The Sonnets Of Tommaso Campanella - The Universe.

Il mondo è un animal.


The world's a living creature, whole and great,
        God's image, praising God whose type it is;
        We are imperfect worms, vile families,
        That in its belly have our low estate.
If we know not its love, its intellect,
        Neither the worm within my belly seeks
        To know me, but his petty mischief wreaks:--
        Thus it behoves us to be circumspect.
Again, the earth is a great animal,
        Within the greatest; we are like the lice
        Upon its body, doing harm as they.
Proud men, lift up your eyes; on you I call:
        Measure each being's worth; and thence be wise;
        Learning what part in the great scheme you play!

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born on March 6, 1475, he is widely considered one of the greatest artists of all time. His poetry, although lesser-known compared to his other artistic achievements, displays his deep contemplation of art, love, and spirituality. Michelangelo passed away on February 18, 1564.

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni

A Prayer For Strength.

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, Simple Poetry

The Sonnets Of Tommaso Campanella - To God On Prayer.

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, Simple Poetry

The Sonnets Of Tommaso Campanella - To Death.

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, Simple Poetry

Heaven-Born Beauty. First Reading.

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, Simple Poetry

English

Suggested Poems

Explore a curated selection of verses that share themes, styles, and emotional resonance with the poem you've just read.

The Sonnets Of Tommaso Campanella - The Book Of Nature.

Il mondo è il libro.


The world's the book where the eternal Sense
        Wrote his own thoughts; the living temple where,
        Painting his very self, with figures fair
        He filled the whole immense circumference.
Here then should each man read, and gazing find
        Both how to live and govern, and beware
        Of godlessness; and, seeing God all-where,
        Be bold to grasp the universal mind.
But we tied down to books and temples dead,
        Copied with countless errors from the life,--
        These nobler than that school sublime we call.
O may our senseless souls at length be led
        To truth by pain, grief, anguish, trouble, strife!
        Turn we to read the one original!

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni

The Sonnets Of Tommaso Campanella - An Exhortation To Mankind.

Abitator del mondo.


Ye dwellers on this world, to the first Mind
        Exalt your eyes; and ye shall see how low
        Vile Tyranny, wearing the glorious show
        Of nobleness and worth, keeps you confined.
Then look at proud Hypocrisy, entwined
        With lies and snares, who once taught men to know
        The fear of God. Next to the Sophists go,
        Traitors to thought and reason, jugglers blind.
Keen Socrates to quell the Sophists came:
        To quell the Tyrants, Cato just and rough:
        To quell the Hypocrites, Christ, heaven's own flame.
But to unmask fraud, sacrilege, and lies,
        Or boldly rush on death, is not enough;
        Unless we all taste God, made inly wise.

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni

The Sonnets Of Tommaso Campanella - Earthly And Divine Love.

Se Dio ci dà la vita.


God gives us life, and God our life preserves;
        Nay, all our happiness on Him doth rest:
        Why then should love of God inflame man's breast
        Less than his lady and the lord he serves?
Through mean and wanton ignorance he swerves,
        And worships a false Good, divinely dressed;
        Love cannot soar to what it never guessed,
        But stoops its flight, and the thralled soul unnerves.
Here too is man deceived. He yields his own
        To spend on others. Yet in vile delight
        God's splendour still shines through love's earthliness.
But we embrace the loss, the lure alone
        Love fools us with. That glimpse of heavenly light,
        That foretaste of eternal Good, we miss.

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni

The Sonnets Of Tommaso Campanella - The Proem.

Io che nacqui dal Senno.


Born of God's Wisdom and Philosophy,
        Keen lover of true beauty and true good,
        I call the vain self-traitorous multitude
        Back to my mother's milk; for it is she,
Faithful to God her spouse, who nourished me,
        Making me quick and active to intrude
        Within the inmost veil, where I have viewed
        And handled all things in eternity.
If the whole world's our home where we may run,
        Up, friends, forsake those secondary schools
        Which give grains, units, inches for the whole!
If facts surpass mere words, melt pride of soul,
        And pain, and ignorance that hardens fools,
        Here in the fire I've stolen from the Sun!

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni

The Sonnets Of Tommaso Campanella - God Made And God Rules.

La fabbrica del mondo.


The fabric of the world--earth, air, and skies--
        Each particle thereof and tiniest part
        Designed for special ends--proclaims the art
        Of an almighty Maker good and wise.
Nathless the lawless brutes, our crimes and lies,
        The joys of vicious men, the good man's smart,
        All creatures swerving from their ends, impart
        Doubts that the Ruler is nor good nor wise.
Can it then be that boundless Power, Love, Mind,
        Lets others reign, the while He takes repose?
        Hath He grown old, or hath He ceased to heed?
Nay, one God made and rules: He shall unwind
        The tangled skein; the hidden law disclose,
        Whereby so many sinned in thought and deed.

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni

The Sonnets Of Tommaso Campanella - Self-Love.

Credulo il proprio amor.


Self-love fools man with false opinion
        That earth, air, water, fire, the stars we see,
        Though stronger and more beautiful than we,
        Feel nought, love not, but move for us alone.
Then all the tribes of earth except his own
        Seem to him senseless, rude--God lets them be:
        To kith and kin next shrinks his sympathy,
        Till in the end loves only self each one.
Learning he shuns that he may live at ease;
        And since the world is little to his mind,
        God and God's ruling Forethought he denies.
Craft he calls wisdom; and, perversely blind,
        Seeking to reign, erects new deities:
        At last 'I make the Universe!' he cries.

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni