Of Divine Goodness and Created Will
THE Goodness that is InfiniteInfinite love demands again ;It claims the soul, the heart, the brain,All time, all being, for its own.
It asks a patient, faithful love,Enduring through Eternity:A love instinct with highest hopes,Beyond Heaven's utmost mystery:A love embracing everything,And generous in charity,That on the heart's humilityHath built her dwelling and her throne.
Created Will, the will of man,Must with Infinity unite;So, led by grace, this earth-born willShall mount to regions infinite:And in that Heaven of IgnoranceShall dwell in joy and in delight,As iron by the loadstone's might,Drawn into Love, unseen, unknown.
The mind, unlearned and ignorant,Gropes, thinking thus to comprehend,And towards that Heayen, so dark, so strange,Its stubborn steps it will not bend.Yet, beyond utmost injury,Infinity to apprehend,Were deeper wisdom, in the end,Than all the lore the mind hath known.
The mind, unlearned and ignorant,Must swear a steadfast faithfulness,And, sheltered by Omnipotence,A trust unswerving must confess.No help in Reason must it seek—For difficulty and distress ;But it must dwell in HumblenessIn that Abyss o'erwhelmed and prone.
O fresh and healthful Ignorance!Led up to such a lofty place;How marvellous the miracle,That sets so high thy humble face;Thou hast no tongue, no words, to tellThe secret of that country's grace,Senseless and speechless for a spaceIn this fair dwelling art thou grown.
"Most noble and majestic Soul,O tell me, tell me, what you see ? "" I see such Dark, so deep, so blind,That all things, ever, smile on me.My tongue may stammer and may fail,My thought may stark and lifeless be,Yet Faith, that wondrous mystery,Can live in the Adored alone."
" And what the fruits that thou shalt pluckOf this thy vision sweet and fair?""The fruit shall be an ordered life,Redeemed and lovely everywhere.The heart that was impure and vile,More deep than Hell in its despair,Shall be a home for love and prayer,—A mansion for the Three in One."
O heart of mine, if thou be soldTo such a noble Emperor,My love and trust I must bestowOn things created, never more!For of the honour of thy loveNo creature may be heritor,And should they enter at thy door,Thou wert disgraced and overthrown.
O Creatures, if ye now should comeFor my affection clamouring,Go to that Goodness, Whose it is,Who holds it for distributing.He all my being doth possess,I am not lord of anything ;For He may do His pleasuringWith what He bought to be His own.
Ah, I have broken all His laws,Have spent my time in vain, I wis;I have not served Him as my King,'Tis Time's own self that shows me this.O Time, Time, Time! laid waste by sloth!In what an evil, dark abyssHe sinks, who useth thee amiss:—He dreams, he wakes, and thou art flown!
Words in this poem 15
- generous a.
- Of honorable birth or origin; highborn. [F. généreux, fr. L. generous of noble birth, noble, excellent, magnanimous, fr. genus birth, race: cf. It. generoso. See 2d Gender.]
- 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,]
- 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]
- unseen a.
- Not seen or discovered.
- omnipotence n.
- The state of being omnipotent; almighty power; hence, one who is omnipotent; the Deity. [L. omnipotentia: cf.F. omnipotence.]
- humbleness n.
- The quality of being humble; humility; meekness.
- hast
- , 2d pers. sing. pres. of. Fave, contr. of havest.
- speechless a.
- Destitute or deprived of the faculty of speech.
- stark adv.
- Wholly; entirely; absolutely; quite; as, stark mind.
- wondrous adv.
- In a wonderful or surprising manner or degree; wonderfully. [OE. wonders, adv. (later also adj.). See Wonder, n., and cf. -wards.]
- shalt
- 2d per. sing. of Shall.
- mansion n.
- A dwelling place, -- whether a part or whole of a house or other shelter. [OF. mansion, F. maison, fr. L. mansio a staying, remaining, a dwelling, habitation, fr. manere, mansum, to stay, dwell; akin to Gr. Manse, Manor, Menagerie, Men]
- honour n.
- Esteem due or paid to worth; high estimation; respect; consideration; reverence; veneration; manifestation of respect or reverence. [OE. honor, honour, onour, onur, OF. honor, onor, honur, onur, honour, onour, F. honneur, fr. L. honor, honos.]
- heritor n.
- A proprietor or landholder in a parish. [Cf. LL. her, fr. L. heres an heir.]
- flown a.
- Flushed, inflated.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Of Divine Goodness and Created Will is in the public domain. This text is taken from Jacopone da Todi, Poet and Mystic, 1228-1306: A Spiritual Biography, with a Selection from the Spiritual Songs, Internet Archive, the Mrs. Theodore Beck translation; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: Jacopone da Todi, Of Divine Goodness and Created Will, in The Lauds (1919), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/jacopone-lauds/of-divine-goodness-and-created-will.html, id L27112.
