Analysis of In Prison
Clive Staples Lewis 1898 (Clive Staples Lewis Belfast) – 1963 (Oxford)
I cried out for the pain of man,
I cried out for my bitter wrath
Against the hopeless life that ran
For ever in a circling path
From death to death since all began;
Till on a summer night
I lost my way in the pale starlight
And saw our planet, far and small,
Through endless depths of nothing fall
A lonely pin-prick spark of light,
Upon the wide, enfolding night,
With leagues on leagues of stars above it,
And powdered dust of stars below—
Dead things that neither hate nor love it
Not even their own loveliness can know,
Being but cosmic dust and dead.
And if some tears be shed,
Some evil God have power,
Some crown of sorrow sit
Upon a little world for a little hour—
Who shall remember? Who shall care for it?
Scheme | ABABACCDDCCEFEFGGHEHE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11110111 11111101 01010111 110001001 11111101 110101 11110011 011010101 11011101 01011111 010111 111111011 01011101 111101111 11011111 10110101 011111 1101110 111101 010101101010 1101011111 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 707 |
Words | 140 |
Sentences | 4 |
Stanzas | 1 |
Stanza Lengths | 21 |
Lines Amount | 21 |
Letters per line (avg) | 27 |
Words per line (avg) | 7 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 561 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 138 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 42 sec read
- 63 Views
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"In Prison" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 2 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/6942/in-prison>.
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