Analysis of The Meteorite

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



Among the hills a meteorite
Lies huge; and moss has overgrown,
And wind and rain with touches light
Made soft, the contours of the stone.

Thus easily can Earth digest
A cinder of sidereal fire,
And make her translunary guest
The native of an English shire.

Nor is it strange these wanderers
Find in her lap their fitting place,
For every particle that's hers
Came at the first from outer space.

All that is Earth has once been sky;
Down from the sun of old she came,
Or from some star that travelled by
Too close to his entangling flame.

Hence, if belated drops yet fall
From heaven, on these her plastic power
Still works as once it worked on all
The glad rush of the golden shower.


Scheme ABAB CDCX EFEF GHGH IDID
Poetic Form Quatrain  (80%)
Etheree  (35%)
Tetractys  (20%)
Metre 01010100 1101101 01011101 1101101 11001101 0101110 01011 01011101 11111100 10011101 110010010 11011101 11111111 11011111 11111101 11110101 11010111 1101101010 11111111 011101010
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 672
Words 130
Sentences 6
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4
Lines Amount 20
Letters per line (avg) 27
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 108
Words per stanza (avg) 26
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

39 sec read
47

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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