Peter S. Hawkins > Quotes

“We turn now to T. S. Eliot," said Mr Varriale, my 11th-grade English teacher, "the most difficult poet in the English language." At the time, none of us could make any sense out of The Waste Land, even with the notes Eliot provided or with those that generations of scholars have added. The most ambitious of us looked up the references, hunted for symbols, started fooling with Tarot cards, repeated "Shantih shantih shantih" - anything that might give a clue to Eliot's meaning. Cynical classmates smirked at our efforts and assured us that the whole thing was a hoax. The "most difficult poet in the English language" had no clothes.”
― Peter S. Hawkins, Dante: A Brief History

“over the centuries Dante has been variously "constructed" - as lover, statesman, neo-Platonist, proto-Protestant, Romantic visionary, Byronic hero, Pre-Raphaelite, father of his country, theologian in verse, precursor of the modern novel, and, finally, altissimo poeta, the consummate poet.”
― Peter S. Hawkins, Dante: A Brief History