Dante fell in love with Beatrice at first sight when he saw her as a child; then again years later wafting down the streets of Florence. He lived in a tumultuous time when the pope was fighting the emperor, and he fought and took part in politics. He was exiled and married, but he never forgot Beatrice. “Beauty of Her Face” is about longing for her. Courtly love, what we might call chaste and unrequited love, was all the rage in the thirteenth century. Dante took time out from pining for Beatrice and fighting a losing war to write what is considered to be the most magnificent achievement in Italian literature. In The Divine Comedy, Dante is your personal guide through the circles of hell, heaven, and purgatory. Written in Italian rather than in Greek or Latin (as was the custom at that time), it is a breakthrough. As T. S. Eliot said, “Dante and Shakespeare divide the world between them; there is no third.”
For certain he hath seen all perfectness
Who among other ladies hath seen mine:
They that go with her humbly should combine
To thank their God for such peculiar grace.
So perfect is the beauty of her face
That it begets in no wise any sigh
Of envy, but draws round her a clear line
Of love, and blessed faith, and gentleness.
Merely the sight of her makes all things bow:
Not she herself alone is holier
Than all; but hers, through her, are raised above.
From all her acts such lovely graces flow
That truly one may never think of her
Without a passion of exceeding love.