Spirits in Bondage: A Cycle of Lyrics

By C. S. Lewis

'Spirits in Bondage: A Cycle of Lyrics' was C. S. Lewis's first published work. Lewis is best-known today for writing 'The Chronicles of Narnia'. When he wrote this book, Lewis was twenty years old and had just returned from military service in the First World War. His tutor, William T. Kirkpatrick, encouraged him in publishing the book, although it was unusual at Lewis's age, as writers were expected to wait longer before sharing their work with the world. The book is composed of three different sections of poetry. The poems take on several styles and rhythms throughout the book, but share common themes. This work stands out among Lewis's writings not only because of the focus on poetry rather than prose, but because the author had not yet made his conversion to Christianity; therefore the themes and worldviews offered in the following work differ greatly from those for which Lewis is most well known.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Good Press
• Release date: Nov 19, 2019
• ISBN: 4057664139238

C. S. Lewis

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 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. Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963) fue uno de los intelectuales más importantes del siglo veinte y podría decirse que fue el escritor cristiano más influyente de su tiempo. Fue profesor particular de literatura inglesa y miembro de la junta de gobierno en la Universidad Oxford hasta 1954, cuando fue nombrado profesor de literatura medieval y renacentista en la Universidad Cambridge, cargo que desempeñó hasta que se jubiló. Sus contribuciones a la crítica literaria, literatura infantil, literatura fantástica y teología popular le trajeron fama y aclamación a nivel internacional. C. S. Lewis escribió más de treinta libros, lo cual le permitió alcanzar una enorme audiencia, y sus obras aún atraen a miles de nuevos lectores cada año. Sus más distinguidas y populares obras incluyen Las Crónicas de Narnia, Los Cuatro Amores, Cartas del Diablo a Su Sobrino y Mero Cristianismo.

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C. S. Lewis

Spirits in Bondage: A Cycle of Lyrics

Published by Good Press, 2019

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EAN 4057664139238

Table of Contents

In Three Parts

Historical Background

Prologue

Part I The Prison House

I. Satan Speaks

II. French Nocturne (Monchy-Le-Preux)

III. The Satyr

IV. Victory

V. Irish Nocturne

VI. Spooks

VII. Apology

VIII. Ode for New Year's Day

IX. Night

X. To Sleep

XI. In Prison

XII. De Profundis

XIII. Satan Speaks

XIV. The Witch

XV. Dungeon Grates

XVI. The Philosopher

XVII. The Ocean Strand

XVIII. Noon

XIX. Milton Read Again (In Surrey)

XXI. The Autumn Morning

Part II. Hesitation

XXIII. Alexandrines

XXIV. In Praise of Solid People

Part III. The Escape

XXVI. Song

XXVII. The Ass

XXVIII. Ballade Mystique

XXIX. Night

XXX. Oxford

XXXI. Hymn (For Boys' Voices)

XXXII. Our Daily Bread

XXXIII. How He Saw Angus the God

XXXIV. The Roads

XXXV. Hesperus

XXXVI. The Star Bath

XXXVII. Tu Ne Quaesieris

XXXVIII. Lullaby

XXXIX. World's Desire

XL. Death in Battle

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In Three Parts

Table of Contents

I. The Prison House

II. Hesitation

III. The Escape

"The land where I shall never be

The love that I shall never see"

Historical Background

Table of Contents

Published under the pseudonym, Clive Hamilton, Spirits in Bondage was C. S. Lewis' first book. Released in 1919 by Heinemann, it was reprinted in 1984 by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich and included in Lewis' 1994 Collected Poems. It is the first of Lewis' major published works to enter the public domain in the United States. Readers should be aware that in other countries it may still be under copyright protection.

Most of the poems appear to have been written between 1915 and 1918, a period during which Lewis was a student under W. T. Kirkpatrick, a military trainee at Oxford, and a soldier serving in the trenches of World War I. Their outlook varies from Romantic expressions of love for the beauty and simplicity of nature to cynical statements about the presence of evil in this world. In a September 12, 1918 letter to his friend Arthur Greeves, Lewis said that his book was, mainly strung around the idea that I mentioned to you before—that nature is wholly diabolical & malevolent and that God, if he exists, is outside of and in opposition to the cosmic arrangements. In his cynical poems, Lewis is dealing with the same questions about evil in nature that Alfred Lord Tennyson explored from a position of troubled faith in In Memoriam A. H. (Stanzas 54f). In a letter written perhaps to reassure his father, Lewis claimed, You know who the God I blaspheme is and that it is not the God that you or I worship, or any other Christian.

Whatever Lewis believed at that time, the attitude