Poetry for Students, Volume 29

Madonna and child carved out of wood), rather
than faith itself. This section emphasizes the
undulations of hope and despair throughout
the poem; hope is perpetually sought as a salve
to the poet’s sense of despair, but these dreams
are never fulfilled.

The lengthy third section of the poem,
‘‘Lauda,’’ features the longest prose portions to
be found in the poem. In the verse portion that
opens the section, the poet speaks lovingly about
his native land, the Liauda region in Lithuania.
He recalls simple times, yet the juxtaposition of
despair and spiritual hope remains. After com-
menting that he has been baptized and has
renounced evil, he refers, several stanzas later,
to a devil that has not been sufficiently baptized.
What follows is a prose section featuring a thor-
oughly detailed discussion of the etymology, or
word origin, of the title of this section of the
poem and its relation to both his native region
and an Italian term for a song of praise. He gives
an account of the nobility of the region, an
account that includes reference to his ancestors
and details regarding Lithuanians killed in bat-
tle. The prose section continues with an account
of the household items of a particular magistrate
and the subsequent fate of his belongings. The
details seem random, but their exhaustive nature
and their focus to some degree on the domestic
underscore the depth of the poet’s longing for a
place he left long ago, for a sense of home. This
yearning for something that feels like home to
him is transmuted into a striving toward faithful-
ness, as the poem shifts from prose to verse once
again. The focus shifts to a song described as a
song of the Catholic season of Lent. In it, the
poet speaks of the grief and despair he feels at
being unable to understand his faith; he speaks
of words that produce no light inside him.

The beginning of the shorter fourth section

of ‘‘From the Rising of the Sun’’ is laden with

references to religious holidays and images.

Waking from this parade of imagery, the poet

strives to understand its meaning. Later, he

speaks of entering a monastery, seeking a

moment of comprehension. He is constantly

hoping for clarity, for true knowledge that

would justify faith. Near the end of this section,

having wondered what use he has been in his life,

the poet observes that at the end our days, when

we are judged, we stand alone for our trial, wait-

ing in the dark for our fate. In this way the poet

emphasizes the relation between his yearning for

faith and his fears in having questioned too

much for too long. The poem is colored by the

poet’s apprehension that in seeking rational

understanding of faith—something that others

accept without question—he will be judged

unfavorably by God.

This apprehension is taken up again by the

poet in the fifth section. Throughout this section

he speaks of his shortcomings. While others for-

gave each other and were forgiven, he sought

fame and power and earthly glory. He comments

on his sense of isolation from others, on the pain

that reminded him of the foolishness of trying to

be like other people. By the end of this section he

is once again expressing his despair over whether

or not he, or anyone, can live a life that truly

means anything. This section offers little sense of

hope. Futility, despair, and alienation take cen-

ter stage. Similarly, the next section focuses on

sin and guilt. These stem largely from the poet’s

desire for knowledge of faith, a desire that led

him to explore ideas about God that ran con-

trary to church teachings. He speaks of living in

a void, and he relays images of human suffering.

Yet the section ends with the poet’s now-familiar

thirst for faith, this time for the release offered

through a purification ritual.

In the poem’s final section, the exchange

between despair and hope, which characterizes

the poet’s longing for faith and which has played

itself out throughout the often jarring course of

the poem, is examined repeatedly, almost stanza

by stanza. The poet opens with a vision of God’s

mercy, a dream that the poet recounts having

had on his travels. Almost immediately there-

after he denies having had this experience,

although he insists that he could have. His desire

to accept his faith without skepticism is strong,

but it is not stronger than his skepticism. Each of

THE SPEAKER’S LONGING FOR HIS HOMELAND

IS A MAJOR THEME IN THE POEM IN ITS OWN RIGHT, YET

IT SERVES ADDITIONALLY AS A METAPHOR FOR HIS

YEARNING FOR TRUE FAITH AND THE SPIRITUAL SUSTE-

NANCE SUCH BELIEF CAN PROVIDE.’’

From the Rising of the Sun