The ''Tears of the Prodigal Son'' ( hr, Suze sina razmetnoga) is a

poem Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in ...

written by the

Croat The Croats (; hr, Hrvati ) are a South Slavic ethnic group who share a common Croatian ancestry, culture, history and language. They are also a recognized minority in a number of neighboring countries, namely Austria, the Czech Republic, Ge ...

ian Baroque poet

Ivan Gundulić Dživo Franov Gundulić ( it, Gianfrancesco Gondola; 8 January 1589 – 8 December 1638), better known today as Ivan Gundulić, was the most prominent Baroque poet from the Republic of Ragusa (now in Croatia). He is regarded as the Croatian nat ...

. It was originally published in

Venice Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...

in 1622. The poem is composed of three laments (cries) (''plač''): the Sin (''Sagriješenje''), the Comprehension (''Spoznanje'') and the Humility (''Skrušenje''), presenting the three basic categories of

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

—sin, repentance and redemption—through contrasts like death/life, sin/purity and Hell/Heaven.

Biblical basis

The poem ''Tears of the Prodigal Son'' draws on the well-known biblical Parable of the Prodigal Son found in Luke 15:11–32, the basis of which forms a story on a father forgiving his son's spendthriftness and greed, after the son comes back home remorseful of his actions. Gundulić adapts and heavily elaborates the original storyline, but still leaves clearly recognizable traits of the biblical template. Parable as a literary form represents an elaborated

simile A simile () is a figure of speech that directly ''compares'' two things. Similes differ from other metaphors by highlighting the similarities between two things using comparison words such as "like", "as", "so", or "than", while other metaphors c ...

or a

metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wi ...

, inserted into a larger literary works—the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...

in this case. Biblical parable on the prodigal son has but merely two dozen lines, while Gundulić's poetical cultivation extends to 1332 verses, being permeated with numerous son's contemplations on the meaning of life and death, the sin, and numerous verses dedicated to his repentance. In monologue form the son introduces the plot to the reader, and therefore beside being the main character serves also the role of a narrator, with the exception of sporadic occurrence of the omniscient narrator who announces the monologue. In the biblical parable, however, only the omniscient narrator appears. Significantly different is the elaboration on the sin itself, being portrayed in the biblical parable as a hedonistic enjoyment in life's pleasures, excessive luxury and overindulgence. The poem adapts those sins too, but ultimately binds them into the foremost sin of

lust Lust is a psychological force producing intense desire for something, or circumstance while already having a significant amount of the desired object. Lust can take any form such as the lust for sexuality (see libido), money, or power. It c ...

, induced by a beautiful woman. Lust has encouraged the son to prodigality, for his fortunes fade not for his own self-centered "riotous living", but for the sake of pleasing the woman by buying her valuable presents. The character of a salacious woman is non-existent in the biblical parable, and as a counterbalance the poem omits the character of an older son which slightly changes the poem's ending and significantly the moral lesson learned. Both the parable and the poem elaborate on the problem of sin, insight into it, and finally on repentance and forgiveness. But, while the biblical parable is directed towards the "righteous" which are advised that every sinner's conversion should be celebrated "for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found" (Luke 15:32, KJV), the poem focuses on the sinner itself, emphasizing that everyone who experiences genuine repentance will be forgiven, and his eternity secured.

Form

Gundulić's ''Tears of the Prodigal Son'' is a

religious Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatur ...

structured in three

lament A lament or lamentation is a passionate expression of grief, often in music, poetry, or song form. The grief is most often born of regret, or mourning. Laments can also be expressed in a verbal manner in which participants lament about something ...

s. Every lament is prefaced by a convenient quote from the

Gospel of Luke The Gospel of Luke), or simply Luke (which is also its most common form of abbreviation). tells of the origins, birth, ministry, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. Together with the Acts of the Apostles, it makes up a two-vol ...

whence the plot itself is adopted from. Laments are titled in accordance with the three stages the prodigal son experiences: the Sin, the Comprehension and the Humility. The very beginning of the poem is marked by a brief dedication in prose to the ''Prisvijetlomu gospodinu Jeru Dživa Gundulića'' ("the lustrous sire Jeru Dživa Gundulića"), formally separated from laments, in which the author looks back to the glorious tradition of

Dubrovnik Dubrovnik (), historically known as Ragusa (; see notes on naming), is a city on the Adriatic Sea in the region of Dalmatia, in the southeastern semi-exclave of Croatia. It is one of the most prominent tourist destinations in the Mediterran ...

's poetry and briefly announces poem's subject. The poem is written in symmetric

octosyllable The octosyllable or octosyllabic verse is a line of verse with eight syllables. It is equivalent to tetrameter verse in trochees in languages with a stress accent. Its first occurrence is in a 10th-century Old French saint's legend, the '' Vie de ...

s combined to

sestina A sestina (, from ''sesto'', sixth; Old Occitan: ''cledisat'' ; also known as ''sestine'', ''sextine'', ''sextain'') is a fixed verse form consisting of six stanzas of six lines each, normally followed by a three-line envoi. The words that end ...

s, with the first lament having 74, the second 56 and the third 92 octosyllabic sestinas, with

rhyme scheme A rhyme scheme is the pattern of rhymes at the end of each line of a poem or song. It is usually referred to by using letters to indicate which lines rhyme; lines designated with the same letter all rhyme with each other. An example of the ABAB r ...

