to something that is broken or ruined, and this may also be portraying his idea of the sinners there and how they themselves are ruined and broken. The words give the reader a easy stencil to draw a picture in their heads of what Dante is seeing.Overall Dante uses negative, eerie words to describe Hell and its residents.

Dante uses imagery many times through out his book to give the reader vivid thoughts about his journey through Hell. In the last stanza Dante says "gnawed his own flesh", while describing the Infamy of Crete. Dante uses these words to put a imagine in the readers head of scariness and disgust. The image of flesh, makes me think of dead, or routing. The word gnawed, gives me the image of a animal that is very angry. The image that Dante portrays, describes his feelings towards this particular creature, which is that he is scared and disgusted by this animal like being.He uses a detailed imagery to give a reader a feelings towards the creatures and places he encounters.



Prompt 1