The Poetry of C. S. Lewis

Long before Narnia or his defense of Christianity, C. S. Lewis published this cycle of lyric poems in 1919, at the age of twenty and under the pen name Clive Hamilton. He had just returned from the trenches of the First World War, and at the time he was an atheist, so the verses carry a bitterness and doubt that his later readers rarely associate with him. The collection moves through three parts, The Prison House, Hesitation, and The Escape, following a spirit that feels trapped by a cruel or indifferent universe and reaches toward beauty and release. It is a revealing look at a major writer before his faith and his fame took hold. Free PDF and EPUB edition.