Terza Rima In Dante's Inferno

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The construction of Frost’s poem closely resembles the poetic structure of Dante’s Inferno, as well as incorporates physical representations of its content. When writing La Divina Commedia in the 1300’s, Dante invented terza rima, an arrangement of rhyming triplets in iambs. It requires the last word of the second line in each tercet to provide the rhyme for the first and third lines in the next tercet (aba, bcb, cdc). It is likely that Dante’s choice of terza rima symbolizes the Holy Trinity, supporting the religious theme incorporated into the Inferno. Due to Inferno’s success, other poets attempted to employ terza rima in their poetry, such as the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer, who used it in “Complaints to his Lady” written in the 14th