Republic of the Philippines
Department of Education
REGION XII – SOCCSKSARGEN
SCHOOLS DIVISION OF SOUTH COTABATO
SILWAY-8 NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL
BRGY. SILWAY-8, POLOMOLOK, SOUTH COTABATO
ENGLISH 10 ACTIVITIES
Quarter 2, Activity 1
Oct. 31, 2023
TASK 1. READ TO ACHIEVE
Read the poem "Inferno' by Dante Alighiere. Then answer the guide questions in a 1
whole sheet of paper.
Guide Questions:
1. Who is speaking in the poem?
2. Why was Dante disallowed to cross the river?
3. Who are the souls tortured in this canto?
4. Describe the punishment given to the "tormented souls".
5. What is Virgil’s advice to Dante as spoken at the Gate of Hell?
6. Who are the souls tortured in this Canto?
7. What is Charon’s reaction to Dante’s attempt to cross the river of Acheron?
8. How does Virgil silence Charon?
Canto III
The vestibule of hell:
The opportunists
The Poets pass the Gate of Hell and are immediately assailed by cries of anguish.
Dante sees the first of the souls in torment. They are The Opportunists, those souls
who in life were neither for good nor evil but only for themselves. Mixed with them
are those outcasts who took no sides in the Rebellion of the Angels.1 They are
neither in Hell nor out of it. Eternally unclassified, they race round and round
pursuing a wavering banner that runs forever before them through the dirty air;
and as they run they are pursued by swarms of wasps and hornets, who sting them
and produce a constant flow of blood and putrid matter which trickles down the
bodies of the sinners and is feasted upon by loathsome worms and maggots who
coat the ground.
The law of Dante’s Hell is the law of symbolic retribution. As they sinned so are
they punished. They took no sides, therefore they are given no place. As they
pursued the ever-shifting illusion of their own advantage, changing their courses
with every changing wind, so they pursue eternally an elusive, ever-shifting banner.
As their sin was a darkness, so they move in darkness. As their own guilty
conscience pursued them, so they are pursued by swarms of wasps and hornets.
And as their actions were a moral filth, so they run eternally through the filth of
worms and maggots which they themselves feed.
Dante recognizes several, among them Pope Celestine V, 2 but without delaying to
speak to any of these souls, the Poets move on to Acheron, 3 the first of the rivers
of Hell. Here the newly arrived souls of the damned gather and wait for monstrous
Republic of the Philippines
Department of Education
REGION XII – SOCCSKSARGEN
SCHOOLS DIVISION OF SOUTH COTABATO
SILWAY-8 NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL
BRGY. SILWAY-8, POLOMOLOK, SOUTH COTABATO
Charon4 to ferry them over to punishment. Charon recognizes Dante as a living
man and angrily refuses him passage. Virgil forces Charon to serve them, but
Dante swoons with terror, and does not reawaken until he is on the other side.
I AM THE WAY INTO THE CITY OF WOE.
I AM THE WAY TO A FORSAKEN PEOPLE.
I AM THE WAY INTO ETERNAL SORROW.
SACRED JUSTICE MOVED MY ARCHITECT.
I WAS RAISED HERE BY DIVINE OMNIPOTENCE,
PRIMORDIAL LOVE AND ULTIMATE INTELLECT.
ONLY THOSE ELEMENTS TIME CANNOT WEAR
WERE MADE BEFORE ME, AND BEYOND TIME I STAND.
ABANDON ALL HOPE YE WHO ENTER HERE.
These mysteries I read cut into stone
Above a gate. And turning I sad: “Master,
What is the meaning of this harsh inscription?”
And he then as initiate to novice:
“Here must you put by all division of spirit
And gather your soul against all cowardice.”
This is the place I told you to expect.
Here you shall pass among the fallen people.
Souls who have lost the good of intellect.”
So saying, he put forth his hand to me,
And with a gentle and encouraging smile
He led me through the gate of mystery.
Here sighs and cries and wails coiled and recoiled
On the starless air, spilling my soul to tears.
A confusion of tongues and monstrous accents toiled
In pain and anger, voices hoarse and shrill
And sounds of blows, all intermingled, raised
Tumult and pandemonium that still
Whirls on the air forever dirty with it
As if a whirlwind sucked at sand. And I,
Holding my head in horror, cried: “Sweet Spirit,
What souls are these who run through this black haze?”
And he to me: “These are the nearly soulless
Whose lives concluded neither blame nor praise.
Republic of the Philippines
Department of Education
REGION XII – SOCCSKSARGEN
SCHOOLS DIVISION OF SOUTH COTABATO
SILWAY-8 NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL
BRGY. SILWAY-8, POLOMOLOK, SOUTH COTABATO
They are mixed here with that despicable corps
Of angels who were neither for God nor Satan,
But only for themselves. The High Creator
Scourged them from Heaven for its perfect beauty,
And Hell will not receive them since the wicked
Might feel some glory over them.” And I:
“Master, what gnaws at them so hideously
Their lamentation stuns the very air?”
