Poems Read online

  Therefore, oh God, if heaven, as they tell,

  Is full of music, yet in mercy save

  For me one nook of silence even in hell,

  And therefore, stranger, tip-toe past this grave;

  And let posterity know this of me—

  I died both for, and of, democracy.

  15

  (Emendation for the end of Goethe’s Faust)

  Solids whose shadow lay

  Across time, here

  (All subterfuge dispelled)

  Show hard and clear;

  Fondled impossibles

  Wither outside;

  Within, the Wholly Masculine

  Confronts His bride.

  16

  My grave my pillory, by this blabbing stone

  Forbidden to sleep unknown,

  I feel like fire my neighbours’ eyes because

  All here know what I was.

  Think, stranger, of that moment when I too

  First, and forever, knew.

  17

  Here lies the whole world after one

  Peculiar mode; a buried sun,

  Stars and immensities of sky

  And cities here discarded lie.

  The prince who owned them, having gone,

  Left them as things not needed on

  His journey; yet with hope that he,

  Purged by aeonian poverty

  In lenten lands, hereafter can

  Resume the robes he wore as man.

  APPENDIX

  Previous publications of poems already printed

  Such poems are listed below in alphabetical order, the title being followed by (1) the abbreviation ‘Rev.’ when the text first published has been revised by the author; (2) the abbreviation ‘Or.’ introducing the original title, when it differs from that given in this volume; (3) the publication, volume, date, and page-number of the original issue. The following abbreviations are used for periodicals, etc.

  CR

  The Cambridge Review

  M

  The Month

  OM

  The Oxford Magazine

  P

  Punch

  S

  The Spectator

  TT

  Time and Tide

  TLS

  The Times Literary Supplement

  Pilgrim’s Regress

  C. S. Lewis: The Pilgrim’s Regress: An Allegorical Apology for Christianity, Reason, and Romanticiscm. London: Geoffrey Bles Ltd, 1943.

  Published Poems

  THE ADAM AT NIGHT (Rev. Or. ‘Adam at Night’). P, CCXVI (May 11, 1949), p. 510.

  THE ADAM UNPARADISED (Rev. Or. ‘A Footnote to PreHistory’). P, CCXVII (Sept. 14, 1949), p. 304.

  AFTER ARISTOTLE. OM, LXXIV (Feb. 23, 1956), p. 296.

  AS ONE OLDSTER TO ANOTHER (Rev.). P, CCXVIII (March 15, 1950), pp. 294–95.

  BALLADE OF DEAD GENTLEMEN. P, CCXX (March 28, 1951), p. 386.

  THE BIRTH OF LANGUAGE (Rev.). P, CCX (Jan. 9, 1946), p. 32.

  CAUGHT. Pilgrim’s Regress, pp. 147–48.

  A CLICHÉ CAME OUT OF ITS CAGE (Rev. Part I). Nine: A Magazine of Poetry and Criticism, II (May 1950), p. 114.

  THE CONDEMNED (Rev. Or. ‘Under Sentence’). S, CLXXV (Sept. 7, 1945), p. 219.

  A CONFESSION (Rev. Or. Spartan Nactus). P, CCXXVII (Dec. 1, 1954), p. 685.

  CORONATION MARCH. OM, LV (May 6, 1937), p. 565.

  THE COUNTRY OF THE BLIND. P, CCXXI (Sept. 12, 1951), p. 303.

  THE DAY WITH A WHITE MARK (Rev.). P, CCXVII (Aug. 17, 1949), p. 170.

  DECEPTION. Pilgrim’s Regress, p. 187.

  DIVINE JUSTICE. Pilgrim’s Regress, p. 180.

  DONKEYS’ DELIGHT (Rev.). P, CCXIII (Nov. 5, 1947), p. 442.

  DRAGON-SLAYER. Pilgrim’s Regress, pp. 195–96.

  THE DRAGON SPEAKS (Rev.). Pilgrim’s Regress, pp. 192–93.

  EPIGRAMS AND EPITAPHS:

  No. 11 (Or. ‘Epitaph’). TT, XXIII (June 6, 1942), p. 460;

  No. 12 (Or. ‘On Receiving Bad News’). TT, XXVI (Dec. 29, 1945), p. 1093;

  No. 14 (Rev. Or. ‘Epitaph’). S, CLXXXI (July 30, 1948), p. 142;

  No. 15 (Rev. Or. ‘Epanorthosis (for the end of Goethe’s Faust)’). CR, LXXVII (May 26, 1956), p. 610;

  No. 16 (Or. ‘Epitaph in a Village Churchyard’). TT, XXX (March 19, 1949), p. 272;

  No. 17 (Or. ‘Epitaph’). M, II (July, 1949), p. 8.

