Decalogue Of The Artist

Gabriela Mistral 1889 (Vicuña) – 1957 (Hempstead)



I. You shall love beauty, which is the shadow of God
over the Universe.

II.There is no godless art. Although you love not the
Creator, you shall bear witness to Him creating His likeness.

III.You shall create beauty not to excite the senses
but to give sustenance to the soul.

IV. You shall never use beauty as a pretext for luxury
and vanity but as a spiritual devotion.

V. You shall not seek beauty at carnival or fair
or offer your work there, for beauty is virginal
and is not to be found at carnival or fair.

VI. Beauty shall rise from your heart in song,
and you shall be the first to be purified.

VII.The beauty you create shall be known
as compassion and shall console the hearts of men.

VIII.You shall bring forth your work as a mother
brings forth her child: out of the blood of your heart.

IX. Beauty shall not be an opiate that puts you
to sleep but a strong wine that fires you to action,
for if you fail to be a true man or a true woman,
you will fail to be an artist.

X. Each act of creation shall leave you humble,
for it is never as great as your dream and always
inferior to that most marvelous dream of God
which is Nature.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:08 min read
213

Quick analysis:

Scheme AX XX XX XB CDC XX XX EX XBBX DXAE
Closest metre Iambic hexameter
Characters 1,150
Words 229
Stanzas 10
Stanza Lengths 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 2, 2, 2, 4, 4

Gabriela Mistral

Gabriela Mistral was the pseudonym of Lucila Godoy Alcayaga, a Chilean poet-diplomat, educator and feminist who was the first Latin American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, in 1945. more…

All Gabriela Mistral poems | Gabriela Mistral Books

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