# E Tenebris explained — Poetry

> Chapter companion for Poetry by Oscar Wilde.

## What happens

A desperate prayer for divine intervention, comparing personal anguish to Simon's drowning and invoking Christ's mercy despite a sense of utter desolation and unworthiness.

## Themes in this chapter

### Suffering and Redemption

The speaker's profound suffering and plea for Christ's redemption.

### Spirituality and Doubt

A cry to Christ mixed with uncertainty about whether He hears or sleeps.

## Character check-ins

### Christ

Implored to reach down and save the speaker from a stormy sea of despair.

## Key lines

> Come down, O Christ, and help me! reach thy hand, For I am drowning in a stormier sea Than Simon on thy lake of Galilee

Christ, descend and save me, for I am sinking in a more turbulent sea than Simon Peter did on the Sea of Galilee.

_The speaker compares his own peril to the biblical story of Peter sinking in the water._

> The wine of life is spilt upon the sand, My heart is as some famine-murdered land Whence all good things have perished utterly

The essence of my life has been wasted, and my heart is like a land devastated by famine where nothing good remains.

_Metaphor for utter loss and desolation._

> Nay, peace, I shall behold, before the night, The feet of brass, the robe more white than flame, The wounded hands, the weary human face.

No, be still; before nightfall I will see the brass feet, the robe whiter than fire, the wounded hands, and the tired human face of Christ.

_A shift from despair to a vision of Christ's divine and human attributes._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_18_se/chapters/e-tenebris
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_18_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_18_se/chapters