ABSTRACT
Torquato Tasso's Il Mondo Creato is a theological-contemplative poem which attempts to look at the created world as a way of picturing the synthesis of earth and heaven described by Raphael in Milton's Paradise Lost (VII, 154–61). It is a meditation on the function of the created universe in the providential scheme. The central character of the poem is the human soul for whom God's creation is the ladder by which it returns to eternity. The light which infuses and illuminates all being—and which attracts the soul—is inherent in creation and leads the soul to God. This view of the world—that light, by infusing creation, leads man to God—is similar to Milton's in Paradise Lost, as articulated in Raphael's description of the scale of created nature “whereon / In contemplation of created things / By steps we may ascend to God” (V, 510–12).
