On Beauty
And a poet said, Speak to us ofBeauty.
And he answered:
Where shall you seek beauty, and howshall you find her unless she herself beyour way and your guide?
And how shall you speak of her exceptshe be the weaver of your speech?
The aggrieved and the injured say,“Beauty is kind and gentle.
Like a young mother half-shy of her ownglory she walks among us.”
And the passionate say, “Nay, beauty isa thing of might and dread.
Like the tempest she shakes the earthbeneath us and the sky above us.”
The tired and the weary say, “Beauty isof soft whisperings. She speaks in ourspirit.
Her voice yields to oursilences like a faint light that quiversin fear of the shadow.”
But the restless say, “We have heard hershouting among the mountains,
And with her cries came the sound ofhoofs, and the beating of wings and theroaring of lions.”
At night the watchmen of the city say,“Beauty shall rise with the dawn fromthe east.”
And at noontide the toilers and thewayfarers say, “We have seen her leaningover the earth from the windows of thesunset.”
In winter say the snow-bound, “She shallcome with the spring leaping upon thehills.”
And in the summer heat the reaperssay, “We have seen her dancing with theautumn leaves, and we saw a drift ofsnow in her hair.”
All these things have you said of beauty,
Yet in truth you spoke not of her but ofneeds unsatisfied,
And beauty is not a need but an ecstasy.
It is not a mouth thirsting nor an emptyhand stretched forth,
But rather a heart enflamed and a soulenchanted.
It is not the image you would see northe song you would hear,
But rather an image you see though youclose your eyes and a song you hearthough you shut your ears.
It is not the sap within the furrowedbark, nor a wing attached to a claw,
But rather a garden for ever in bloomand a flock of angels for ever inflight.
People of Orphalese, beauty is life whenlife unveils her holy face.
But you are life and you are the veil.
Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror.
But you are eternity and you are themirror.
Words in this poem
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- noontide n.
- The time of noon; midday. [From noon + tide time; cf. AS. n the ninth hour.]
- spoke n.
- The radius or ray of a wheel; one of the small bars which are inserted in the hub, or nave, and which serve to support the rim or felly. [OE. spoke, spake, AS, spaca; akin to D. speek, LG. speke, OHG. speihha, G. speiche. sq. root170. Cf. Spike a nail.]
- needs adv.
- Of necessity; necessarily; indispensably; -- often with must, and equivalent to of need. [Orig. gen. of need, used as an adverb. Cf. - wards.]
- enchanted a.
- Under the power of enchantment; possessed or exercised by enchanters; as, an enchanted castle.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
On Beauty is in the public domain. This text is taken from The Prophet, Project Gutenberg ebook #58585; 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, On Beauty, in The Prophet (1923), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #58585, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/gibran-prophet/on-beauty.html, id L27278.
About this section
On Beauty is prose, printed in 29 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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