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Consideration in Friendship
In The Inferno Canto Twenty-Nine,
When Dante pauses, looks with longing for
His uncle’s son amid the suffering line
Of falsifiers—Virgil, growing sore,
Asks brusquely if he means to count them all,
To which Dante responds he merely sought
His kin, and hopes Virgil will let him stall
A moment now he knows his pupil’s thought.
Just as, when in the Wind and Willows, those
Two woodland friends are scurrying towards home,
And, as with an electric shock, Mole’s nose
Detects the scent of long forsaken loam.
He stands stock-still till Rattie gently scolds
And breaks his reverie. And when he’s caught
Up Mole bemoans his former home and holds
That Rattie might have given him more thought.
So Virgil, to console his friend, explains
That he’d seen Dante’s cousin with his fist
Upraised at them and that he’d taken pains
To save Dante the grief of angry grist—
While Rattie, made aware of Mole’s lament,
Returns with him to find the longed-for hole,
Cleans house and fills Mole’s larder with intent
To overflow the rim of friendship’s bowl.
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Jeremiah Johnson got his MA in Rhetoric in 2003 and then ran off to China to teach for a decade. His work has appeared in the Sequoyah and Ekphrastic Reviews. He is also currently a teacher of English Composition and World Literature at the University of North Georgia. He lives in Cumming, GA.
I have to be impressed by this: it is one of the most unlikely collocations of books/experiences/topic that I have ever encountered! Who’d have thunk it? Mole and Inferno 29? I like the tight form and almost casual style too. Well done.
Thanks James! The Wind in the Willows has always been one of my favorite books. Personally, I think it’s hard to find a better example of masculine friendship outside of a war story than that between Rattie and Mole. They’re the kind of guys I would like to have my back! Regarding the casual style – I read a rough draft to a monthly poetry group and someone asked me if it was a prose poem 🙂
“To overflow the rim of friendship’s bowl.” What a lovely line, and what a beautiful intent for a good friend to have! The collocation of referenced incidents is remarkable, but precise in that both friends do their best to help affected companions. There is very much to consider about difference of the situations, which is the strength of your comparison, Jeremiah. In hell, there is no hope for the cousin Dante tries to see, and Virgil can only spare Dante a momentary gesture of hostility. How terrible it is to consider the prospect of someone who may have been dear in this world, but may now be in hell. All the greater does the practical charity of one fictional animal to another seem. And there is more left out entirely, namely, the thought of spiritual assistance one friend can supply another. It may start, at least, with friendly animal-level acts like what Rattie does here. Well done, Jeremiah, to put the two stories together and explain as much as you can, as clearly as you do.
Margaret, thanks for those insights! Yes, the contrast between the settings is great. I find my brain often latches on to such collocations – with varying degrees of success. That’s a very good point about the spiritual assistance we can provide each other – and there are other places in The Wind and Willows where Rattie and Mole, in my opinion, actually give something that approximates spiritual assistance. It’s a very interesting book!
On a side note, I though I would mention an interesting interpretation I came across when sharing this poem with two poetry groups I attend. A few people felt that Dante’s and Virgil’s relationship is a lesser picture of friendship – because Virgil decides for Dante without letting Dante make up his own mind. Whereas Rattie goes along with Mole’s wish, making him the better friend. In hindsight, it seemed to me that this interpretation was a modern, individualistic one. Dante had a classical mindset which saw the first order of business, not as wish fulfillment, but as making right choices for those in one’s care. Of course, Virgil is Dante’s guide and not simply his friend.
I, too, think it is brilliant to pair up The Divine Comedy with The Wind in the Willows! It’s a fascinating comparison. In the first two verses, you’ve described each scene vividly, leading the reader to anticipate what the last verse does, which is to shed light on the conclusions of the scenes and showing even more clearly how they reflect one another.
Thanks Cynthia! I’m glad you enjoyed it and that you think the comparison works. Again, I constantly draw such connections and they’re usually half-baked 🙂