A
metaphor re:
life used by
Dante in his
Inferno. See
Canto I. Related to all the
trials and
tribulations of
life, it's
passions,
fears--also the state of
Florence with the
factions
Guelf and
Ghibelline.
See also Dante's Convito, IV. 25, where he says, "Thus the adolescent, who enters into the erroneous forest of this life, would not know how to keep the right way if he were not guided by his elders." Or Spenser, in his Faerie Queene, IV. ii. 45: "Seeking adventures in the salvage wood."
An Inferno note.