(Benfell 4). The first movement is , at the age of nine, when he sees and falls in love with the maid, Beatrice . The second movement is, when the power of a maturing love sweeps through him. The third movement is about when, at twenty-seven, he suffers the death of Beatrice, already foretold him in a dream, and dedicates his life to her. The desire to discern the movement of the spirit is unmistakable to serious readers of La Vita Nuova (Twito 3).The second work composed by Dante was La Divina Commedia (originally called just Commedia), and arguably is his best work. It was begun between 1307 and 1314 and was finished just before his death in 1321, and is composed in terza rima. It starts with Dante in a dark wood in which he finds himself in middle age; through the nine circles of the damned in the Inferno and the mountainous wasteland of the Purgatorio, with the poet Virgil as his guide. In Paradisio is his final comprehension of the divine plan of 4 justice aided by his beloved Beatrice. The Divine Comedy is a summary of medieval thought and has been called, an allegorical compendium of the medieval moral and scientific world view in its subtlest form. Virgils influence on the work is a tribute to Italys classical past. The adoption of popular speech and a large cast of very human and contemporary characters helped free Italian literature from its ancient confines. Dante became Italys first national poet with this work (Auerbach 4).La Divina Commedia defines the deterioration of minds and society as infinite. Dante is extremely pessimistic in Inferno, when most of his friends and leaders are being tortured eternally. This pessimistic view comes from being exiled from his beloved Florence. In this and other late work there is a sense of solitude and isolation from a world he no longer understands, or at least refuses to understand or accept (Benfell 7). 1Dantes life spanned the troubled years of the late Middle Age...
