Dante’s Inferno Vocabulary Canto I and III

allegory A literary work with two levels of meaning- the literal and the symbolic. Details, characters, and plot points have an equivalent symbolic meaning.

Example: Inferno

Imagery Use of language that appeals to one or more of the five senses and creates mental pictures for the reader. Imagery is used by Dante to make the journey through hell real.

Flounders VERB Struggles to move

ADJECTIVE QUIVERING; SHAKING tremulous ADJECTIVE QUIVERING; SHAKING

zeal NOUN Ardor; fervor

flounders Just as a swimmer, who with his last breath flounders ashore from perilous seas

“My voice grew tremulous”

zeal “Now may that zeal and love’s apprenticeship that I poured out on your heroic verses serve me well!”