SOURCE: "The Symmetrical Structure of Dante's Vita Nuova," in PMLA, Vol. XVIII, No. 3, 1903, pp. 341-55.

In this essay, McKenzie reviews the critical debate about the symmetrical arrangement of the lyrics of the Vita Nuova and argues that Dante's arrangement throws light on the process of composition.

At the beginning of the Vita Nuova Dante tells us that he proposes to copy into the little book words which he finds written in the book of his memory under the rubric Incipit Vita Nova; thus he brought together lyrics that he had already written, and connected them by a narrative and analysis in prose. The Vita Nuova belongs, then, to the class of writings made up of alternating prose and verse. As in the case of the Convivio, this method of composition was perfectly natural under the circumstances; Dante doubtless intended to do for his own early poems what had...