in Anne Fadiman's Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Readerhi, D she uses Dante's concept of the sempiternal rose as follows:

"It would take an epic...to do justice to the tools purveyed by the Sempiternal Rose of mail order, the 1902 Sears, Roebuck catalogue"

i'm not sure i understand her meaning here; Paradiso's offering of the Mystic Rose as the clustering of souls around the Deity, with those closest being the brightest and nearest in the quality of love, doesn't seem to translate well for me.

does anyone use this metaphor, and if so could you please share another example of its usage?