Inferno 8.5

[TranquillityBase]

He is Mr. Smallsoul
so-called because his sins
were hardly sins at all
but he lived long enough,
to deny a wizard in the sky.
In his case, suffering did 
not enlarge the soul,
it shrunk it. 

He spied a circle that Dante missed
past the panderers and seducers
but not as far down as the flatterers,
still, almost as far as Hell will go.

In August’s sapping heat
always trapped in highway traffic
those of us whose souls have shrunk,
neglected, an unwanted dog
that shrinks away from all stimuli.

There are two of us, driver and passenger
each uneasy with the other, our anxieties intertwined
pressing into the backrests like hunchbacks
we stop and go on an expressway with no exits
bladder weak, “need gas” light on,
but better than the alternatives this deep.
We hear the cries of the damned,
but don’t join in.  It’s a quiet kind of suffering.

Small hells for small souls he supposed,
but his road had been long
long before Hell got hold.

[dukealien]

Sounds like a candidate for Heck, demons with their pitchspoons sort of torturing almost forever... [h.t. Dilbert]

[busker]

In August’s sapping heat
always trapped in highway traffic
those of us whose souls have shrunk,
neglected, an unwanted dog
that shrinks away from all stimuli.

There are two of us, driver and passenger
each uneasy with the other, 
our anxieties intertwined,
pressing into the backrests like hunchbacks.

this part I found to be Yeatsian, Eliotian, whatever you want to call it. It's fantastic poetry. The rest of the poem didn't quite match the quality of this middle part, IMO. But I think a poem with a shorter beginning and end, and this middle part as the core, would be worthwhile considering.

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On another note, it's interesting how a 12th century vision of hell, uninformed by even a fraction of the knowledge that we possess today, continues to inspire. I suppose, in the end, we are all in our individual dark woods, still looking for the straight path. And it's not the straight path of the Al-Fatiha, which predates the Commedia by a few hundred years.

[TranquillityBase]

this part I found to be Yeatsian, Eliotian, whatever you want to call it. It's fantastic poetry. The rest of the poem didn't quite match the quality of this middle part, IMO. But I think a poem with a shorter beginning and end, and this middle part as the core, would be worthwhile considering.

---

On another note, it's interesting how a 12th century vision of hell, uninformed by even a fraction of the knowledge that we possess today, continues to inspire. I suppose, in the end, we are all in our individual dark woods, still looking for the straight path. And it's not the straight path of the Al-Fatiha, which predates the Commedia by a few hundred years.

Thanks Busker.  I will ponder the fragment you've pointed out.

I've now educated myself on the Islamic vision of Hell.  Very interesting parallels.  Thanks for the tip.