Analysis of Tu Ne Quaesieris

Clive Staples Lewis 1898 (Clive Staples Lewis Belfast) – 1963 (Oxford)



For all the lore of Lodge and Myers
I cannot heal my torn desires,
Nor hope for all that man can speer
To make the riddling earth grow clear.
Though it were sure and proven well
That I shall prosper, as they tell,
In fields beneath a different sun
By shores where other oceans run,
When this live body that was I
Lies hidden from the cheerful sky,
Yet what were endless lives to me
If still my narrow self I be
And hope and fail and struggle still,
And break my will against God's will,
To play for stakes of pleasure and pain
And hope and fail and hope again,
Deluded, thwarted, striving elf
That through the window of my self
As through a dark glass scarce can see
A warped and masked reality?
But when this searching thought of mine
Is mingled in the large Divine,
And laughter that was in my mouth
Runs through the breezes of the South,
When glory I have built in dreams
Along some fiery sunset gleams,
And my dead sin and foolishness
Grow one with Nature's whole distress,
To perfect being I shall win,
And where I end will Life begin


Scheme AABBCCDDEEFFGGHIJJFFKKLLMMNOPP
Poetic Form Etheree  (33%)
Tetractys  (20%)
Metre 110111010 110111010 11111111 1101111 11010101 11110111 010101001 11110101 11110111 11010101 11010111 11110111 01010101 01110111 111111001 01010101 01010101 11010111 11011111 010110 11110111 11000101 01011011 11010101 11011101 01110011 01110100 11110101 10110111 01111101
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,018
Words 201
Sentences 3
Stanzas 1
Stanza Lengths 30
Lines Amount 30
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 822
Words per stanza (avg) 199
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 24, 2023

1:00 min read
104

Clive Staples Lewis

Clive Staples Lewis was a British novelist, poet, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian, broadcaster, lecturer, and Christian apologist. He held academic positions at both Oxford University and Cambridge University. more…

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