Worship
Worship - meaning Summary
Divine Resilience and Recognition
The poem presents a resilient, almost miraculous figure who survives persecution, captivity, beasts, and fire, ultimately triumphing while persecutors fall. Emerson identifies this presence with a divine force—named Jove—whose blessings arrive unexpectedly and which can appear closest when recognized in another person. The closing lines challenge the reader to distinguish between what is merely human and what is rightly divine, suggesting that true divinity often hides within ordinary suffering and triumph.
Read Complete AnalysesThis is he, who, felled by foes, Sprung harmless up, refreshed by blows He to captivity was sold, But him no prison-bars would hold: Though they sealed him in a rock, Mountain chains he can unlock: Thrown to lions for their meat, The crouching lion kissed his feet: Bound to the stake, no flames appalled, But arched o’er him an honouring vault. This is he men miscall Fate, Threading dark ways, arriving late, But ever coming in time to crown The truth, and hurl wrong-doers down. He is the oldest, and best known, More near than aught thou call’st thy own, Yet, greeted in another’s eyes, Disconcerts with glad surprise. This is Jove, who, deaf to prayers, Floods with blessings unawares. Draw, if thou canst, the mystic line Severing rightly his from thine, Which is human, which divine.
Feel free to be first to leave comment.