Beata Beatrix

Of all the sonnets, the fourth sonnet is most specific to a scene in the Divine Comedy. This sonnet describes Dante’s meeting with Beatrice, at the climax of Purgatory. In the third sonnet, Dante watched the other sinners ascend the mount of Purgatory and confess their sins. Now it is time for Dante to internalize his lessons and confess his own sins.

Like the other sonnets, the distinction between the octave and the sestet is significant. The octave depicts Beatrice in all her heavenly glory, calling Dante to confession. She reminds him of his sins, and Dante weeps in anguish. In the sestet, Dante repents and receives pardon for his sins. Now that the burden of sin has been lifted, he is free to ascend with Beatrice to the heights of heaven.

Unlike the other sonnets, this sonnet contains four notable pairs of concepts: the veil and flame, the passion and woe, Lethe and Eunoe, and pardon and peace.

The first pair is fond in line 1: “With snow-white veil and garments as of flame.” This description of Beatrice as she stands before Dante is taken directly from the Comedy. John Ciardi notes that Beatrice’s garments symbolize the three theological virtues: faith is white, hope is green, and love is red (Ciardi 552). It is Beatrice’s faith and love that cause her to rebuke Dante, and faith and love allow Dante to confess his sins.

Next comes the “passion and the woe” of the young poet Dante (IV.3). Dante is Longfellow’s Virgil in these sonnets (cf. III.2), and Longfellow is taking a typically Dantean digression to praise his master. Longfellow also praised Dante’s passion and woe earlier in the second sonnet: “What passionate outcry of a soul in pain, / Uprose this poem of the earth and air, / This mediæval miracle of song!” (II.12-14) Dante’s love for God and his grief over sin led him to produce his masterpiece.

In line 12, Longfellow refers to the mythical streams Lethe and Eunoe. Lethe caused forgetfulness in Greek mythology, and the souls who went to Hades drank from it to forget their former lives. In Canto XXXI, Matilda plunges Dante into Lethe so that his sins are remembered no more (“the forgotten sorrow”, IV.13). Eunoe, a river of Dante’s own invention, increases his love for the good – “the remembered dream” (IV.12).

Finally, Dante gains “That perfect pardon which is perfect peace” (IV.14). As in the last lines of the third sonnet, God’s forgiveness of sins is announced. This is a fitting close to Purgatory – Dante is now inside the church, with the redeemed, and can raise his eyes to heaven. Now that the peccata have been erased, the light of heaven dawns on his lifted forehead (IV.11). Since his sins are no longer remembered or counted against him, Dante is able to love freely and to rise to the stars.


* The painting is Beata Beatrix by Dante Gabriel Rossetti.