Dark Night of the Soul

The poem is delivered in free verse, meaning that the lines are non-metrical and non-rhyming. The lines are, for the most part, short and lend themselves not to public declamation as much as private, silent recitation, more like a prayer to be studied than a poem to be proclaimed.

Line to line, stanza to stanza, the poem avoids falling into any kind of predictable rhythms or singsong-like meter. The drama of the account of the soul’s journey alone compels the rhythm of the lines, allowing for the pause between stanzas to heighten the engine of suspense. The poem’s opening four stanzas are highlighted by careful and precise lines, with most lines followed by commas or closed with end punctuation. But as the account moves into the passionate engagement with God, and the soul opens up to the radiant energy of God’s love, the lines use enjambment—when one line of poetry flows into the next without pause or punctuation—to create the feeling of losing control at the Creator’s gentle touch.

But John is not interested in such contrivances, such clever manipulations of language. He is a theologian who happens to be a poet, not a poet who happens to be a theologian. Theological poets regard the designed collision of vowel and consonant sounds and the manipulation of beats within a line of poetry, elements that traditionally make up the sonic impact of meter, as a distraction from the purpose and meaning of the poem as a didactic tool and an exploration of theological points. John’s austere metrical pattern matches his austere lifestyle, his living conditions as part of the Carmelite Order: no frills, no comforts, no elaborate touches, as much a description of monastic study as a description of the poem.