Dante Alighieri is widely considered to be one of the greatest poets ever to have lived. He grew up in Florence, Italy, in the late thirteenth century. While his lyric poetry earned him some fame as a young man, he also served the city as a soldier and politician. In 1301, his political adversaries took control of Florence and exiled him along with other leaders of his party. Cut off from his family and material holdings, Dante was forced to wander Italy, surviving at the mercy of gracious benefactors. It was during this most difficult trial of his life that he began writing his masterpiece, the Divine Comedy. In his final years, he settled in Ravenna, where he was reunited with his children. In 1321, not long after completing the final lines of his great epic poem, he died. To this day, his body has never returned to Florence, the beloved city of his birth that cast him away.
