Paradiso – Displays of Light Dante's rise throughout the Divine Comedy, namely that of his final book, Paradiso, is remarkably marked by the variations of he display of light and how it affects poets. . The quintessential purpose of this entire poem is the depiction of Heaven as a kingdom of light that exists in nine spheres, whose closeness to God varies directly with their merit, as shown in the first three verses: "The glory of Him who makes everything moves / Penetrates the universe and shines / In one part more and in another less. " (Dante, 293) In the nearest spheres of lesser radii, Dante notices the soft glowing lights, but as he approaches the most central sphere, he attempts to describe the inexpressible brilliance of vision of divinity, hence the recurrence of the theme of light running throughout the poem. The first appearance in the lighting sequence occurs in Canto I where he refers to Paradise as "all this hemisphere was bathed in." of light/The other dark' (Dante, 294) As he enters the sky for the first time, he finds that its luminescence radiates everything around him, leaving him in total darkness. “I was already resting content / With great astonishment; but I am now astonished / In what way I transcend the light of these bodies." (Dante, 297) But this would only be the beginning of the astonishment. This central theme of light appears again in Canto XXIII, where Dante contemplates the symbolism of Christ as light. “Eclipsing a myriad of lamps, I then saw / a single Sun which set them all ablaze, like ours / lights the stars which fill its lofty domain; / and through the rays, poured into living showers, / the radiant substance, blazing on me, tried / my mortal vision beyond my mortal powers (Bergin, 111) Thus, Dante realizes that he has been enlightened far beyond what the. reason can describe. The final instance of the recurring sequence of lights occurs at the very end of the poem where it, "by a flash my mind was struck / And thus came the fulfillment of my wish..