The ghost , a combination of many literary figures , was originally addressed in the poem as " Ser Brunetto " before being revised as an ambiguous " you " . " Ser Brunetto " was Dante 's way of addressing Brunetto Latini , a former mentor whom he meets in Hell to which he has been condemned for sodomy . Eliot , in a letter to John Hayward dated 27 August 1942 , explained why he changed the wording :