Something wonderfully simple in these closing lines of Dante’s Purgatory, which open up a new and dazzling vista. You know he will next embark on his journey up and into Paradise.

The cadence is also of someone confidently stepping out into a new phase of life, with anticipation and hope in their step.

In addition to such turning point moments in life, there are those magical spring and summer mornings when you feel that all is new and possible.

‘Through the water spilled

By that spring, I was remade. Forth I fared,

A new plant with new leaves in a new time.

The stars were there, and I was set to climb.’  

Source: Dante,The Divine Comedy (Purgatory, Canto 33), trans. Clive James (New York: Liveright Publishing, 2013), p. 345

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