A pale sandy path curves around dark rocks and disappears into soft gray mist.

Original artwork, not a still

The Divine Comedy

Dante Alighieri

When I had journeyed half of our life’s way, I found myself within a shadowed forest, for I had lost the path that does not stray.

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

Halfway through life, the speaker discovers that the right path has been lost. A shadowed forest gives that uncertainty a place and a shape. The journey becomes more than movement through a landscape: it suggests a life whose direction is no longer clear.

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