How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Section.Page)
Quote #10
In one pit were the poets. Selfish phantoms with eyes/who wrote with them only, saw only surfaces/in nature and men, and smiled at their similes,/condemned in their pit to weep at their own pages./And that was where I had come from. Pride in my craft./Elevating myself. (LVIII.iii.293)
The selfishness of these false poets is defined by a life of self-centeredness and ambition. The narrator has the benefit of a trip to the Underworld to open his eyes to this fault and will seek to remedy it by developing "inner eyes" that see truths beyond the physical world.