Irony and the "New Life"

In the late thirteenth century, a young Dante Alighieri fell in love. Though he would later be best known as the author of The Divine Comedy, he first wrote an account of the woman he loved (but never really knew) in his verse collection, La Vita Nuova, or The New Life. Though "Beatrice" appears in both books, La Vita Nuova describes the course of Dante's intense love for her, his premonition of her death in a dream, her actual death, and his commitment to eulogizing her life in his writing. Historical accounts claim that Dante's romance from afar with Beatrice and the manner in which he presented his lofty idealism in verse influenced love poetry for centuries to come. The phrase "vita nuova" was used by many Italians in the middle ages to imply a new commitment to love and romance. As "The Mystery...