Like a Medieval Journeyman with His Poem in His Hand

Dante’s Presence in Charles Wright’s Poetry

Abstract

Charles Wright is one of the contemporary American poets who have most profoundly absorbed Dante’s Commedia into their work. This paper places Wright’s  interest in Dante in context, focusing on Purgatorio as the canticle he relates to most in his poetry, and the book closest to his own poetics. Examples taken from various texts support this reading of Wright’s relationship with the medieval Florentine poet.