Poems

We associate C.S. Lewis with fiction, children’s stories, works on Christina living and life, and apologetics. But before he was any of things, and while he was all of these things, he was a port.In fact, poetry was his first love. It was his ambition to become a poet, a great poet.In 1964, the year after Lewis died, many his poems were assembled by Walter Hooper, his literary executor. Into a volume entitled, appropriately enough, “Poems.” It was reprinted in 1992 and again in 2002, and is still available in paperback (and ebook).What “Poems” includes is largely formal poetry, with rhyme and meter and formal structure. It is poetry that includes both human and divine themes, pagan and Christian stories, natural and created imagery. It is what we know as traditional poetry, and it is good traditional poetry.Old Poets RememberedOne happier look on your kind, suffering face,And all my sky is domed with cloudless blue;Eternal summer in a moment’s spaceBreathes with sweet air and glows and warms me through.One droop of your dear mouth, one tear of yours,One gasp of Faith half-strangled by its foe,And down through a waste world of slag and sewersAnd hammering and louds wheels once more I go.This, whty old poets told me about love(Tristam’s obedience, Isoud’s sovereignty…)Turns true in a dreamed mode I dreamed not of,--What once I studied, now I learn to be;Taught, oh how late! in anguish, the responseI might have made with exultation once.Lewis writes of a wide range of topics and themes: gnomes, planets, aging, a wedding, biblical characters like Adam and Solomon, evolution, Aristotle, the atomic bomb, mythical creatures like dragons, the nativity, prayer, love, desire, and more. He even has a poem on Narnia and science fiction. One of the most poignant poems in the collection is “To Charles Williams,” written shortly after the fellow Inkling’s death in 1945,The poems were also not something hidden or unpublished during Lewis’s lifetime. In an appendix, Hooper lists the various places where the poems were first published, including the Cambridge Review, Oxford Magazine, the Times Literary Supplement, the Spectator, Punch, and others.“Poems” will likely be never as popular as his other writings, but they do add a dimension to understanding the man, his thought, and his work.

This book, although not as thorough as complete as some other editions of Lewis's poetry, is a handsome, medium-sized edition that collects most, I think, of Lewis's poems. They are not arranged in any order, but rather gathered according to various different (and vague) headings provided by (I presume) main Lewis editor Walter Hooper. But this is not as bad as it sounds, and the arrangement makes for some very good reading when one is so inclined to dip into Lewis's poetry. Some of his poems are first-rate and excellent, even memorable and amongst the very best that poets have ever offered; many of them center around myths and ancient imagery both popular and obscure; some are explicitly or implicitly Christian (and these are my favorites), while some are not; some are confessional and reveal hints of Lewis's own struggles with iniquity and sin (including "Infatuation") whereas others are scholarly and impersonal (such as the sonnet on the destruction of the Assyrian king Sennacharib's army, comparing the Biblical and heathen accounts).As other reviewers have noticed, Lewis's poetry is more metered and traditional than many of his contemporaries, including those more famous works by T.S. Eliot (a line from whose "Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" Lewis wryly -- and famously -- comments upon, in the first poem in this collection); but as a fan of both T.S. Eliot and C.S. Lewis I can suggest that the two are really not very different; both were unique Christian writers, and both have written likable and memorable works -- including their verse -- and both have their strengths and weaknesses; C.S. Lewis, I would suggest, is the better essayist of the two, whereas Eliot's poetry might be slightly better in some ways than Lewis's. And yet Lewis's conclusions, in his works, are often more optimistic and Biblically "Christian" than Eliot's. But these are my own personal opinions.

Obscure and wonderful both. I have been mostly familiar with the analytical Lewis, but this shows his heart much in the way that “A Grief Observed” is the heart and fire version of “The Problem of Pain.” Part IV of “Poems” deals with death and loss and as such may well be considered “A Grief Observed Part II.” Not without humor (the Unicorn) or political pathos (the Atomic Bomb). Highly recommended. HAU. 8 Dec 20.

Bought this as a gift for my brother who is a big fan of C.S. Lewis and he was very happy with this book and highly recommends it.

My daughter is a huge CS Lewis fan and she loves this book of poems. Excellent

I am a novice to poetry, but in my pursuit of reading everything C. S. Lewis ever wrote, came his poetry. In his experimentation with various styles I have gained some basic education. I see many expressions of themes he explored in his fiction and in his writings on Christianity, philosophy, and literature. To the best of my discernment, the artistic quality is variable, some poems so prosaically expressed that they might as well have been prose. Yet I deeply appreciated frequent instances of beauty, cleverness, and profound meaning, sometimes in the same poem. My limited familiarity with mythology and classic lit left me guessing at the meaning of many allusions. But I enjoyed this new side of a brilliant, reverent man, and I will come back to some of his more beautiful artistry and, even more, his poignant expressions of truth.

C.S.Lewis's verses are beautifully crafted, imaginative, powerful expressions of wonder, joy, cynicism, and love of life. His erudition will appeal to those with a classical education, but many of the poems are straightforward and speak to a general reader. Among the poems are a few that hint at his fascination with mythology and with science fiction and space.This volume is packed with surprises, particularly in choice of words, that made me think "wow!" Definitely I'd recommend it to anyone who appreciates well-written poetry, whether a previous fan of Lewis's or not. -- M.A.

C.S. Lewis is a genius. These poems are beautiful.

Romantic Stuff

As a Lewis Fan, this was a welcome addition to my collection!

Only just realised that CSL wrote lots of poems as well as books and they are excellent.

Some of C S Lewis' best stuff is in here.