Next up, we look at the rest of the poems in Spirits in Bondage this week. Your goal is to see what kind of issues/thought processes Lewis had as a kid between the ages of sixteen-nineteen while under the tutelage of The Great Knock. His ideas of pain and meaning in life were a base for his examination of pain in our next book, The Problem of Pain. In it, he lays out his major theological issues that come from his perspective on pain and why it held back his belief for the better part of a decade (or two if you consider his mother's death).
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| Lewis in 1917 (left) with friend Earnest "Paddy" Moore (right) during WWI. Moore was later killed in active duty. Lewis, as promised cared for Moore's mother upon return until she died. |
Today, let's make a goal of reading through Part II (Poems XXII - XXIV).
- First, we review Part I
- Next, work with a partner to read Part II poems out loud and discuss/record Journal 6.
Journal 6: Spirits in Bondage Part II "Hesitation"
- Make sure you cite specific poems in your reasoning.
- Here is the book in full.
- First, using this timeline, what key experiences did Lewis have while writing this collection (poems were written between 1915-1918 and published in 1919 under the advice of the Hard Knock).
- Now, some quick internet research. Take a few minutes with your partner to search around and find out what kind of experience Lewis had in war. (Start with a couple of paragraphs from the "Background" section here. Then move on to these questions: What action did he see? What were the circumstances of his discharge?)
- Considering Part I as well, how does Part II add in expressing the process of a war-torn soldier returning to normal life in oxford as a student?
- What questions/philosophical issues can you see him processing? do any of these relate to ideas he examines more fully in his later texts? If so how?
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