ABABCC.

Style

Poem Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in ...

as a term even in the ancient Greco-Roman literature had a more general notion of literary form, which is probably one of the reasons why it remained undetermined by today, embodying the characteristics of all three literary arts:

lyrics Lyrics are words that make up a song, usually consisting of verses and choruses. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist. The words to an extended musical composition such as an opera are, however, usually known as a " libretto" and their writer, ...

epics The Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System (EPICS) is a set of software tools and applications used to develop and implement distributed control systems to operate devices such as particle accelerators, telescopes and other large sci ...

and

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

. Elaborate plot, characters and the narrator are traits of epic poetry, drama is manifested by an extremely intensive internal conflict of the main character and the long monologues, and lyrics is indicated in the form itself, by the emotional vigour, ethical and theological contemplations and numerous poetical devices and

figures of speech A figure of speech or rhetorical figure is a word or phrase that intentionally deviates from ordinary language use in order to produce a rhetorical effect. Figures of speech are traditionally classified into '' schemes,'' which vary the ordinary ...

such as

s, epithets, strong

s and numerous contradictory figures—

oxymoron An oxymoron (usual plural oxymorons, more rarely oxymora) is a figure of speech that juxtaposes concepts with opposing meanings within a word or phrase that creates an ostensible self-contradiction. An oxymoron can be used as a rhetorical devi ...

paradoxes A paradox is a logically self-contradictory statement or a statement that runs contrary to one's expectation. It is a statement that, despite apparently valid reasoning from true premises, leads to a seemingly self-contradictory or a logically u ...

and

antitheses Antithesis (Greek for "setting opposite", from "against" and "placing") is used in writing or speech either as a proposition that contrasts with or reverses some previously mentioned proposition, or when two opposites are introduced together f ...

. The antithesis of "sin/purification" imbues the piece as a whole, so the poem itself can be understood as one big antithesis. Also, it's marked by the prevalent

allegory As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory th ...

, for the plot on the relationship between the father and the son can be transferred to the relationship of a man and

God In monotheism, monotheistic thought, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator deity, creator, and principal object of Faith#Religious views, faith.Richard Swinburne, Swinburne, R.G. "God" in Ted Honderich, Honderich, Ted. (ed)''The Ox ...

Bibliography

* ''Suze sina razmetnoga''; Venice, 1622, 1623. * ''Suse sina rasmetnoga'', ''Sedam pjesnji pokornieh''; ''Pjesan od velicjanstvaa Boscieh / Giva Frana Gundulichja vlastelina dubrovackoga''; ''Od prie drugovdje, napokon ovdi pritjesctene''; po Antunu Maretkini, Dubrovnik, 1828. * ''Dubravka''; ''Suze sina razmetnoga / Gjivo Frana Gundulića'', published by D. Pretnera, Dubrovnik, 1909. * Ivan Gundulić: ''Dubravka'' / ''Suze sina razmetnoga''; edited and with foreword written by Albert Haller, Zagreb, 1944. * Ivan Gundulić: ''Suze sina razmetnoga'' / ''Dubravka'' / ''Ferninandu od Toskane''; edition ''Pet stoljeća hrvatske književnosti'', book 12, edited by Jakša Ravlić, Zagreb, 1964. * Ivan Gundulić: ''Suze sina razmetnoga'' / ''Dubravka''; edited by Franjo Švelec, Zagreb, 1974, ²1976. * Ivan Gundulić: ''Suze sina razmetnoga'' / ''Dubravka''; edited by Franjo Švelec, foreword by Lahorka Plejić, Zagreb, 1996. * Ivan Gundulić: ''Suze sina razmetnoga'' / ''Dubravka''; edited by Franjo Švalec, foreword and appendix by Dean Duda, Zagreb, 2001. * Ivan Gundulić: ''Suze sina razmetnoga'' / ''Dubravka''; edited by Fališevac, methodically arranged by Majda Bekić-Vejzović, Zagreb, 1993, ²1999, ³2005.

References

* Dukić, Davor: ''Lirika 17. stoljeća II'', Filozofski fakultet Sveučilišta u Zagrebu, Odsjek za kroatistiku: Hrvatska književnost 17. i 18. stoljeća, 2008. * Fališevac, Dunja: ''Ivan Gundulić – pjesnik-filozof'', in: ''Gundulić, Ivan, Kralj od pjesnika''; edited by D. Fališevac, Zagreb, 2005, pp. 5. - 33. {{DEFAULTSORT:Tears Of The Prodigal Son 1622 poems Croatian poetry 17th century in Croatia

Biblical basis

Form

Style

See also

Bibliography

References