"La Battaglia de' Debili Cigli": Mending the Eyes in Dante's <em>Commedia </em>and George Herbert's <em>The Temple</em>

<p> This thesis shows how the use of visual perception adumbrates spiritual realities in Dante’s <i>Commedia </i>and George Herbert’s <i>The Temple</i>. It explores both poets’ presentation of “la battaglia de’ debili cigli”— the battle of the weak eyelashes, in which human vision is strengthened in order to perceive divine revelation and love (<i>Paradiso </i>23, 78). It suggests, first, that Dante’s sensory responses to the Church Triumphant and the Christic Sun imitate the Church Militant’s participation in the Eucharistic feast.<b> </b>It then addresses Herbert’s emphasis on how God “mends” human eyes (“The H. Scriptures” (I), 9)<i>. </i>It suggests that “The Windows” upends Aristotelian hierarchies of color and light to help us see preaching in a new way. It then traces vision-centered metaphors in “The Glimpse” and “The Glance” and counters a critical perception that the abstraction of sensory images in <i>The Temple</i> constitutes a mock physicality. <br></p>