All 39 Uses of
discern
in
The Divine Comedy -- translated by Cary
- While to the lower space with backward step I fell, my ken discern'd the form one of one, Whose voice seem'd faint through long disuse of speech.†
Canto 1.1-11
- Then looking farther onwards I beheld A throng upon the shore of a great stream: Whereat I thus: "Sir! grant me now to know Whom here we view, and whence impell'd they seem So eager to pass o'er, as I discern Through the blear light?"†
Canto 1.1-11
- Dark and deep, And thick with clouds o'erspread, mine eye in vain Explor'd its bottom, nor could aught discern.†
Canto 1.1-11
- That ignoble life, Which made them vile before, now makes them dark, And to all knowledge indiscernible.†
Canto 1.1-11 *
- If well thou note This judgment, and remember who they are, Without these walls to vain repentance doom'd, Thou shalt discern why they apart are plac'd From these fell spirits, and less wreakful pours Justice divine on them its vengeance down."†
Canto 1.1-11
- "Of all that I have shown thee, since that gate We enter'd first, whose threshold is to none Denied, nought else so worthy of regard, As is this river, has thine eye discern'd, O'er which the flaming volley all is quench'd."†
Canto 1.12-22
- We from the wood Were not so far remov'd, that turning round I might not have discern'd it, when we met A troop of spirits, who came beside the pier.†
Canto 1.12-22
- Behind me I discern'd a devil black, That running, up advanc'd along the rock.†
Canto 1.12-22
- Down I stoop'd to look, But my quick eye might reach not to the depth For shrouding darkness; wherefore thus I spake: "To the next circle, Teacher, bend thy steps, And from the wall dismount we; for as hence I hear and understand not, so I see Beneath, and naught discern.†
Canto 1.23
- CANTO XXXIV "THE banners of Hell's Monarch do come forth Towards us; therefore look," so spake my guide, "If thou discern him."†
Canto 1.23
- My preceptor silent yet Stood, while the brightness, that we first discern'd, Open'd the form of wings: then when he knew The pilot, cried aloud, "Down, down; bend low Thy knees; behold God's angel: fold thy hands: Now shalt thou see true Ministers indeed.†
Canto 2.1-11
- As sheep, that step from forth their fold, by one, Or pairs, or three at once; meanwhile the rest Stand fearfully, bending the eye and nose To ground, and what the foremost does, that do The others, gath'ring round her, if she stops, Simple and quiet, nor the cause discern; So saw I moving to advance the first, Who of that fortunate crew were at the head, Of modest mien and graceful in their gait.†
Canto 2.1-11
- I exclaim'd, "so clear Aught saw I never, as I now discern Where seem'd my ken to fail, that the mid orb Of the supernal motion (which in terms Of art is called the Equator, and remains Ever between the sun and winter) for the cause Thou hast assign'd, from hence toward the north Departs, when those who in the Hebrew land Inhabit, see it tow'rds the warmer part.†
Canto 2.1-11
- And when I came to him, he scarce his head Uplifted, saying "Well hast thou discern'd, How from the left the sun his chariot leads."†
Canto 2.1-11
- For from this eminence ye shall discern Better the acts and visages of all, Than in the nether vale among them mix'd.†
Canto 2.1-11
- But look intently thither, An disentangle with thy lab'ring view, What underneath those stones approacheth: now, E'en now, mayst thou discern the pangs of each."†
Canto 2.1-11
- Therefore He smites you who discerneth all.†
Canto 2.12-22
- I replied, shine arguments Convince me: and the cause I now discern Why of the heritage no portion came To Levi's offspring.†
Canto 2.12-22
- Was my conversion: but when I became Rome's pastor, I discern'd at once the dream And cozenage of life, saw that the heart Rested not there, and yet no prouder height Lur'd on the climber: wherefore, of that life No more enamour'd, in my bosom love Of purer being kindled.†
Canto 2.12-22
- If thou hast ever mark'd those holy sounds Of gospel truth, 'nor shall be given ill marriage,' Thou mayst discern the reasons of my speech.†
Canto 2.12-22
- Never in my breast Did ignorance so struggle with desire Of knowledge, if my memory do not err, As in that moment; nor through haste dar'd I To question, nor myself could aught discern, So on I far'd in thoughtfulness and dread.†
