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ilmanzoni text integral passage complete quotation of the sources works historical five may poetry ode napoleon
the fifth may in verses prologue
INTRODUCTION TO THE NATIVITY
Written by Rev. J.F. Bingham
THE HYMN OF THE NATIVITY, while poetically considered not the most perfect, perhaps, and said to have been never
fully satisfactory to the author himself, has nevertheless always been the most popular of the Sacred Hymns of MANZONI. The ingenious simplicity in which the profoundest doctrines and the most important sentiments are voiced has long indicated it as suited for young children to memorize, while the rapid measures and the liveliness of the strain second with childish pleasure the useful acquisition; so that few indeed are the nurseries, among the serious classes where Italian is spoken, that do not echo with the infantine prattle of these flowing verses.
ARGUMENT. -- In this Introductory Hymn, the Poet begins with an exposition of the helplessness of humanity (fallen through the first sin), by the similitude of a rock dislodged from a mountain-top and plunged into a pit in the valley below. Then is deployed a general statement of the facts and reasons for the Incarnation of the Son of God as the unique means of saving and regenerating the race of men. Next follow the announcement of a promised Liberator; a picture of the beneficent
results of His coming; an exhibition of His Divine nature and of the unmeasured mercy of pardoning grace. After this the Poet proceeds to narrate the particulars of the Birth, the loving care and worship of the Mother, the adoration of the angel-host, the visit and imaginary salutation of the Shepherds; and finally, emphasizing the stupendous contrast of the two natures conjoined in the heavenly Infant, closes the Hymn with a prophecy that, one coming day, all nations will return from an ignorant rejection of Him, recognize their King and come under His universal sway.
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