This E Tenebris summary begins with a cry for help. The title is Latin for “out of the darkness,” and in this sonnet Oscar Wilde’s speaker calls on Christ to save him, convinced that his soul is lost. It is one of Wilde’s most openly religious poems and a strong pair with Hélas!. Read the full text of E Tenebris on Poetry Catalog.
E Tenebris Summary
Lines 1–3: drowning. “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.” He compares himself to Simon Peter, who began to sink when he tried to walk on water to Jesus.
Lines 4–8: despair. “The wine of life is spilt upon the sand.” His heart is “as some famine-murdered land,” and he is sure that if he died tonight, his “soul in Hell must lie.”
Lines 9–11: doubt. In quotation marks comes a mocking voice: perhaps God “sleeps perchance, or rideth to the chase, / Like Baal.” This echoes the prophet Elijah mocking the priests of Baal, whose god never answered.
Lines 12–14: vision. “Nay, peace.” The speaker rejects the doubt. Before night he will see Christ: “The feet of brass, the robe more white than flame, / The wounded hands, the weary human face.”
Key Facts
- Poet: Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
- Published: first in a magazine around 1881, then in Poems (1881)
- Title: Latin for “out of the darkness”
- Form: Petrarchan sonnet, ABBAABBA CDEEDC
- Speaker: a sinner praying for rescue
- Tone: desperate, then hopeful
Themes
Sin and salvation. The speaker feels lost, yet the poem moves toward hope.
Faith and doubt. The mocking voice about Baal is the voice of doubt. The speaker answers it with a vision.
Waste. Spilt wine and a famine-ruined land show a life emptied of good.
The human Christ. The poem ends not with glory but with “wounded hands” and a “weary human face.” Wilde’s Christ suffers like the speaker.
Key Lines Explained
Come down, O Christ, and help me! reach Thy hand,
The poem opens mid-crisis, with an exclamation. There’s no scene-setting, only need.
The wine of life is spilt upon the sand,
Wine recalls communion and joy. Spilt on sand, it can’t be gathered back.
‘He sleeps perchance, or rideth to the chase,
Like Baal, when his prophets howled that name
In 1 Kings 18, Elijah mocks Baal’s priests, saying their god may be asleep or away. The speaker fears his own God is just as silent.
The wounded hands, the weary human face.
The poem’s final image. “Brass” and “flame” come from the vision in Revelation, but the last words are tender and human.
Form, Meter and Rhyme
E Tenebris is a Petrarchan sonnet in iambic pentameter. The octave is despair; the sestet holds doubt and then vision. The volta, or turn, is sharpened by “Nay, peace” in line 12, where the speaker silences the mocking voice.
E Tenebris FAQ
What does E Tenebris mean?
Latin for “out of the darkness.”
Who is Simon in E Tenebris?
Simon Peter, the apostle who started to sink while walking on water toward Jesus on the Sea of Galilee.
Why does Wilde mention Baal?
To voice doubt. Elijah mocked Baal’s prophets because their god never answered. The speaker fears the same silence.
Is E Tenebris hopeful?
Yes, at the end. The speaker moves from despair to a vision of Christ.