Dante’s Inferno is a poem that knows it is a poem. While there are important distinctions between Dante the author, Dante the narrator, and Dante the protagonist, each version of Dante is a poet. Thus, explorations into the nature of poetry—its roles and capacities—are always at hand in Inferno.

From the first canto, the topic of poetic composition spills into the narrative. When the lost Dante encounters Virgil, it is clear that Virgil stands as both Dante’s guide to the underworld and his poetic mentor. In Dante’s first remarks to Virgil, he calls the older poet “my guide and my author” and praises his perfected style. Dante most likely composed his Divine Comedy with Virgil’s Aeneid as a reference and model. From the start, the reality of the poem collides into the reality of the narrative.

Dante intrudes into the narration of Inferno to discuss the nature of poetry. In many cases, he questions his own capacity to render the wild sights of hell into verse. He even questions the limits of language itself. As Dante the narrator remarks at the start of canto 28,

Who could find words, even in the flow of prose,
To speak of the blood and wounds that I now saw,
Even if shaped and told again and again?
No doubt each tongue would fall far short, strained
By our speech and by our mind, which are too narrow
To grasp the range of such monstrosities.

Such interludes invite readers to consider the document in front of them. Dante’s discussions about language and poetry make the events of the narrative appear both more and less real. The events seem more real because Dante cleverly claims that any unbelievable elements are a result of his shortcomings as a poet—or of the shortcomings of language. The events seem less real because readers are made aware of the fact that Inferno is a poem. The artifice of the narrative, with its layers of poetic and linguistic labor, is illuminated. Such illumination does not necessarily detract from the experience, because Dante’s artifice is so exquisite. As limited and artificial as language is, we require it, and Dante is a master of it.