English Presentation

By Thomas Beasley
Poet: C.S Lewis
C.S Lewis, or Jack Lewis as he liked to be called, was born in 1898 in
Belfast Ireland. Throughout the 65 years of his life Lewis wrote and
published not only poetry but also novels and academic books. The Lion,
The Witch and The Wardrobe, released in 1950, is still the most loved and
enduring of his books. It was so popular that he wrote six other novels to
complete The Narnia Chronicles.

Lewiss early childhood was happy until at the age of ten his mother died
as well as his father and brother later that year. He was sent away to
boarding school, became seriously ill and eventually was enrolled at a
school in England. He initially hated boarding school but in 1909 he began
to enjoy his studies and became interested in poetry and languages.

Further unhappiness and upheaval became part of his experience when he

enlisted in the army in 1916. But after WW1 he was able to pursue his
studies at Oxford and soon became an expert in Greek and Latin
Literature, Philosophy, Ancient History and English Literature.

With his diverse background of happy/sad and war experiences he

became passionate about language and writing. In the 1930,s, he started
to publish books with his first major work The Pilgrims Regress telling
the story of his own personal journey to Christianity.

I have chosen the poem After Prayers, Lie Cold to demonstrate the
personal ideals, values and attitudes of C.S Lewis. As you will see, the loss
of family, war, boarding school, illness, finding religion and University
study have all shaped Lewis as a poet, author of religious books and
novelist.

The first two lines of the poem,

Arise my body, my small body, we have striven

Enough, and He is merciful: we are forgiven.

Illustrate the belief and faith that Lewis has in Christianity. He describes
his body as small in contrast to the Merciful Lord forgiving him. The word
striven gives a feeling that he has been praying for a long time and it
has been a huge effort.
The poem continues to portray an image of his frailness and fragility when
in line three the use of the terms puppet-like and pale make us see
him as submitting to the will of God. God is the puppet master and Lewis
is responding as a puppet. The reference to him being a puppet can be
interpreted as him feeling inferior to the powers in his world and
particularly inferior to God. Lewis is a very religious person with a strong
attitude of humility. Maybe even very low self esteem. Other influences in
his life have plagued him to give him this humility, for example, serious
respiratory illness and this would also mean he sees himself

.........................................................pale, and go,

White as the bed-clothes into bed, and cold as snow,

He continues throughout the poem to use language that shows him to be

sickly, small and humble.

He refers to himself in the following metaphor as

....... a garment washed and folded up,

And then continues in line nine with more about his purged body_

Faded in colour, thinned almost to raggedness

It is as though he is saying that the forgiveness he has received has been

hard on his body just like washing is hard on clothing. Both become worn
out and faded.

Then we move to the second half of the poem and the relentlessness of
the poet as he sends a strong message of his sense that he must suffer
for his forgiveness.

The poem says he does not want to be too warm again too soon, he wants
to accept his bitter thoughts and breathe the cold air, as though he needs
to be punished.

In the last line

Soon enough comes the riot of our blood and breath.

he is saying that he hasnt suffered enough because as soon as he climbs

into bed he will be warm again and breathing will be easier again when his
blood rushes back through his body in the warmth.

Throughout the poem Lewis talks to himself as though he is a different

entity and he is sympathising with the person in the poem. He also uses
his deep passion for language to give this poem a sense of despair as
though he is pleading with himself to do better.

His use of repetition plays an important part in this poem as Lewis uses
metaphors, similes and vocabulary to emphasise the story he is telling.

Lewis has used the poem to express the idea that he is unworthy in this
life and has become a shadow of what he should have been as a man. He
obviously set high standards and values for himself as he volunteered to
fight on the front line during WW1. He studied hard and achieved high
academic goals and he used his knowledge to produce a multitude of
books working hard all his life.

Christian values are explicit in this poem as the title indicates he was
probably inspired to write after saying his prayers in the cold. This also fits
with Lewiss background as a language scholar. He would have studied
bible passages as part of Greek and Latin Literature.

But the image of a frail, small body suffering for forgiveness is how the
author sees himself. He thinks he is unworthy of forgiveness as he will
probably sin again no matter how he strives to be a better person.

The more you read this poem the more forlorn it sounds.

Lewis was obviously responding to the unhappiness of his early life and
used his academic knowledge of language and poetry structure to express
this to others.