  EVOLUTIONARY HYMN. CR, LXXIX (Nov. 30, 1957), p. 227.

  AN EXPOSTULATION (Against Too Many Writers of Science Fiction). Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, XVI (June 1959), p. 47.

  FOOTNOTE TO ALL PRAYERS (Rev.) Pilgrim’s Regress, pp. 144–45.

  FORBIDDEN PLEASURE. Pilgrim’s Regress, p. 189.

  THE FUTURE OF FORESTRY. OM, LVI (Feb. 10, 1938), p. 383.

  HERMIONE IN THE HOUSE OF PAULINA (Rev.). Augury: An Oxford Miscellany of Verse and Prose, ed. by Alex M. Hardie and Keith C. Douglas. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1940, p. 28.

  IMPENITENCE. P, CCXV (July 1953), p. 91.

  THE LANDING (Rev.). P, CCXV (Sept. 15, 1948), p. 237.

  THE LAST OF THE WINE (Rev. Or. ‘The End of the Wine’). P, CCXIII (Dec. 3, 1947), p. 538.

  THE LATE PASSENGER (Rev. Or. ‘The Sailing of the Ark’). P, CCXV (Aug. 11, 1948), p. 124.

  LEGION (Rev.). M, XIII (April 1955), p. 210.

  LE ROI S’AMUSE (Rev.). P, CCXIII (Oct. 1, 1947), p. 324.

  LILITH. Pilgrim’s Regress, pp. 190–91.

  THE MAGICIAN AND THE DRYAD. (Rev. Or. ‘Conversation Piece: The Magician and the Dryad’). P, CCXVII (July 20, 1949), p. 71.

  ‘MAN IS A LUMPE WHERE ALL BEASTS KNEADED BE’ (Rev. Or. ‘The Shortest Way Home’). OM, LII (May 10, 1934), p. 665.

  THE METEORITE. TT, XXVII (Dec. 7, 1946), p. 1183.

  THE NAKED SEED. Pilgrim’s Regress, p. 162.

  NARNIAN SUITE (Rev. Part 2). P, CCXXV (Nov. 4, 1953), p. 553.

  NEARLY THEY STOOD. Pilgrim’s Regress, pp. 181–82.

  ODORA CANUM VIS (A defence of certain modern biographers and critics) (Rev.). M, XI (May 1954), p. 272.

  ON A PICTURE BY CHIRICO (Rev.). S, CLXXXII (May 6, 1949), p. 607.

  ON A THEME FROM NICHOLAS OF CUSA (Rev. Or. ‘On Another Theme from Nicholas of Cusa’). TLS (Jan. 21, 1955), p. 43.

  ON BEING HUMAN (Rev.). P, CCX (May 8, 1946), p. 402.

  ON THE ATOMIC BOMB (Metrical Experiment). S, CLXXV (Dec. 28, 1945), p. 619.

  PAN’S PURGE. P, CCXII (Jan. 15, 1947), p. 71.

  PATTERN (Rev. Or. ‘Experiment’). S, CLXI (Dec. 9, 1938), p. 998.

  PILGRIM’S PROBLEM. M, VII (May 1952), p. 275.

  PINDAR SANG (Rev. Or. ‘Arrangement of Pindar’). Mandrake, I, no. 6 (1949), pp. 43–45.

  THE PLANETS. Lysistrata, II (May 1935), pp. 21–24.

  POSTURING. Pilgrim’s Regress, pp. 184–85.

  THE PRODIGALITY OF FIRDAUSI (Rev.). P, CCXV (Dec. 1, 1948), p. 510.

  THE PRUDENT JAILER (Rev. Or. ‘The Romantics’). New English Weekly, XXX (Jan. 16, 1947), p. 130.

  THE SALAMANDER. S, CLXXIV (June 8, 1945), p. 521.

  SCAZONS (Rev.). Pilgrim’s Regress, p. 198.

  SCHOLAR’S MELANCHOLY. OM, LII (May 24, 1934), p. 734.

  SCIENCE-FICTION CRADLESONG (Rev. Or. ‘Cradle-Song Based on a Theme from Nicholas of Cusa’). TLS (June 11, 1954), p. 375.

  SOLOMON (Rev.). P, CCXI (Aug. 14, 1946), p. 136.