Form and metre
Of Divine Goodness and Created Will is 84 lines in 11 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 87%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 -AA- infinite · againA · brainA · own
- 3 -A-A-AA- man · uniteA · will · infiniteA · ignorance · delightA · mightA · unknown
- 4 -A-A-AA- ignorant · comprehendA · strange · bendA · injury · apprehendA · endA · known
- 5 -A-A-AA- ignorant · faithfulnessA · omnipotence · confessA · seek · distressA · humblenessA · prone
- 6 -ABABAA- ignorance · placeA · miracleB · faceA · tellB · graceA · spaceA · grown
- 7 -A-A-A-- soul · seeA · blind · meA · fail · beA · mystery · alone
- 8 -A-A-AA- pluck · fairA · life · everywhereA · vile · despairA · prayerA · one
- 9 ---A--A- sold · emperor · bestow · moreA · love · heritor · doorA · overthrown
- 10 -A-A-AA- come · clamouringA · is · distributingA · possess · anythingA · pleasuringA · own
- 11 -A-A-AA- laws · wisA · king · thisA · sloth · abyssA · amissA · flown
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| THE Goodness that is Infinite | 8 | ·/˘··/˘˘ |
| Infinite love demands again ; | 8 | /˘˘·˘/˘/ |
| It claims the soul, the heart, the brain, | 8 | ········ |
| All time, all being, for its own. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| It asks a patient, faithful love, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Enduring through Eternity: | 8 | ˘/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| A love instinct with highest hopes, | 8 | ··/˘·/˘· |
| Beyond Heaven's utmost mystery: | 9 | ··/˘/·/˘˘ |
| A love embracing everything, | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| And generous in charity, | 8 | ·/˘˘·/˘˘ |
| That on the heart's humility | 8 | ····˘/˘˘ |
| Hath built her dwelling and her throne. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Created Will, the will of man, | 8 | ˘/˘····· |
| Must with Infinity unite; | 8 | ··˘/˘˘/· |
| So, led by grace, this earth-born will | 8 | ········ |
| Shall mount to regions infinite: | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| And in that Heaven of Ignorance | 9 | ···/˘·/˘˘ |
| Shall dwell in joy and in delight, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| As iron by the loadstone's might, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Drawn into Love, unseen, unknown. | 8 | ····˘/˘/ |
| The mind, unlearned and ignorant, | 9 | ··˘/˘·/˘˘ |
| Gropes, thinking thus to comprehend, | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| And towards that Heayen, so dark, so strange, | 8 | ········ |
| Its stubborn steps it will not bend. | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| Yet, beyond utmost injury, | 8 | ···/·/˘˘ |
| Infinity to apprehend, | 8 | ˘/˘˘··˘/ |
| Were deeper wisdom, in the end, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| Than all the lore the mind hath known. | 8 | ········ |
| The mind, unlearned and ignorant, | 9 | ··˘/˘·/˘˘ |
| Must swear a steadfast faithfulness, | 8 | ···/···· |
| And, sheltered by Omnipotence, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| A trust unswerving must confess. | 8 | ··˘/˘·˘/ |
| No help in Reason must it seek— | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| For difficulty and distress ; | 8 | ·/˘·˘·˘/ |
| But it must dwell in Humbleness | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| In that Abyss o'erwhelmed and prone. | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| O fresh and healthful Ignorance! | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| Led up to such a lofty place; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| How marvellous the miracle, | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| That sets so high thy humble face; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Thou hast no tongue, no words, to tell | 8 | ········ |
| The secret of that country's grace, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| Senseless and speechless for a space | 8 | /˘·/˘··· |
| In this fair dwelling art thou grown. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| "Most noble and majestic Soul, | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘· |
| O tell me, tell me, what you see ? " | 8 | ········ |
| " I see such Dark, so deep, so blind, | 8 | ········ |
| That all things, ever, smile on me. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| My tongue may stammer and may fail, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| My thought may stark and lifeless be, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Yet Faith, that wondrous mystery, | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| Can live in the Adored alone." | 8 | ····˘/˘/ |
| " And what the fruits that thou shalt pluck | 8 | ········ |
| Of this thy vision sweet and fair?" | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| "The fruit shall be an ordered life, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Redeemed and lovely everywhere. | 8 | ˘/·/˘/˘· |
| The heart that was impure and vile, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| More deep than Hell in its despair, | 8 | ······˘/ |
| Shall be a home for love and prayer,— | 8 | ········ |
| A mansion for the Three in One." | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| O heart of mine, if thou be sold | 8 | ········ |
| To such a noble Emperor, | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| My love and trust I must bestow | 8 | ······˘/ |
| On things created, never more! | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘· |
| For of the honour of thy love | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| No creature may be heritor, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘˘ |
| And should they enter at thy door, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Thou wert disgraced and overthrown. | 8 | ··˘/··˘/ |
| O Creatures, if ye now should come | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| For my affection clamouring, | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘˘ |
| Go to that Goodness, Whose it is, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Who holds it for distributing. | 8 | ····˘/˘˘ |
| He all my being doth possess, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| I am not lord of anything ; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| For He may do His pleasuring | 8 | ·····/˘˘ |
| With what He bought to be His own. | 8 | ········ |
| Ah, I have broken all His laws, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| Have spent my time in vain, I wis; | 8 | ········ |
| I have not served Him as my King, | 8 | ········ |
| 'Tis Time's own self that shows me this. | 8 | ········ |
| O Time, Time, Time! laid waste by sloth! | 8 | ········ |
| In what an evil, dark abyss | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| He sinks, who useth thee amiss: | 8 | ······˘/ |
| —He dreams, he wakes, and thou art flown! | 8 | ········ |
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