An Analysis of the Opening of Canto XXVIII

Dante begins the opening of Canto XXVIII with a rhetorical question. Virgil and he have just arrived in the Ninth Abyss of the Eighth Circle of hell. In this pouch the Sowers of Discord and Schism are continually wounded by a demon with a sword. Dante poses a question to the reader:
Who, even with untrammeled words and many
attempts at telling, ever could recount
in full the blood and wounds that I now saw? (Lines 1-3)
The rhetorical question draws the reader into the passage because we know by this point in the Divine Comedy that Dante is a great poet. What is it that Dante sees before…