Saying one thing by means of another, without a word of comparison: instead of saying that something is like another thing, one says that it is. The image transfers to the subject the qualities of the thing with which it has been identified.
In Paradise
the water I take has never been traversed; Minerva breathes, and Apollo guides me, and nine Muses show me the Bears
Poetry becomes navigation: the "water I take" is the new subject, and the Muses show "the Bears" as route stars. The image organizes the whole address to the reader, who becomes the passenger of a boat, not a listener to a song.
Cantos I to IV: The Moon, Dante, narrator, in the address to the reader that opens Canto II
brother, our will is quieted by the virtue of charity, which makes us wish only for what we have, and gives us no thirst for anything else
Cantos I to IV: The Moon, Piccarda, to Dante, in the heaven of the Moon
it became clear to me then how in every part of heaven there is Paradise, although the grace of the highest good does not rain there in one single way
Cantos I to IV: The Moon, Dante, narrator, after hearing Piccarda
for this reason doubt is born, like a shoot, at the foot of the true; and it is nature that pushes us up to the summit from hill to hill
Cantos I to IV: The Moon, Dante, to Beatrice, explaining why he asks
you have made me glad, and so you make me clear, for, speaking, you moved me to doubt how, from a sweet seed, a bitter thing can come
Cantos V to VIII: Mercury and Venus, Dante, to Charles Martel, formulating the doubt about lineage
your city, which is the plant of him who first turned his back on his Creator and from whom so much envy is lamented, produces and spreads the cursed flower that led the sheep and the lambs astray, because it made the shepherd a wolf
Cantos IX to XII: Venus and the Sun, Folquet of Marseille, to Dante, about Florence
now stay, reader, on your bench, ruminating on what has only been tasted, if you wish to be glad long before you grow weary
Cantos IX to XII: Venus and the Sun, Dante, narrator, on entering the heaven of the Sun
and let this always be lead at your feet, to make you move slowly like a weary man, as much toward the yes as toward the no that you do not see
Cantos XIII to XVI: The Sun and Mars, Thomas Aquinas, to Dante, after explaining Solomon's measure
O my frond, in whom I took pleasure only in waiting, I was your root: such a beginning, answering, made me
Cantos XIII to XVI: The Sun and Mars, Cacciaguida, to Dante, responding to the request for his name
but nonetheless, with every falsehood set aside, make manifest your whole vision; and let it scratch where the itch is. For if your voice is unpleasant to the first taste, it will later leave vital nourishment, once it is digested
Cantos XVII to XX: The prophecy and the Eagle, Cacciaguida, to Dante, on what he must write
the little plot of ground that makes us so ferocious, as I turned with the eternal Twins, appeared to me entire, from the hills to the mouths
why does my face so enamor you that you do not turn to the fair garden that flowers beneath the rays of Christ? There is the rose in which the divine Word became flesh; there are the lilies, by whose scent the good path was taken
Cantos XXI to XXIV: Saturn and the fixed stars, Beatrice, to Dante, at the triumph of Christ
for this reason the pen leaps and I do not write it: for our imagination, not only speech, is a color too vivid for such folds
Cantos XXI to XXIV: Saturn and the fixed stars, Dante, narrator, not writing the canto of Peter
the broad rain of the Holy Spirit, which pours over the old parchments and over the new, is the syllogism that concluded it in me so keenly that, before it, every demonstration seems obtuse to me
let cruelty that shuts me out of the fair fold where I slept as a lamb, enemy of the wolves that make war on it, be overcome; with another voice now, with another wool I shall return a poet, and at the font of my baptism I will take the poet's cap
in shepherd's garb, ravening wolves can be seen from up here in every pasture: O defense of God, why do you still lie? With our blood, Cahorsines and Gascons prepare to drink: O good beginning, to what vile end you must fall!
if your fingers are not enough for such a knot, it is no wonder: from so much not trying it, it has grown hard!
Cantos XXV to XXVIII: The three virtues and the Primum Mobile, Beatrice, to Dante, in Canto XXVIII
Florence does not have as many Lapi and Bindi as the fables that are shouted each year from the pulpit, here and there: so that the little sheep, who do not know, return from the pasture full of wind, and they are not excused for not seeing the harm
Cantos XXIX to XXXIII: The Empyrean, Beatrice, to Dante, about the preachers
thus I prayed; and she, as far off as she seemed, smiled and looked at me; then she turned back to the eternal fountain
Cantos XXIX to XXXIII: The Empyrean, Dante, narrator, at Beatrice's last appearance
the wound that Mary closed and anointed, the one so beautiful at her feet, is she who opened it and pricked it
Cantos XXIX to XXXIII: The Empyrean, Saint Bernard, to Dante, showing Eve in the rose
lady, you are so great and so worthy that whoever seeks grace and does not turn to you wants his desire to fly without wings
Cantos XXIX to XXXIII: The Empyrean, Saint Bernard, in the prayer to the Virgin
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