The Divine ComedyWhen Michael Palma's translation of the Inferno appeared in 2002, it defied the conventional wisdom of literary commentators who had long argued that Dante's intricate terza rima form simply could not be rendered in "rhyme poor" English. But Palma's achievement in rhyming tercets was quickly received as a spectacular feat of poetic artistry that was "accurate admirably clear, and readable" (Richard Wilbur) and that, "in capturing the sense, sound, and