Commentary Purg XV 82-84 |
Dante's failure to respond to Virgil here perhaps prepares us for his more dramatic inability to communicate with his guide at the sudden appearance of Beatrice ([Purg XXX 43-51]). It also has the effect of underlining the totally present and commanding nature of what he experiences in his raptus: there is nothing else that can hold his attention.
We now probably expect, on the basis of the experience we have had of the first two terraces, a description of the terrace upon which the travelers have just set foot ([Purg X 20-33], [Purg XIII 1-9]). Its suppression here is obviously deliberate (we will find it, postponed as it is, only at [Purg XV 139-145], whence it continues into the next canto). In this way the poet underlines the heightened importance of the visionary experience granted to the protagonist on this terrace.