Virgil has finished his second, clarifying discourse on love, but it hasn't done the trick. The pilgrim Dante is even more full of doubts . . . pregnant with them, in fact.

Let's look at the pilgrim's second question to Virgil's discourse on love and talk about the complex ways Beatrice and even physical desire operate in the poem.

I'm Mark Scarbrough. Thanks for coming on the journey with me.

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

[02:19] My English translation of the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, lines 40 - 48. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me, please find this episode on my website, markscarbrough.com.

[03:47] To understand Dante's concept of love, void the Renaissance and Romanticism out of your thinking.

[09:48] An impregnated pilgrim brings up the sexual basis of desire (or love).

[12:50] The pilgrim asks a crucial question for any religion: How am I responsible?

[15:22] The allegory of Virgil and Beatrice comes close, even while Beatrice remains a physical draw for desire.

[19:01] Rereading the passage: PURGATORIO, Canto XVIII, lines 40 - 48.