Commentary Par II 3

The phrase 'ship that singing makes its way' once again capitalizes on the equation ship = poem (see [Purg I 2]). The word legno as metaphoric expression, the material of construction being referred to as the thing itself, has a classical heritage and a heavy Dantean presence.  While in Purgatorio it appears four times without once having this meaning, in Inferno it had appeared ten times, in fully seven of which it denotes 'ship' or 'boat.'  Now in the last cantica it is used six times, twice (here and in [Par XIII 136]) with the meaning 'ship.'

The self-consciously 'literary' language continues that strain from the first thirty-six verses of the opening canto in less lengthy but similar behavior in the first eighteen of this one.  And see Paola Allegretti (Alle.2004.1) for a consideration of the opening passage of this canto (vv.1-15) as the centerpiece between two other important passages involving ships ([Purg II 10-51] and [Par XXXIII 94-96]), with ample consideration of classical sources, in a revisitation of Curtius's often-cited essay, 'The Ship of the Argonauts' (Curt.1950.1).