"The Perfect World"
God of lost souls, thou who are lost amongst the gods, hear me:
Gentle Destiny that watchest over us, mad, wandering spirits, hearme:
I dwell in the midst of a perfect race, I the most imperfect.
I, a human chaos, a nebula of confused elements, I move amongstfinished worlds--peoples of complete laws and pure order, whosethoughts are assorted, whose dreams are arranged, and whose visionsare enrolled and registered.
Their virtues, O God, are measured, their sins are weighed, andeven the countless things that pass in the dim twilight of neithersin nor virtue are recorded and catalogued.
Here days and night are divided into seasons of conduct and governedby rules of blameless accuracy.
To eat, to drink, to sleep, to cover one's nudity, and then to beweary in due time.
To work, to play, to sing, to dance, and then to lie still whenthe clock strikes the hour.
To think thus, to feel thus much, and then to cease thinking andfeeling when a certain star rises above yonder horizon.
To rob a neighbour with a smile, to bestow gifts with a gracefulwave of the hand, to praise prudently, to blame cautiously, todestroy a sound with a word, to burn a body with a breath, and thento wash the hands when the day's work is done.
To love according to an established order, to entertain one's bestself in a preconceived manner, to worship the gods becomingly,to intrigue the devils artfully--and then to forget all as thoughmemory were dead.
To fancy with a motive, to contemplate with consideration, to behappy sweetly, to suffer nobly--and then to empty the cup so thattomorrow may fill it again.
All these things, O God, are conceived with forethought, born withdetermination, nursed with exactness, governed by rules, directedby reason, and then slain and buried after a prescribed method.And even their silent graves that lie within the human soul aremarked and numbered.
It is a perfect world, a world of consummate excellence, a world ofsupreme wonders, the ripest fruit in God's garden, the master-thoughtof the universe.
But why should I be here, O God, I a green seed of unfulfilledpassion, a mad tempest that seeketh neither east nor west, abewildered fragment from a burnt planet?
Why am I here, O God of lost souls, thou who art lost amongst the gods?
Words in this poem
- amongst prep.
- Mixed or mingled; surrounded by. [OE. amongist, amonges, amonge, among, AS. onmang, ongemang, gemang, in a crowd or mixture. For the ending -st see Amidst. See Mingle.]
- dwell v. i.
- To delay; to linger. [OE. dwellen, dwelien, to err, linger, AS. dwellan to deceive, hinder, delay, dwelian to err; akin to Icel. dvelja to delay, tarry, Sw. dväljas to dwell, Dan. dv]
- chaos n.
- An empty, immeasurable space; a yawning chasm. [L. chaos chaos (in senses 1 & 2), Gr. Chasm.]
- nebula n.
- A faint, cloudlike, self-luminous mass of matter situated beyond the solar system among the stars. True nebulæ are gaseous; but very distant star clusters often appear like them in the telescope. [L., mist, cloud; akin to Gr. nebel mist, OHG. nebul, D. nevel, Skr. nabhas cloud, mist. Cf. Nebule.]
- assorted a.
- Selected; culled.
- countless a.
- Incapable of being counted; not ascertainable; innumerable.
- nudity n.
- The quality or state of being nude; nakedness. [Cf. F. nudité .]
- yonder adv.
- At a distance, but within view. [OE. yonder, ýonder; cf. OD. ginder, Goth. jaindr there. Yond, adv.]
- neighbour v. i.
- To dwell in the vicinity; to be a neighbor, or in the neighborhood; to be near.
- prudently adv.
- In a prudent manner.
- becomingly adv.
- In a becoming manner.
- contemplate v. t.
- To look at on all sides or in all its bearings; to view or consider with continued attention; to regard with deliberate care; to meditate on; to study. [L. contemplatus, p.p. of contemplari to contemplate; con- + templum a space for observation marked out by the augur. See Temple.]
- tomorrow adv.
- On the day after the present day; on the next day; on the morrow. [Prep. to + morrow.]
- forethought a.
- Thought of, or planned, beforehand; aforethought; prepense; hence, deliberate.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
"The Perfect World" is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Madman: His Parables and Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #5616; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Kahlil Gibran, "The Perfect World", in The Madman: His Parables and Poems (1918), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #5616, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/gibran-madman/the-perfect-world.html, id L27316.
About this section
"The Perfect World" is prose, printed in 16 paragraphs. It is part of the edition and is kept for reading, but nothing here is measured: the line breaks are the printer's, so no metre, rhyme scheme or scansion is stated.
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