The Spiritual Canticle

This poem by the Spanish writer John of the Cross was created during his imprisonment in Carmelite Monastery of Toledo. During this time, he suffered the lack of writing and created and held the most significant part of the poem in his mind. He later wrote down the poem at the request of his friend, who gave it in publishing. The poem is an allegorical story of the soul's travel to find God. The poem represents a human's soul as a wife and Christ as a husband. It represents the wife's suffering and her desire to find the beloved one until they finally unite in the solitude of the divine garden.

John of the Cross (1542 - 1591), also known as Saint John of the Cross, was a Spanish Catholic priest, mystic, and a Carmelite friar of converso origin. He was a significant figure of the Counter-Reformation in Spain, one of the thirty-six Doctors of the Church? And also one of the most famous Christian writers of his time. His studies of the development of soul and spirit belong to the most outstanding examples of Spanish literature and are considered masterpieces for their rich imagery and symbolism.