Louise Cowan, in her introduction to The Terrain of Comedy, speaks about the four parts of the poetic universe as defined by Aristotle: lyric, tragedy, comedy and epic. Louise argues that the whole of redemption fits into these fours elements of poetry. Lyric is the realm of love, the “place of origins and sources…symbolized by the garden.” Lyric represents both the pre-Fall condition of man and the redemptive state. Tragedy is the loss of the garden; comedy is man enduring in the fallen world. Epic, however, restores man to his pre-Fall state. The epic “struggles to build or cleanse,” attempting to complete the journey to the new Eden, one which is “redeemed and made new.” Dante projects his redemptive journey in the Divine Comedy upon the conversation between Statius and Virgil. In Statius and Virgil’s conversation, Dante reveals the necessity of epic, its shortcomings, and lyrics role in redemption. The epic is the journey to redemption and Love lyric is the end. Dante, throughout the divine comedy, reveals the epic struggle. Virgil, the epic poet, does what the saint cannot, …show more content…
Dante shows this through Statius’ words that “the fault that runs / directly counter to a sin / is here grouped with it and is withered of its green” (XXII 49-51). What Dante reveals is that what seemed attractive and sinless in life is actually sinful. Thus if both the sin and its polar opposite lead to damnation, then salvation demands temperance. Dante implies this with the example of temperance before man’s fall. “The first age was as beautiful as gold. / its acorns were made savory by hunger / and thirst made nectar flow in every brook” 148-50. Temperance made the first age beautiful, ruling the soul before sin entered the world and therefore redemption requires temperance. As the epic poet leads the soul to temperance, that temperance purifies the soul, preparing it for redemption through love