The speaker addresses anyone who has spent years enriching the soul with books, suffering, thought, and deep attention to other people. That effort can create a sense of godlike clarity, as if the whole world could rest in your hand. But this power can become combustible: when your soul catches fire from so much insight, the world’s evil is exposed all at once. At that point, do not expect comfort or justice. Be thankful if life does not “fiddle”—does not toy with you, mock your vision, or drive you mad. The mood is intense, wry, and cautionary, full of pride in knowledge but also aware that seeing too clearly can burn.
Jonathan Swift Somers (Author of the Spooniad) — Summary
After you have enriched your soul To the highest point, With books, thought, suffering, The understanding of many personalities, The power to interpret glances, silences, The pauses in momentous transformations, The genius of divination and prophecy; So that you feel able at times to hold the world In the hollow of your hand; Then, if, by the crowding of so many powers Into the compass of your soul, Your soul takes fire, And in the conflagration of your soul The evil of the world is lighted up and made clear— Be thankful if in that hour of supreme vision Life does not fiddle.