The Divine Comedy describes Dante's journey through Hell (Inferno) Purgatory (Purgatorio) and Paradise (Paradiso) guided first by the Roman poet Virgil and then by Beatrice the subject of his love and of another of his works La Vita Nuova. While the vision of Hell the Inferno is vivid for modern readers the theological niceties presented in the other books require a certain amount of patience and knowledge to appreciate. Purgatorio the most lyrical and human of the three also has the most poets in it; Paradiso the most heavily theological has the most beautiful and ecstatic mystic passages in which Dante tries to describe what he confesses he is unable to convey (e.g. when Dante looks into the face of God: "all'alta fantasia qui mancò possa" "at this high moment ability failed my capacity to describe" Paradiso XXXIII 142).

His glory by whose might all things are mov'd
Pierces the universe and in one part
Sheds more resplendence elsewhere less.
In heav'n
That largeliest of his light partakes was I
Witness of things which to relate again
Surpasseth power of him who comes from thence; For that so near approaching its desire
Our intellect is to such depth absorb'd
That memory cannot follow.
Nathless all
That in my thoughts I of that sacred realm
Could store shall now be matter of my song.