Tears of the Prodigal Son

The poem is composed of three laments (cries) (plač): the Sin (Sagriješenje), the Comprehension (Spoznanje) and the Humility (Skrušenje), presenting the three basic categories of Christianity—sin, repentance and redemption—through contrasts like death/life, sin/purity and Hell/Heaven.

Significantly different is the elaboration on the sin itself, being portrayed in the biblical parable as a hedonistic enjoyment in life's pleasures, excessive luxury and overindulgence.

Lust has encouraged the son to prodigality, for his fortunes fade not for his own self-centered "riotous living", but for the sake of pleasing the woman by buying her valuable presents.

The very beginning of the poem is marked by a brief dedication in prose to the Prisvijetlomu gospodinu Jeru Dživa Gundulića ("the lustrous sire Jeru Dživa Gundulića"), formally separated from laments, in which the author looks back to the glorious tradition of Dubrovnik's poetry and briefly announces poem's subject.

Elaborate plot, characters and the narrator are traits of epic poetry, drama is manifested by an extremely intensive internal conflict of the main character and the long monologues, and lyrics is indicated in the form itself, by the emotional vigour, ethical and theological contemplations and numerous poetical devices and figures of speech such as similes, epithets, strong metaphors and numerous contradictory figures—oxymorons, paradoxes and antitheses.