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

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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