John Kinsella explains 'Purgatorio: Up Close' in the following way: 'The cantos themselves work in small and larger chunks; some of the sub-sections have particular lengths. All are in the traditional three-line stanzas, though I have generally not used terza rima. Some catnos repsond to particular lines of correlating cantos but, allowing for slippage (literally and figuratively), some of the orders of penance shift around or mix. Basically, however, the structure remains loyal - at least on the sub-textual level. The poem is meant to be paralleled with and read against Dante's structure.' ('Purgatorio: Up Close', Griffith Review 14 (2006): 178)

Kinsella's interpretation of Dante's 'Purgatorio' section of The Divine Comedy resulted from spending 'a considerable period of time back in the wheatbelt region of Western Australia'. ('Purgatorio: Up Close', Griffith Review 14 (2006): 175)