Followers of Maria Montessori become accustomed to the oft-repeated stories that drive home a point, but here is a new treasure. This lecture tells of an experiment that Montessori began with 12- to 14-year-old children and then with 10-year-olds. When the poetry of Dante was introduced to these students, they became passionate and grew to love the "Divine Comedy." Montessori showed the students that the verses were written in threes and that each line of poetry contained eleven syllables. This linguistic understanding led to analysis and exploration using dictation, circles to mark the syllables, and ultimately to the memorization of entire cantos and performances. In this lecture, Montessori inspires us to experiment, to reach for the best, and to challenge students. The Dante experiment embraced philosophy, history, theology, and poetry and deeply touched the emotions of the children. [This article originally appeared in "Communications" volume 1-2, pages 33- 38, 2012.]