1. Allegory
a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.
Famous examples…
Animal Farm
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
The Lorax
The Wizard of Oz??
Robocop!?

2. Charon

3. Structure of the Divine Comedy
How many major parts?
Three – Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso
What are the parts divided into?
Cantos
What are the cantos divided into?
Stanzas – more specifically, tercets
Tercet – three-line stanza

4. Dante Alighieri Widely regarded as the world’s greatest poet of ideas
His father educated him in classical and Christian literature.
Wrote The Divine Comedy,
which is an allegory detailing
his spiritual journey toward
religious salvation.
Was exiled for political reasons (he opposed the Pope) which is a fate worse than death in medieval times.

5. Terza Rima ABA BCB CBC DED… Interlocking form
The only time the form changes is at the conclusion of the poem, where a single line that rhymes with the second line of the final tercet stands alone; the rhyme scene at the end of the poem looks like this: “xyx yzy z(z).”