Spirits In Bondage

Gathers forty of Lewis' early lyric poems which deal with the author's war experiences and, then agnostic, beliefs.

“It is ‘Will’ that creates the world, even though the world itself is a malignant thing which inveigles us into reproducing and perpetuating life. The way to terminate this malignancy is by asceticism.”—from the preface

In 1919, when C.S. Lewis was only twenty, just a few months returned from the Great War, his first collection of poetry was published, presaging the author’s brilliant career. At the time, Lewis was in the midst of his agnostic phase, yet to become the great Christian philosopher of his later life. As such, the poems all revolve around the theme of nature as a malevolent force, with beauty as the only divine truth.

This volume includes a preface by Walter Hooper, which illuminates Lewis’s formative influences, drawing from his letters, diaries, and other works to provide a record of the early part of the great writer’s life.

Contents:

Prologue

Part One: The Prison House

1. Satan Speaks
2. French Nocturne (Monchy-le-Preux)
3. The Satyr
4. Victory
5. Irish Nocturne
6. Spooks
7. Apology
8. Ode for New Year's Day
9. Night
10. To Sleep
11. In Prison
12. De Profundis
13. Satan Speaks
14. The Witch
15. Dungeon Grates
16. The Philosopher
17. The Ocean Strand
18. Noon
19. Milton Read Again (in Surrey)
20. Sonnet
21. The Autumn Morning

Part Two: Hesitation

22. L'Apprenti Sorcier
23. Alexandrines
24. In Praise of Solid People

Part Three: The Escape

25. Song of the Pilgrms
26. Song
27. The Ass
28. Ballade Mystique
29. Night
30. Oxford
31. Hymn (for Boys' Voices)
32. 'Our Daily Bread'
33. How He Saw Angus the God
34. The Roads
35. Hesperus
36. The Star Bath
37. Tu Ne Quaesieris
38. Lullaby
39. World's Desire
40. Death in Battle