Of the Jubilus of the Heart, That Breaks Forth in the Voice
THOU, Jubilus, the heart dost move;And makst us sing for very love.The Jubilus in fire awakes,And straight the man must sing and pray,His tongue in childish stammering shakes,Nor knows he what his lips may say ;He cannot quench nor hide awayThat Sweetness pure and infinite.
The Jubilus in flame is lit,And straight the man must shout and sing ;So close to Love his heart is knit,He scarce can bear the honeyed sting ;His clamour and his cries must ring,And shame for ever take to flight.
The Jubilus enslaves man's heart,—A love-bewildered prisoner—And see! his neighbours stand apart,And mock the senseless chatterer;They deem his speech a foolish blur,A shadow of his spirit's light.
Yea, when thou enterest the mind,O Jubilus, thou rapture fair,The heart of man new skill doth findLove's own disguise to grasp and wear,The suffering of Love to bear,With song and clamour of delight!
And thus the uninitiateWill deem that thou art crazed indeed;They see thy strange and fevered state,But have not wit thy heart to read;Within, deep-pierced, that heart may bleed,Hidden from curious mortal sight.
Words in this poem
- scarce a.
- Not plentiful or abundant; in small quantity in proportion to the demand; not easily to be procured; rare; uncommon. [OE. scars, OF. escars, eschars, LL. scarpsus, for L. excerptus, p. p. of excerpere to pick out, and hence to contract, to shorten; ex (see Ex-) + carpere. See C]
- honeyed a.
- Covered with honey.
- clamour n.
- A great outcry or vociferation; loud and continued shouting or exclamation. [OF. clamour, clamur, F. clameur, fr. L. clamor, fr. clamare to cry out. See Claim.]
- chatterer n.
- A prater; an idle talker.
- deem v. t.
- To decide; to judge; to sentence; to condemn. [OE. demen to judge, condemn, AS. d, fr. d doom; akin to OFries. d, OS. ad, D. doemen, OHG. tuommen, Icel. dæma, Sw. dömma, Dan. dömme, Goth. d. See Doom, n., an]
- curious a.
- Difficult to please or satisfy; solicitous to be correct; careful; scrupulous; nice; exact. [OF. curios, curius, F. curieux, L. curiosus careful, inquisitive, fr. cura care. See Cure.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
Of the Jubilus of the Heart, That Breaks Forth in the Voice 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 the Jubilus of the Heart, That Breaks Forth in the Voice, in The Lauds (1919), text of Internet Archive, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/jacopone-lauds/of-the-jubilus-of-the-heart-that-breaks-forth-in-the-voice.html, id L27088.
Form and metre
Of the Jubilus of the Heart, That Breaks Forth in the Voice is 32 lines in 5 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 93%).
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 ---A-AA- move · love · awakes · prayA · shakes · sayA · awayA · infinite
- 2 BCBCCD litB · singC · knitB · stingC · ringC · flightD
- 3 E-E--D heartE · prisoner · apartE · chatterer · blur · lightD
- 4 FGFGGD mindF · fairG · findF · wearG · bearG · delightD
- 5 HIH-ID uninitiateH · indeedI · stateH · read · bleedI · sightD
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 |
|---|---|---|
| THOU, Jubilus, the heart dost move; | 8 | ········ |
| And makst us sing for very love. | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The Jubilus in fire awakes, | 8 | ·····/˘/ |
| And straight the man must sing and pray, | 8 | ········ |
| His tongue in childish stammering shakes, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Nor knows he what his lips may say ; | 8 | ········ |
| He cannot quench nor hide away | 8 | ·/˘···˘/ |
| That Sweetness pure and infinite. | 8 | ·/˘··/˘˘ |
| The Jubilus in flame is lit, | 8 | ········ |
| And straight the man must shout and sing ; | 8 | ········ |
| So close to Love his heart is knit, | 8 | ········ |
| He scarce can bear the honeyed sting ; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| His clamour and his cries must ring, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| And shame for ever take to flight. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| The Jubilus enslaves man's heart, | 8 | ····˘/·· |
| —A love-bewildered prisoner— | 8 | ··˘/˘/˘˘ |
| And see! his neighbours stand apart, | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| And mock the senseless chatterer; | 8 | ···/˘/˘˘ |
| They deem his speech a foolish blur, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| A shadow of his spirit's light. | 8 | ·/···/˘· |
| Yea, when thou enterest the mind, | 8 | ···/˘˘·· |
| O Jubilus, thou rapture fair, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The heart of man new skill doth find | 8 | ········ |
| Love's own disguise to grasp and wear, | 8 | ··˘/···· |
| The suffering of Love to bear, | 8 | ·/˘˘···· |
| With song and clamour of delight! | 8 | ···/˘·˘/ |
| And thus the uninitiate | 7 | ······· |
| Will deem that thou art crazed indeed; | 8 | ······˘/ |
| They see thy strange and fevered state, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| But have not wit thy heart to read; | 8 | ········ |
| Within, deep-pierced, that heart may bleed, | 8 | ········ |
| Hidden from curious mortal sight. | 8 | /˘·/˘/˘· |
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