  SONNET. OM, LIV (May 14, 1936), p. 575.

  TO A FRIEND (Rev. Or. ‘To G. M.’). S, CLXIX (Oct. 9, 1942), p. 335.

  TO CHARLES WILLIAMS (Rev. Or. ‘On the Death of Charles Williams’). Britain To-day, No. 112 (Aug. 1945), p. 14.

  TO THE AUTHOR OF ‘FLOWERING RIFLE’ (Rev. Or. ‘To Mr. Roy Campbell’). The Cherwell, LVI (May 6, 1939), p. 35.

  THE TRUE NATURE OF GNOMES. P, CCXI (Oct. 16, 1946), p. 310.

  THE TURN OF THE TIDE (Rev.). P, (Almanac), CCXVI (Nov. 1, 1948).

  TWO KINDS OF MEMORY (Rev.). TT, XXVIII (Aug. 7, 1947), p. 859. r />
  VIRTUE’S INDEPENDENCE. Pilgrim’s Regress, p. 183.

  VITREA CIRCE (Rev.). P, CCXIV (June 23, 1948), p. 543.

  VOWELS AND SIRENS (Rev.). TLS (Special Autumn Issue), (Aug. 29, 1952), p. xiv.

  WHAT THE BIRD SAID EARLY IN THE YEAR (Rev. Or. ‘Chanson d’Aventure’). OM, LVI (May 19, 1938), p. 638.

  WHEN THE CURTAIN’S DOWN. Pilgrim’s Regress, p. 197.

  WORMWOOD. Pilgrim’s Regress, p. 177.

  YOUNG KING COLE (Rev. Or. ‘Dangerous Oversight’). P, CCXII (May 21, 1947), p. 434.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  CLIVE STAPLES LEWIS (1898–1963) was one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century and arguably one of the most influential writers of his day. He was a Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Oxford University until 1954, when he was unanimously elected to the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University, a position he held until his retirement. He wrote more than thirty books, allowing him to reach a vast audience, and his works continue to attract thousands of new readers every year. His most distinguished and popular accomplishments include Mere Christianity, Out of the Silent Planet, The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters, and the universally acknowledged classics The Chronicles of Narnia. To date, the Narnia books have sold over 100 million copies and have been transformed into three major motion pictures.

  Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.

  ALSO BY C. S. LEWIS

  A Grief Observed

  George MacDonald: An Anthology

  Mere Christianity

  Miracles

  The Abolition of Man

  The Great Divorce

  The Problem of Pain

  The Screwtape Letters (with “Screwtape Proposes a Toast”)

  The Weight of Glory

  The Four Loves

  Till We Have Faces

  Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life

  Reflections on the Psalms

  Letters to Malcolm, Chiefly on Prayer

  The Personal Heresy

  The World’s Last Night: And Other Essays

  The Dark Tower: And Other Stories

  Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories

  Narrative Poems

  A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis

  Letters of C. S. Lewis

  All My Road Before Me

  The Business of Heaven: Daily Readings from C. S. Lewis

  Present Concerns: Journalistic Essays

  Spirits in Bondage: A Cycle of Lyrics

  On Stories: And Other Essays on Literature

  ALSO AVAILABLE FROM HARPERCOLLINS

  The Chronicles of Narnia

  The Magician’s Nephew

  The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

  The Horse and His Boy

  Prince Caspian

  The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

  The Silver Chair

  The Last Battle

  FURTHER READING

  CREDITS

  Cover design and illustration: Kimberly Glyder

  COPYRIGHT

  The poems from The Pilgrim’s Regress as listed in the Appendix are reprinted by permission of Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

  POEMS. Copyright © 1964 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd. Preface copyright © 1964 by Walter Hooper. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  Originally published in 1964 by Harcourt Brace. First Harvest/HBJ edition published in 1977.

  EPub Edition February 2017 ISBN 9780062565518

  * * *

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Names: Lewis, C. S. (Clive Staples), 1898-1963, author.

  Title: Poems / C. S. Lewis.

  Description: New York : HarperOne, [2017]

  Identifiers: LCCN 2016030648 | ISBN 9780062643520 (softcover) | ISBN 9780062565518 (ebook)

  Subjects: | BISAC: POETRY / Inspirational & Religious. | RELIGION / Spirituality. | RELIGION / Christianity / Literature & the Arts.

  Classification: LCC PR6023.E926 A6 2017b | DDC 821/.914—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016030648

  * * *

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  C. S. Lewis, Poems

 

 

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