All 27 Uses
discern
in
The Divine Comedy — translated by Longfellow
(Auto-generated)
- 'Since thou wouldst fain so inwardly discern,
Briefly will I relate,' she answered me,
'Why I am not afraid to enter here.†Canto 1.1-11discern = notice or understand something - People I saw on a great river's bank;
Whence said I: "Master, now vouchsafe to me,
That I may know who these are, and what law
Makes them appear so ready to pass over,
As I discern athwart the dusky light."†Canto 1.1-11 - Obscure, profound it was, and nebulous,
So that by fixing on its depths my sight
Nothing whatever I discerned therein.†Canto 1.1-11discerned = noticed something that is not obvious - We were a little distant from it still,
But not so far that I in part discerned not
That honourable people held that place.†Canto 1.1-11 - And he to me: "Across the turbid waves
What is expected thou canst now discern,
If reek of the morass conceal it not."†Canto 1.1-11discern = notice or understand something - And I: "Its mosques already, Master, clearly
Within there in the valley I discern
Vermilion, as if issuing from the fire
They were."†Canto 1.1-11 - But truly, if I well discern, a little
Before His coming who the mighty spoil
Bore off from Dis, in the supernal circle,
Upon all sides the deep and loathsome valley
Trembled so, that I thought the Universe
Was thrilled with love, by which there are who think
The world ofttimes converted into chaos;
And at that moment this primeval crag
Both here and elsewhere made such overthrow.†Canto 1.12-22 - "If my entreaty wholly were fulfilled,"
Replied I to him, "not yet would you be
In banishment from human nature placed;
For in my mind is fixed, and touches now
My heart the dear and good paternal image
Of you, when in the world from hour to hour
You taught me how a man becomes eternal;
And how much I am grateful, while I live
Behoves that in my language be discerned.†Canto 1.12-22discerned = noticed something that is not obvious - Inferno: Canto XXXIV
"'Vexilla Regis prodeunt Inferni'
Towards us; therefore look in front of thee,"
My Master said, "if thou discernest him."†Canto 1.23-34discernest = notice or understand somethingstandard suffix: Today, the suffix "-est" is dropped, so that where they said "Thou discernest" in older English, today we say "You discern." - "Truly, my Master," said I, "never yet
Saw I so clearly as I now discern,
There where my wit appeared incompetent,
That the mid-circle of supernal motion,
Which in some art is the Equator called,
And aye remains between the Sun and Winter,
For reason which thou sayest, departeth hence
Tow'rds the Septentrion, what time the Hebrews
Beheld it tow'rds the region of the heat.†Canto 2.1-11discern = notice or understand something - Clearly in them discerned I the blond head;
But in their faces was the eye bewildered,
As faculty confounded by excess.†Canto 2.1-11discerned = noticed something that is not obvious - thee, how abject and debased,
Displayed the image that is there discerned!†Canto 2.12-22 - The heavens are calling you, and wheel around you,
Displaying to you their eternal beauties,
And still your eye is looking on the ground;
Whence He, who all discerns, chastises you.†Canto 2.12-22discerns = notices things that are not obvious - Hence it behoved laws for a rein to place,
Behoved a king to have, who at the least
Of the true city should discern the tower.†Canto 2.12-22discern = notice or understand something - "O Marco mine," I said, "thou reasonest well;
And now discern I why the sons of Levi
Have been excluded from the heritage.†Canto 2.12-22 - Whence I: "My sight is, Master, vivified
So in thy light, that clearly I discern
Whate'er thy speech importeth or describes.†Canto 2.12-22 - When underneath us was the stairway all
Run o'er, and we were on the highest step,
Virgilius fastened upon me his eyes,
And said: "The temporal fire and the eternal,
Son, thou hast seen, and to a place art come
Where of myself no farther I discern.†Canto 2.23-33 - In grace do us the grace that thou unveil
Thy face to him, so that he may discern
The second beauty which thou dost conceal.†Canto 2.23-33 - Thou sayest, 'Well discern I what I hear;
But it is hidden from me why God willed
For our redemption only this one mode.'†Canto 3.1-11 - One gazes long and little is discerned,
Canto 3.1-11 *discerned = understood or seen
- And as within a flame a spark is seen,
And as within a voice a voice discerned,
When one is steadfast, and one comes and goes,
Within that light beheld I other lamps
Move in a circle, speeding more and less,
Methinks in measure of their inward vision.†Canto 3.1-11discerned = noticed something that is not obvious - "Because I do believe the lofty joy
Thy speech infuses into me, my Lord,
Where every good thing doth begin and end
Thou seest as I see it, the more grateful
Is it to me; and this too hold I dear,
That gazing upon God thou dost discern it.†Canto 3.1-11discern = notice or understand something - In consequence our vision, which perforce
Must be some ray of that intelligence
With which all things whatever are replete,
Cannot in its own nature be so potent,
That it shall not its origin discern
Far beyond that which is apparent to it.†Canto 3.12-22 - Now knoweth he enough of what the world
Has not the power to see of grace divine,
Although his sight may not discern the bottom.†Canto 3.12-22 - And I: "By philosophic arguments,
And by authority that hence descends,
Such love must needs imprint itself in me;
For Good, so far as good, when comprehended
Doth straight enkindle love, and so much greater
As more of goodness in itself it holds;
Then to that Essence (whose is such advantage
That every good which out of it is found
Is nothing but a ray of its own light)
More than elsewhither must the mind be moved
Of every one, in loving, who discerns
The truth in which this evidence is founded.†Canto 3.23-33discerns = notices things that are not obvious - Then breathed: "Without thy uttering it to me,
Thine inclination better I discern
Than thou whatever thing is surest to thee;
For I behold it in the truthful mirror,
That of Himself all things parhelion makes,
And none makes Him parhelion of itself.†Canto 3.23-33discern = notice or understand something - The rest remained, and they began this art
Which thou discernest, with so great delight
That never from their circling do they cease.†Canto 3.23-33discernest = notice or understand somethingstandard suffix: Today, the suffix "-est" is dropped, so that where they said "Thou discernest" in older English, today we say "You discern."
Definitions:
-
(1)
(discern) to notice or understand something -- often something that is not obvious
- (2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)