Analysis of De Profundis
Clive Staples Lewis 1898 (Clive Staples Lewis Belfast) – 1963 (Oxford)
Come let us curse our Master ere we die,
For all our hopes in endless ruin lie.
The good is dead. Let us curse God most High.
Four thousand years of toil and hope and thought
Wherein man laboured upward and still wrought
New worlds and better, Thou hast made as naught.
We built us joyful cities, strong and fair,
Knowledge we sought and gathered wisdom rare.
And all this time you laughed upon our care,
And suddenly the earth grew black with wrong,
Our hope was crushed and silenced was our song,
The heaven grew loud with weeping. Thou art strong.
Come then and curse the Lord. Over the earth
Gross darkness falls, and evil was our birth
And our few happy days of little worth.
Even if it be not all a dream in vain
—The ancient hope that still will rise again—
Of a just God that cares for earthly pain,
Yet far away beyond our labouring night,
He wanders in the depths of endless light,
Singing alone his musics of delight;
Only the far, spent echo of his song
Our dungeons and deep cells can smite along,
And Thou art nearer. Thou art very strong.
O universal strength, I know it well,
It is but froth of folly to rebel;
For thou art Lord and hast the keys of Hell.
Yet I will not bow down to thee nor love thee,
For looking in my own heart I can prove thee,
And know this frail, bruised being is above thee.
Our love, our hope, our thirsting for the right,
Our mercy and long seeking of the light,
Shall we change these for thy relentless might?
Laugh then and slay. Shatter all things of worth,
Heap torment still on torment for thy mirth—
Thou art not Lord while there are Men on earth.
Scheme | AAA BBB CCC DDD EEE FXF GGG DDD HXH III GGG EEE |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11111010111 11101010101 0111111111 1101110101 011110011 1101011111 1111010101 1011010101 01111101101 0100011111 101110101101 01011110111 1101011001 11010101101 01011011101 10111110101 0101111101 1011111101 1101011011 1100011101 1001110101 1001110111 10100111101 0111011101 101011111 1111110110 1111010111 11111111111 11001111111 01111101011 101101101101 10100110101 1111110101 1101101111 11111111 1111111111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 1,574 |
Words | 308 |
Sentences | 17 |
Stanzas | 12 |
Stanza Lengths | 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3, 3 |
Lines Amount | 36 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 9 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 104 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 26 |
Font size:
Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 25, 2023
- 1:32 min read
- 145 Views
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem analysis to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"De Profundis" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 7 May 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/6932/de-profundis>.
Discuss this Clive Staples Lewis poem analysis with the community:
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In