give light and guide the speaker except The God. The God show the way to unite with His.
That let me on True as the very noon is-truer too-
To where there waited once I knew-how knew I well-
In a place where no one was in view.
The Dark Night: Stanza 4 The last night is the fourth stanza. In the fourth stanza the speaker begin to
meet The God. The speaker can find the place of The God without light and guide. The God gives the light into the speaker heart. The speaker can see clearly like the
speaker can see everything in the noon. O dark night my guide, my guide
Night dearer than anything all your dawns discover O night drawing side to side
The loved and lover- She that the lover loves, lost in the lover
The Dark Night: Stanza 5 In the fifth stanza, the souls praise night. The speaker praises night because
the speaker can meet and together with The God in the night. Night is guiding the speaker to meet The God. Night is dearer than dawn because in the night the
speaker can meet and union with The God. The dark night is unite the soul to The God, between the lovers and loved. The lover is servant and the loved is God.
Upon my flowering breast, Kept for his pleasure garden, his alone,
The lover was sunk in rest; I cherished him-my own-
There in air from the castle wall,
The Dark Night: Stanza 6 In the sixth stanza, the speaker shows his feeling when The Speaker together
with The God. The speaker feels happy because the speaker can together and union with The God. The speaker caresses and cherishes The God lovingly.
In air from the castle wall As my hand in his hair moved lovingly at play,
He let cool fingers fall And the fire there where they lay
All sense in oblivion drift away.
The Dark Night: Stanza 7 In the last two stanzas, the souls clearly imagine how God take care for the
speaker. Before The God shows His power, suddenly the air blows the speaker. The speaker remembers when the speaker cherishes The God like the air cherishes
the speaker. After that, The God gives His kindness to give eternal life after the speaker purifying his sin from his heart. After that, the lay hear and all of sense of
the speaker unconsciousness. I stayed, not minding me;
My forehead on the lover I reclined. Earth ending, I went free,
Left all my care behind Among the lilies falling and out of mind.
The Dark Night: Stanza 8 In eighth stanza, the speaker hand over life for The God. In eighth stanza, the
speaker hand over life for The God. The speaker hands over his life for The God because the speaker wants to union and together with The God. Now, the earth of
the speaker was ending and the speaker was free. The speaker left all past life among the lilies. Lilies is symbol of the new life when someone death and life in
beyond together with The God.
b. The Living Flame of Love
The living flame of love is one of Saint John poem. It is the best his create published in 1577. This poem got from The Living Flame of Love by John of the
Cross book published by Forgotten Books, 1919. This poetry consists of twenty-
four lines in four stanzas; this poem describes intimacy as to respond of God and elevated union with the soul.
The Living Flame of Love is teaching the great action in John’s life. It is a piece of poetry after his imprisonment at Toledo. After hazy, he has published his
poems in front of nun and monk before death, he gave his created for leader of Ubeda monastery as reward because the leader care for him. The poem celebrating
his deep feeling to God, but not only generous love of God but also a tender intimacy. Now is the explication of each stanza that makes description of the
poems. O living flame of love
That tenderly wounds my soul In its deepest center Since
Now you are not oppressive, Now consummate if it be your will:
Tear through the veil of this sweet encounter
The Living Flame of Love: Stanza 1 In the first stanzas, the speaker shows the flame wound his soul and the flame
ignores all his sin. In the first stanza, the speaker talks with flame of fire such as human because the flame of fire can transform the speaker to The God. It bathes
the speaker in glory and eternal life. The flame make the speaker wound but the wound is not making the speaker hurt however make the speaker happy.
O sweet cautery O delightful wound
O gentle hand O delicate touch That tastes of eternal life
And pays every debt In killing you changed death to life
The Living Flame of Love: Stanza 2 In the second stanza, the speaker praise to cautery, delightful wound, gentle
hand and delicate touch of The God honesty. The speaker proclaims that The God
has the biggest power and he also magnifies and stresses God’s power to explain how powerful God is. The speaker invites the reader as if the reader can feels the
goodness of The God. The God is very kind, The God give the goodness to every human who belief of Him. The God will union and transform his goodness after
the speaker pure his heart. O lamps of fire
in whose splendors The deep caverns of feeling,
Once obscure and blind, Now give forth, so rarely, so exquisitely,
Both warmth and light to their Beloved.
