Dante Alighieri, one of the greatest poets of the Middle Ages, was born in Florence, Italy on June 5, 1265. He was born to a middle-class Florentine family. At an early age he began to write poetry and became fascinated with lyrics. During his adolescence, Dante fell inlove with a beautiful girl named Beatrice Portinari. He saw her only twice but she provided much inspiration for his literary masterpieces. Her death at a young age left him …showed first 75 words of 1850 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1850 total…New York: Pantheon Books, 1953 348-379. Maritain, Jacques. "The Three Epiphanies of Creative Institution." Creative Intuition in Art and Poetry. New York: Pantheon Books, 1953 354- 405. Pinsky, Robert. The Inferno of Dante. New York: Harper Collins, 1994. Pound, Ezra. "Dante." The Spirit of Romance. Norfolk: New Directions, 1968 118-165. Tate, Allen. "The Unilateral Imagination; or, I, too, Dislike It." Essays of Four Decades. Denver: The Swallow Press Inc., 1968 447-461. Vittorini, Domenico. The Age of Dante, Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1957.