1. Allusion

    Burnt Norton III · Line 3 · In a dim light

    The Underground’s dim light is defined by what it is not: neither the daylight that gives things clear form, nor the darkness that could purify the soul. Readers have compared the passengers to the souls in the vestibule of Dante’s Inferno (canto III), who lived without either blame or praise and belong neither to heaven nor to hell. It is the in-between state, not evil but empty, that the poem finds most desolate.

    Interpretive Light & dark

    Sources Dante Alighieri (locator to be verified) (Inferno III)

    See also The Underground Descend lower: the dark night

Read in context

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