Poems

Many readers, even some of C.S. Lewis' biggest fans, don't realise that Lewis wrote poetry. In fact, Lewis once said that poetry was his favorite literary form. Well, as it turns out Mr. Lewis was an excellent poet, full of style, emotion, and above-all, imagination! The poems in this collection show C.S. Lewis to be a true master of rhyme and meter, and he is also quite masterful in his uses of imagery, sound, and metaphor. There are also some fine non-rhyming pieces here, but it is really his excellent sense of rhyme that sticks out in your head long after you put the book away. Much of the work here (though not all) is of a spiritual nature, and Lewis expresses his faith in Christ quite openly, but never crosses the line into the type of overt "preachiness" that taints much of Christian-oriented poetry. Poems such as "As the Ruin Falls" (which was later turned into a song by Christian musician Phil Keaggy), "Reason", "Pan's Purge", "Deadly Sins", "Pattern", and "Love As Warm as Tears" rate right alongside some of the finest spiritual rhymes ever written, and for fans of Lewis' popular Narnia stories, there is even an imaginative piece called "Narnian Suite". If you are a fan of C.S. Lewis, or just a fan of classic-style poetry, then please crack open this fine book and enjoy!

While his prose is outstanding and without peer in the English language both in content and style, C.S.Lewis' poetry is worthy of note, although not to the level of Thomas Hardy, Robert Frost or W.B.Yeats. Favorites are Meteorite "glad rush of the golden shower"; a poem about a snubbed unicorn who missed Noah's ark; and a parody of Evolution. If you like thoughtful poetry that rhymes and makes sense, you will enjoy this book.

While I'd agree that this collection may not be the best introduction to Lewis' writing, I highly recommend it to anyone who's already a fan. Many of the poems provide fascinating perspectives on ideas that he conveys in his other imaginative writing and essays. Poetry was Lewis' favorite form to write, and he topical breadth in this book is quite enjoyable.