Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1891-08-04
The Pope as n Poet.

GFrom an English Magazine
If We would know the true inner nature
of the present occupant of St. Peters
throne, Leo XIII, we should turn to his
written utterances, and study the man as
he reveals himself in his writings. Above
all, this can be done in the poems which
the pope indites. 1t is evident that he has
recourse to writing them whenever any
thing rouses him or moves him deeply;
hence they form the most intimate express
sion of his being. True, out of these verses
there issue none of those universal harmon
les which would lead us to seek q world
within the confines of one single personal
ity, nevertheless, they are so integrel that
We gather from them the Just impression
of q life that is in itself a unity, complete
and entire, and which throughout all outer
phases has never changed its inner and
harmonious character. The history of the
pope is that of man who, thanks to his
own character and endowments, has raised
himself to the giddy height of papal power
"A position in which he has distinguished
himself by solid capacity rather than by
brilliant qualities. In Latin distichs this
poet-pontiH has told the story of his life.
The poem was written by him, while bis
hop of Perugia-a position be filed for
thirty years, his hold on that diocese coin
Gliding with the pontifical reign of his pre-
decessor, Plus TX. What an epoch that
was. Rich in battle, in suffering, in victory
and in defest-eventful and ever memora-
BILE for Italy. And just as Pecci's pas
torals distinguished themselves from those
of the other Umbrian prelates by the rigor
of their thought and expression, so did the
man himself range head and shoulders
above these same bishops by the manner
in which he conducted the struggle of the
clerical party against the military might of
young Italy, which was ever pressing on
ward from Piemont, and which demanded
as its last triumph the abdication of the
papsl temporal power. On the breezy
heights of Perugia, Pecei could contem-
plate the genius of Christianity in all its
various forms. Every stone in Perugia
preached history into its learned bishop.
And the nature that surrounded his see,
how splendid it was, When he gazed down
into the valley at his feet, clad with vine
yards and olive-groves, his eyes could
range far away over one of those rich land
scapes that fill the soul with yearning.
Lost in dreamy solitude Assist sits throned
upon ber proud height, and many a holy
place is there which Dante's muse has sung,
and many a spot which the brushes of
master-painters, saturated with rich color,
have rendered glorious and immortal in.
fresco and on canvas. The very air of Um-
bria seems permeated with religious
thought; for has it not been the great do
main of the Romish church-the province
aptly termed the italian Galilee!"
In order to understand Leo's character
we must peruse his poems, which form
veritable diary of his personal emotions
and struggles. This poet never sat laurel
crowned with floating mantle at the feet of
Apollo and the muses.. He never took part
in the inspired dances of the favorites of
the gods. He sits humbly at the feet of
the grave muse of the church, and with the
gospel in one hand and the palm branch in
the other, sings religious hymns, and in
dites laudatons to the Almighty and the
saints. Instead of the waving mantle he
wears the cassock; Apollo's laurel wreath
would harmonic but i'll with the tonsure
The mightiest impulses of the human
heart, the desire for love and the desire
for knowledge, live in him as in all of us.
a priest, SO to speak, from his boyhood, in
the first flush of youth. Leo had known
none of the pleasures of life. AS is often
the case, the poet puts his own woes in the
recognize the author himself in the heroes
of these sufferings. A considerable num-
Der of his poems treat of sensual love, and
they are all alike frosty. Once he com
ments on the words in st. Johns epistle:
"0mne quod in mundo est concupisentia
carnis es ct concupisentia oculorum, et
superbia vitae" stringing together a num-
ber of poetical meditstions on this verse.
While bishop of Perugia, Pecci maintained
intimate fatherly relations with the youths
of the theological seminary, and was in the
| habit of addressing poetical epistles or epi-
grams to one or another of these students
Already, at twenty years of age, he had
| expressed his intention when i'll of given
| utterance to his grief in song. BE rarely
succeeds in giving plastic form TO his feel
| ings; his emotions are deep, for they are
| religious, but as a poet he is neither lyric
nor dramatic enough. His poems have
more of the character of the metrical ex-
hortations of the bishop to some member
\ of his flock, of the master to his pupils of
the man to himself The elegance and
correctness of the Latin, however, compen-
safes for the poverty of the coloring. Itis
| the language, not the imagery, which inter
| prets the wavering of the human heart be-
tween purity and passion. The writer's
dearth of fancy prevents the struggle from
| even reaching a tragic climax, yet, notwith-
standing, these poems are touching as the
| players of a soul that has been bruised and
scorched. In the poem "Ricorso ala
Vergine nella tentazione," one of the few
| written in Italian, which is addressed TO a
| young theological student, Bishop Peeci
recommends him to have recourse to the
temptations of the flesh. The Madonna to
whom our poet applies in his struggle is
not the gentle Madonna whom Gioacchino
Pecci had seen for more than a generation
in the paintings of Perugia- She is no ten
der maidenly flower after the fashion OF
the Virgins of the UmbriAn school, she IL
matron who inspires awe and respect. The
Immaculate One of Leo's poems stands be-
fore us as stern teacher, a warning moth
er. We long to taste the sweet fruits of
| the passing moment, We are on the very
| threshold of the crime. Then we hear the
| relentless call of the whose sufferings gave
us life, and we pray to her: 'tMadre, deh
madre, campami, in tua virtu m'afido. y
Our Mother lead us, and our desires are
healed. There is truth in this matronly
Madonna, but she is not the Christian ideal
Virgin; we do not tremble before the latter
as before the charm of the former, and
our recovery is perhaps even more lasting,
| for the maidenly Madonna enters into our
/ 1ifa like a vo1ncr of love