An imagined conversation with Dante Alighieri written in response to
the 700th anniversary of Dante’s death by fellow Catholic poet, lover
and master of the sonnet, Angela Alaimo O’Donnell.
In the
summer of 2021, Angela Alaimo O’Donnell honored the 700th anniversary of
Dante’s death, by embarking on a three-month pilgrimage through the 100
cantos of The Divine Comedy, reading one canto per day. This new
collection, Dear Dante, is her response to Dante's epic poem: 39 poems
(13 for each of the 3 canticles), plus an additional 3 to serve as
prologue and epilogue, all written in the poetic forms Dante loved best:
the sonnet and the form he invented, terza rima.
In
O’Donnell’s words: “Dear Dante is a species of accompaniment, an act of
homage, and a long love letter to Dante. It might also be read as a
series of meditations that attest to how dear Dante is to us. The
Commedia is our inheritance, a gift granted to readers by our brother
poet 700 years ago. These poems are an admittedly small expression of
gratitude for that grand and graced gift. Grazie Mille, Maestro.”