The theme of swimming through flames is connected to the depiction of Guido Guinizelli , a poet that influenced Dante , seeking such a state in Purgatorio XXVI . However , the depiction of swimming was transformed into an image of dancing , an act that appears throughout Yeats 's poetry , within purgatorial flames . The critic Dominic Manganiello suggests that , in combining the image of dancing with purgation , Eliot merges Dante 's and Yeats 's poetic themes .