Percy Shelley and Dante Alighieri

I finally found the time to read Percy Bysshe Shelley's unfinished epic poem, "The Triumph of Life." For anyone who has read it, no doubt, he/she has seen the influence of Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy, especially that both poets chose the "terza rima" style of rhyming. How sad that Shelley could never finish his work, that someone found in his deceased body after he drowned in a storm at sea; plus, the poem "ends" with what would have seemed an interesting response.
I wonder why, through Shelley's fictional trip into the mystical forest, he chooses Iris as his guide, as Dante chose the Roman poet, Virgil. Would anyone know? What did you all, who have read it, think of it overall?
Anyway, if anyone desires to read it, I highly recommend it, despite its length.
http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/rpo/d.../poem1912.html

Perhaps because she is the messengers of gods , the one that can fly swift and free between the kingdom of men and the kingdom of gods. She can walk through the underworld without danger, and travel any distance. Perhaps she can be seen as a picture of imagination - the thing that trvales between the higher and the lower realms at lightning speed? But that is my interpretation. She is also, according to some myths the mother of Eros and Pothos (longing). I do not know if that has any significance. I have to read the poem abit more closely.

Your interpretations seems best and to make most sense, Isagel; thank you for replying.
Perhaps I read 'Iris' too literally. While knowing, at least, a little about Greek and Roman mythology, I thought the idea of her seeming a 'seeing being,' with the name Iris, and having the ability to see all, on Earth and Shelley's idea of an underworld.

hello everybody, this is a very interesting subject, do you have some bibliografy to suggest me about this theme? thanks

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Originally Posted by Cassandra Rossi

hello everybody, this is a very interesting subject, do you have some bibliografy to suggest me about this theme? thanks

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This seems to be pretty interesting, though I think this serves as a pretty good introduction to the two.

Oh, and mono: the address of the poem's changed, this is the new link: http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/1912.html