“Maybe thou didst not think that I was a logician!”
. . . . .
There is a great deal of symbolism and metaphor in Cantos XXVI and XXVII, perhaps more than anywhere else in Inferno. The language deserves mention: Dante, at this point in the narrative, becomes a better and tighter poet, able to speak in distinctive voices that seem genuine. For example, compare the power of the voice of Ulysses to some of the other stories in the text. Dante's narration of Ulysses' last voyage is some of the best poetry and one of the highlights of the entire Inferno. After hearing the spirit's story, the poets move to the ninth pit, where the Sowers of Discord reside.