>>24849646
Dante does a ton of interesting technical things too, and interesting numerological things, etc. People reading him on translation really don't know what they're missing and I think that one of the main reasons people will rank Milton up with him, whereas I think there is an obvious gap, as great as Milton is (and I say this as someone whose first language is English).
Milton does all sorts of clever things like having Satan speak through chains of self-referential similes, while God never uses similes, some neat numerological introductions (Sin enters on line 666, the fall occurs in line 999 of the respective books). But Dante does this sort of thing at a much greater level of complexity and virtuosity. The way themes reccur at the same point in the ascending spiral arc of the narrative and how the character's movements mimic this is really something else, all the patterns within patterns which of course goes with his theology of creation as theophany.
But I'm also a philosopher by training so this probably biases me because I think Dante is more obviously the most philosophical of all the great poets. And while he is in many areas derivative, he brings his sources to life in a brilliant fusion and I think he is more novel than people give him credit for on politics and history.