“They have no hope of death,” he answered me,
“and in their blind and unattaining state
Their miserable lives have sunk so low
That they must envy every other fate.”
No word of them survives their living season.
Mercy and Justice deny them even a name.
Let us not speak of them: look, and pass on.”
I saw a banner there upon the mist.
Circling and circling, it seemed to scorn all pause.
So it ran on, and still behind it pressed
A never-ending rout of souls in pain.
I had not thought death had undone so many
As passed before me in that mournful train.
And some I knew among them; last of all
I recognized the shadow of that soul
Who, in his cowardice, made the Great Denial.
At once I understood for certain: these
Were of that retrograde and faithless crew
Hateful to God and to His enemies.
These wretches never born and never dear
Ran naked in a swarm of wasps and hornets
That goaded them the more the more they fled,
And made their faces stream with bloody gouts
Of pus and tears that dribbled to their feet
To be swallowed there by loathsome worms and maggots.
Then looking onward I made out a throng
Assembled on the beach of a wide river,
Whereupon I turned to him: “Master, I long
Republic of the Philippines
Department of Education
REGION XII – SOCCSKSARGEN
SCHOOLS DIVISION OF SOUTH COTABATO
SILWAY-8 NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL
BRGY. SILWAY-8, POLOMOLOK, SOUTH COTABATO
To know what souls these are, and what strange usage
Makes them as eager to cross as they seem to be
In this infected light.” At which the Sage:
“All this shall be made known to you when we stand
On the joyless beach of Acheron.” And I
Cast down my eyes, sensing a reprimand
In what he said, and so walked at his side
In silence and ashamed until we came
Through the dead cavern to that sunless tide.
There, steering us in an ancient ferry
Came an old man with a white bush of hair,
Bellowing: “Woe to you depraved souls! Bury
Here and forever all hope of Paradise:
I come to lead you to the other shore,
Into eternal dark, into fire and ice.
And you who are living yet, I say begone
From these who are dead.” But when he saw me stand
Against his violence he began again:
“By other windings and other steerage
Shall you cross to that other shore. Not here! Not here!
A lighter craft than mine must give passage.”
And my Guide to him: “Charon, bite back your spleen:
This has been willed where what is willed must be,
And is not yours to ask what it may mean.”
The steersman of that marsh of ruined souls,
Who wore a wheel of flame around each eye,
Stifled the rage that shook his woolly jowls.
But those unmanned and naked spirits there
Turned pale with fear and their teeth began to chatter
At sound of his crude bellow. In despair
They blasphemed God, their parents, their time on earth,
The race of Adam, and the day and the hour
And the place and the seed and the womb that gave them birth.
But all together they drew to that grim shore
Where all must come who lose the fear of God.
Weeping and cursing they come for evermore,
And demon Charon with eyes like burning coals
Herds them on, and with the whistling oar
Republic of the Philippines
Department of Education
REGION XII – SOCCSKSARGEN
SCHOOLS DIVISION OF SOUTH COTABATO
SILWAY-8 NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL
BRGY. SILWAY-8, POLOMOLOK, SOUTH COTABATO
Flails on the stragglers to his wake of souls.
As leaves in autumn loosen and stream down
Until the branch stands bare above its tatters
Spread on the rustling ground, so one by one
The evil seed of Adam in its Fall
Cast themselves, at his signal, from the shore
And streamed away like birds who hear their call.
So they are gone over that shadowy water,
And always before they reach the other shore
A new noise stirs on this, and new throngs gather.
“My son,” the courteous Master said to me,
“all who die in the shadow of God’s wrath
Converge to this from every clime and country.
And all pass over eagerly, for here
Divine Justice transforms and spurs them so
Their dread turns wish: they yearn for what they fear.
No soul in Grace comes ever to this crossing;
Therefore if Charon rages at your presence
You will understand the reason for his cursing.”
When he had spoken, all the twilight country
Shook so violently, the terror of it
Bathes me with sweat even in memory:
The tear-soaked ground gave out a sigh of wind
That spewed itself in flame on a red sky,
And all my shattered senses left me. Blind,
Like one whom sleep comes over in a swoon,
I stumbled into darkness and went down.
Quarter 2, Activity 2
November 3, 2023
TASK 3. DANTE'S DESCRIPTION OF HELL
In Canto III, Dante begins his description of Hell, which becomes an
assault on the senses of the readers. As we read his harrowing descriptions
of the sounds, sights and even smells of Hell, we come to share in Dante's
repugnance of the horrible experience the poet encounters.
List the details from the Canto for each sense in its proper column.
Answer in a 1 whole sheet of paper together with Activity 1.
Republic of the Philippines
Department of Education
REGION XII – SOCCSKSARGEN
SCHOOLS DIVISION OF SOUTH COTABATO
SILWAY-8 NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL
BRGY. SILWAY-8, POLOMOLOK, SOUTH COTABATO
Canto III
The Vestibule of Hell
Eye Ear Hand Lip Nose
