Spirits in Bondage

By C.S. Lewis

First published in 1919, “Spirits in Bondage: A Cycle of Lyrics” is the first published work by noted English author C. S. Lewis. Most famous for his “Chronicles of Narnia” series, Lewis was also a prolific author of Christian literature and a respected lay theologian. This collection of poetry was written nearly three decades before his “Narnia” series was published and several years before his formal conversion to Christianity. Lewis was only twenty years old when “Spirits in Bondage” was written and had newly returned home from his military service in World War I. These pieces differ dramatically from the work that Lewis is most famous for and show a young man grappling with doubt, fear, and deep skepticism of the both the goodness of God and His existence. Divided into three sections, the poems track the author’s struggle as he begins by asking difficult questions of himself, such as why evil is allowed to exist and does being devout mean a loss of self, before culminating in a rapturous and profound experience of heaven and God’s love. A fascinating and illuminative work, “Spirits in Bondage” is a must-read for everyone who enjoys Lewis’ classic works of faith.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Digireads.com Publishing
• Release date: Dec 11, 2020
• ISBN: 9781420980127

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 English at Cambridge University, a position he held until his retirement.

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SPIRITS IN BONDAGE

A CYCLE OF LYRICS

By C. S. LEWIS

Spirits in Bondage

By C. S. Lewis

Print ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-7877-3

eBook ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-8012-7

This edition copyright © 2021. Digireads.com Publishing.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Cover Image: a detail of a photograph of C. S. Lewis with ‘E’ Company of the Officer Cadet Battalion at Keble College, c. 1917 / By Kind Permission of the Warden, Fellows, and Scholars of Keble College, Oxford / Bridgeman Images.

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CONTENTS

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)

XX. Sonnet

XXI. The Autumn Morning

Part II. Hesitation

XXII. L’Apprenti Sorcier

XXIII. Alexandrines

XXIV. In Praise of Solid People

Part III. The Escape

XXV. Song of the Pilgrims

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 Quæsieris

XXXVIII. Lullaby

XXXIX. World’s Desire

XL. Death in Battle

Prologue

As of old Phoenician men, to the Tin Isles sailing

Straight against the sunset and the edges of the earth,

Chaunted loud above the storm and the strange sea’s wailing,

Legends of their people and the land that gave them birth—

Sang aloud to Baal-Peor, sang unto the horned maiden,

Sang how they should come again with the Brethon treasure laden,

Sang of all the pride and glory of their hardy enterprise,

How they found the outer islands, where the unknown stars arise;

And the rowers down below, rowing hard as they could row,

Toiling at the stroke and feather through the wet and weary weather,

Even they forgot their burden in the measure of a song,

And the merchants and the masters and the bondsmen all together,

Dreaming of the wondrous islands, brought the gallant ship along;

So in mighty deeps alone on the chainless breezes blown

In my coracle of verses I will sing of lands unknown,

Flying from the scarlet city where a Lord that knows no pity,

[learn2laugh-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very moving book of poetry. Some very dark and grappling. This was Lewis after the War but before Christ. A glimpse of a soldier's soul, wrestling with God, human nature, and pain.

[edwinbcn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

C. S. Lewis (1898 – 1963) was a scholar, and a writer. Beside scholarly publications, he wrote and published novels and a small body of poetry. Having fallen away from his faith in his youth, becoming an atheist at the age of 15, he regressed to theism in 1929, and converted to Christianity in 1931, becoming a member in the Church of England. Following his conversion he became an apologist of the Christian, and published many books exploring religious questions.

Spirits in bondage. A cycle of lyrics was published in 1919, when C. S. Lewis was just 20 years old. It is a difficult cycle of poems, dark and gloomy, and packed with references to Irish-Celtic mythology, as well as Classical mythology. The cycle consists of three parts: (I) The Prison House, (II) Hesitation and (III) The Escape, consisting of 40 poems and a Prologue. The cycle suggests a progression from (Winter, through Spring), Summer and Autumn (in Part 1); the following parts contain no references to the seasons.

The dark atmosphere of the cycle can be ascribed to Lewis's experience in the Great War. Despite his atheism, his interest in the occult speaks through the place given in the poems to Satan, sorcery (ghosts and witches) and the ruthlessness of nature. Fear and hesitation are the effects of these brutal forces. Poem (II) French Nocturne (Monchy-Le-Preux) speaks explicitly of the horror of the war, the trenches, bombing and sacked villages.

Another theme, apparent, is homesickness. While the Phoenicians describe and long for a Paradise in the West, the Garden of the Hesperides, Lewis's longing for the Tin Isles is a longing for home and the steadfastness of that home as expressed in the poems In Praise Of Solid People (XXIV) and Oxford (XXX).

The cycle also describes a turn in fate of the spirit, over the course of a day, from Night, To Sleep, Noon, Autumn Morning and Night, again, the mood swings from Despair, to desolation, to an idle hope in dreams and revelry, and back to despair, the way out only to be found in death.

Superficially, the poems could be seen as an adolescents verbal Symphonie fantastique; however, since they were written by C.S. Lewis they deserve closer scrutiny. Regarding his professed atheism, the religious overtones of the poems are remarkable, particularly the references to Milton's Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained.

Milton Read Again (In Surrey)

Three golden months while summer on us stole
I have read your joyful tale another time,
Breathing more freely in that larger clime
And learning wiselier to deserve the whole.

Your Spirit, Master, has been close at hand
And guided me, still pointing treasures rare,
Thick-sown where I before saw nothing fair
And finding waters in the barren land,

Barren once thought because my eyes were dim.
Like one I am grown to whom the common field
And often-wandered copse one morning yield
New pleasures suddenly; for over him

Falls the weird spirit of unexplained delight,
New mystery in every shady place,
In every whispering tree a nameless grace,
New rapture on the windy seaward height.

So may she come to me, teaching me well
To savour all these sweets that lie to hand
In wood and lane about this pleasant land
Though it be not the land where I would dwell.

Spirits in bondage. A cycle of lyrics is the only work of C.S. Lewis in the public domain. I enjoyed listening to the Librivox recording, and have reread the poems several times, using the etext from the Project Gutenberg.

Rereading is a must, for a complex work like this.