Gifts of the Spirit
Anglo-Saxon poet Cynewulf reminds us that God’s gifts to men are many and varied, and nobody ever gets them all.
?800
Anglo-Saxon Britain 410-1066
Anglo-Saxon poet Cynewulf reminds us that God’s gifts to men are many and varied, and nobody ever gets them all.
?800
Anglo-Saxon Britain 410-1066
‘Now there are diversities of gifts,’ St Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 12, ‘but the same Spirit.’ Cynewulf (possibly the eighth-century bishop Cynewulf of Lindisfarne) confirms that the gifts given by God to mankind are many and different, and also explains why it is that no one should expect to be good at everything.
UNTO the memory of one man’s mind,* through the Spirit of His mouth,* He sendeth wise eloquence and noble understanding; such a one can sing and speak many things; unto his soul is committed the power of wisdom.* One can awaken the harp before warriors, touching it full loudly with his fingers. One can set forth aright the law divine. One can tell the course of the stars, the expanse of creation. One can skilfully write the spoken word. To one He giveth victory in war, when bowmen send the storm of darts, the winged arrows, over their shields. One can boldly urge forward his bark over the salt sea, and stir the raging deep. One can climb the steep and lofty tree. One can fashion the sword, the well-tempered weapon. One knoweth the compass of the plains, the far-reaching ways.
So to us the Ruler, the Son of God, doth dispense His gifts on earth. But to no man will He give all wisdom of soul, lest, exalted above others by his own power, his pride work him evil.*
Whitman wrote ‘mind’ but added in a footnote that the text reads literally ‘memory of his mind.’
See Isaiah 59:21.
This uneven and selective distribution of gifts was also regarded by Adam Smith as a blessing, but for an additional reason: it makes people trade, and therefore try to understand one another. See No Dog Exchanges Bones with Another.
1. What is the author aiming to achieve in writing this?
2. Note any words, devices or turns of phrase that strike you. How do they help the author communicate his ideas more effectively?
3. What impression does this passage make on you? How might you put that impression into words?
Based on The English Critic (1939) by NL Clay, drawing on The New Criticism: A Lecture Delivered at Columbia University, March 9, 1910, by J. E. Spingarn, Professor of Comparative Literature in Columbia University, USA.