Canto 2.12-22
- He show'd me many others, one by one, And all, as they were nam'd, seem'd well content; For no dark gesture I discern'd in any.†
Canto 2.23-33
- "Well I discern," she thus her words address'd, "How contrary desires each way constrain thee, So that thy anxious thought is in itself Bound up and stifled, nor breathes freely forth.†
Canto 3.1-11
- Well I discern, that by that truth alone Enlighten'd, beyond which no truth may roam, Our mind can satisfy her thirst to know: Therein she resteth, e'en as in his lair The wild beast, soon as she hath reach'd that bound, And she hath power to reach it; else desire Were given to no end.†
Canto 3.1-11
- I well discern, How in thine intellect already shines The light eternal, which to view alone Ne'er fails to kindle love; and if aught else Your love seduces, 't is but that it shows Some ill-mark'd vestige of that primal beam.†
Canto 3.1-11
- And as in flame A sparkle is distinct, or voice in voice Discern'd, when one its even tenour keeps, The other comes and goes; so in that light I other luminaries saw, that cours'd In circling motion. rapid more or less, As their eternal phases each impels.†
Canto 3.1-11
- Here The skill is look'd into, that fashioneth With such effectual working, and the good Discern'd, accruing to this upper world From that below.†
Canto 3.1-11
- And, marking clearly, that I told thee, 'Risen,' Thou shalt discern it only hath respect To kings, of whom are many, and the good Are rare.†
Canto 3.12-22
- But will and means, In mortals, for the cause ye well discern, With unlike wings are fledge.†
Canto 3.12-22
- Ye discern The heed, wherewith I do prepare myself To hearken; ye the doubt that urges me With such inveterate craving.†
Canto 3.12-22
- The ken, your world is gifted with, descends In th' everlasting Justice as low down, As eye doth in the sea; which though it mark The bottom from the shore, in the wide main Discerns it not; and ne'ertheless it is, But hidden through its deepness.†
Canto 3.12-22
- The eye was kindled: and the blessed sign No more to keep me wond'ring and suspense, Replied: "I see that thou believ'st these things, Because I tell them, but discern'st not how; So that thy knowledge waits not on thy faith: As one who knows the name of thing by rote, But is a stranger to its properties, Till other's tongue reveal them.†
Canto 3.12-22
- Love no compulsion needs, but follows free Th' eternal Providence, I well discern: This harder find to deem, why of thy peers Thou only to this office wert foredoom'd."†
Canto 3.12-22
- Here I sustain'd The visage, Hyperion! of thy sun; And mark'd, how near him with their circle, round Move Maia and Dione; here discern'd Jove's tempering 'twixt his sire and son; and hence Their changes and their various aspects Distinctly scann'd.†
Canto 3.12-22
- Rightly hast thou deem'd," Was answer'd: "if thou well discern, why first He hath defin'd it, substance, and then proof."†
Canto 3.23-33
- The essence then, where such advantage is, That each good, found without it, is naught else But of his light the beam, must needs attract The soul of each one, loving, who the truth Discerns, on which this proof is built.†
Canto 3.23-33
- The fondness, that stirs in him and conforms His outside seeming to the cheer within: And in like guise was Adam's spirit mov'd To joyous mood, that through the covering shone, Transparent, when to pleasure me it spake: "No need thy will be told, which I untold Better discern, than thou whatever thing Thou holdst most certain: for that will I see In Him, who is truth's mirror, and Himself Parhelion unto all things, and naught else To him.†
Canto 3.23-33
- But that what I disclose to thee is true, Those penmen, whom the Holy Spirit mov'd In many a passage of their sacred book Attest; as thou by diligent search shalt find And reason in some sort discerns the same, Who scarce would grant the heav'nly ministers Of their perfection void, so long a space.†
Canto 3.23-33
- ] "Thou beholdest future events, with the same clearness of evidence, that we discern the simplest mathematical demonstrations." v. 19.†
Canto 3.N
Definition:
-
(discern) to notice or understand something -- often something that is not obvious