The Living Flame of Love: Stanza 3 In the third stanza the speaker shows lamps of fire give magnificence into the
speaker heart. In third stanza the speaker elevate the power of The God. People, who blind, can receive light and warmth of The God. The God is enormous, wise,
generous, and superior. The lamp give magnificence in to the speaker heart and the lamp full the speaker heart with goodness and glorious. In this stanza, the soul
praises lamp of fire because God receive him from union and transform with him. In this state, the speaker gets the glory and abundant knowledge of God such as
the truth and love to faculties and feeling. Now, the speakers receive light and warmth of love. The speaker can give light and love to other who illumined them
and filled them with love. How gently and lovingly
You wake in my heart, Where in secret you dwell alone;
And in your sweet breathing, Filled with good and glory,
How tenderly You swell my heart with love.
The Living Flame of Love: Stanza 4
In the fourth stanzas, The God wake in the speaker’s heart gently and lovingly The God wake in the speaker heart. The God is awakening in the speaker
heart gently and lovingly. The speaker shows The God dwells with gently in the speaker heart and The God give his goodness for the speaker. The God lives
secretly after the speaker purify his sin. After that, the speaker can communicate The God. The God wakes in the speaker’s heart and give glorious. The speaker
heart fills with goodness, glory, and love of The God.
B. The Data Analysis
In data analysis, the writer analyzed two poems of Saint John of The Cross. The two poems are The Dark Night and The Living Flame of Love which were
created in the jail. To understand Saint John of The Cross poems, the writer used intrinsic elements such as imagery, figure of speech, and theme. The purpose is to
know how
intrinsic elements
built the meaning in the two poems.
First poem The Dark Night 1577
Once in the dark night When love burned bright with yearning, I arose
o windfall of delight And how i felt none knows-
Dead to the world my house, in deep repose;
In the dark, where all goes right, Thanks to a secret ladder, other clothes
o windfall of delight In the dark, enwrapped in those-
Dead to the world my house, in deep repose.
There in the lucky dark, None to observe me; darkness far and wide;
No sign for me to mark, No other light, no guide
Except for my heart-the fire, the fire inside That let me on
True as the very noon is-truer too- To where there waited once
I knew-how knew i well- In a place where no one was in view.
O dark night my guide, my guide O night dearer than anything all your dawns discover
O night drawing side to side The loved and lover-
She that the lover loves, lost in the lover
Upon my flowering breast, Kept for his pleasure garden, his alone,
The lover was sunk in rest; I cherished him-my own-
There in air from the castle wall,
In air from the castle wall As my hand in his hair moved lovingly at play,
He let cool fingers fall And the fire there where they lay
All sense in oblivion drift away.
I stayed, not minding me; My forehead on the lover I reclined.
Earth ending, I went free, Left all my care behind
Among the lilies falling and out of mind.
1. Intrinsic Elements
a. Imagery
Imagery is illustration language of sense such as experience of poet to the reader. It is effective ways to evoke experience in conveying emotion and suggest
ideas. It consists of visual imagery, auditory imagery, tactile imagery, olfactory imagery, gustatory imagery, organic imagery, and kinesthetic imagery. However,
in The Dark Night poem the writer only find visual imagery.
Visual imagery is representation of sight effect to evoke a picture of something seen in the mind called by sight effect.
2
In this poem, the writer finds three visual imageries. There are in the first, the second, and the third stanzas. In
the first stanza, the speaker describes he would purify his sin in his heart. The second stanza is the speaker purifying his sin. The sin of the speaker is become
fade slowly. The third stanza is the speaker begins his journey to together with The God. In the beginning of the text, the speaker describes he would purify his
sin in his heart. It can be seen in the quotation below: Once in the dark night
When love burned bright with yearning, i arose O windfall of delight
And how i felt none knows- Dead to the world my house, in deep repose;
The Dark Night: Stanza 1, Line 1 In the quotation above, the first line of the poem represents visual imagery
because the poet invites the readers mind to imagine the dark night. The Dark Night is time to meet and unite with The God. In this night, the speaker would
purify his sin in his heart. After the speakers purifying, the speaker is going to get purgation of The God. In the second stanza is the next process after the speaker
purifies his sin. The speaker heart purifying and his sin become fade slowly. It can be seen in the quotation below:
In the dark, where all goes right, Thanks to a secret ladder, other clothes
O windfall of delight In the dark, enwrapped in those-
Dead to the world my house, in deep repose.
The Dark Night: Stanza 2, Line 1
2
Siswantoro, Apresiasi Puisi-Puisi Sastra Inggris, Surakarta, Muhammadiyah University Press, 2002 p. 52.
