C.S. LEWIS'S "THE METEORITE" AND THE IMPORTANCE OF CONTEXT

Abstract

[...]Lewis is writing a type of spoken verse, based on wit (in the word's larger meaning); the poem is thus an epigram, not a lyric, in a rather Martialian or Jonsonian sense. The second quatrain generalizes about the moss, wind, and rain: [...]easily can Earth digest A cinder of sidereal fire, And make her translunary guest The native of an English shire The moss, wind, and rain are thus "digest[ing]" the meteorite, in a metaphor, or making it "native" to England, in another. [...]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. Since Lewis added the credit line, surely he could have added any revisions.