We've had two dreams in PURGATORIO, one at Canto IX and one at Canto XIX (although it actually started in the last line of Canto XVIII).

Let's take a moment to compare and contrast these two dreams. What can they tell us about the changing nature of PURGATORIO, especially given my thesis that this is a poem in process, one in which the poet is learning how to write the poem as he moves forward?

Here are the segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:21] A reading of the first two dreams in PURGATORIO: Canto IX, lines 13 - 42; and Canto XIX, lines 1 - 13.

[05:11] Both dreams occur near dawn, startle the pilgrim awake, and rob the pilgrim of his free will.

[08:40] Both dreams are about (different versions) of the future.

[12:14] Both dreams have problems about who saves the pilgrim: the terrifying eagle or Virgil?

[14:20] Both dreams are full of classical imagery (with important differences in the placement of that imagery).

[16:15] Both dreams have songs: the first, outside the dream; the second, inside it.

[17:35] There are two characters in the first dream, four character in the second--allowing for a larger interpretive space in the second dream.