XXIII

Alexandrines

There is a house that most of all on earth I hate.
Though I have passed through many sorrows and have been
In bloody fields, sad seas, and countries desolate,
Yet most I fear that empty house where the grasses green
Grow in the silent court the gaping flags between,
And down the moss-grown paths and terrace no man treads
Where the old, old weeds rise deep on the waste garden beds.
Like eyes of one long dead the empty windows stare
And I fear to cross the garden, I fear to linger there,
For in that house I know a little, silent room
Where Someone’s always waiting, waiting in the gloom
To draw me with an evil eye, and hold me fast⁠—
Yet thither doom will drive me and He will win at last.

Where this text comes from

First published in Spirits in Bondage (1919). First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established. [1] [2]

Structure read from the source's markup; the words have not been compared against a page scan. Last checked 2026-08-20.

Taken from Standard Ebooks, standardebooks/c-s-lewis_poetry, spirits-in-bondage-chapter-23.xhtml. Rights: public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931).

Earlier sources (3)

This poem as JSON or plain text. Line anchors #L1–#L13.

Cite this poem

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963). “Alexandrines.” First published in Spirits in Bondage (1919). Text: Poem Index, https://poemindex.org/c-s-lewis/alexandrines/. Append #L14 to cite line 14, or #L4-L9 for lines 4–9.

More by C. S. Lewis