Practically every young Christian reader has devoured (or been forced to read) C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien’s fantasy novels, if not also C. S. Lewis’ books of nonfiction and biography. However, both of their poetry is often overlooked despite making up a good portion of their work. Although it is well worth reading all of their works and taking a closer look at the whole of these great authors’ lives, this article will focus on their poetry and the influence that affected their styles.
C. S. Lewis read Paradise Lost growing up, and before college read many poems including “Alfred,” Lord Tennyson’s “Morte d’Arthur,” Edmund Spenser’s “The Faerie Queene,” ”Beowulf,” “Sir Gawain,” and “The Green Knight,” “The Iliad,” and the works of Keats, Browning, and Shelley. Although he accepted his father’s desire for him to go to school to become a fellow, he aspired to become a poet and fantasy writer and wrote many poems before and during World War I, which reflected his atheistic worldview at the time. After becoming a professor, he met J. R. R. Tolkien and was also influenced by Christian authors such as John Donne and George Herbert, and in 1931, he fully converted to Christianity. At this point, he still considered himself primarily a poet, but a few years later, he joined the Inklings and published his first novel. He continued to publish many religious and fantasy works but was mainly influenced by his reading and writing of poetry, continuing to write poetry until his death. According to Laura Mallonee, “C. S. Lewis’ first love was poetry, and it enabled him to write the prose for which he was remembered.”
C. S. Lewis’ poetry is often overlooked partly because he rebelled against the modernist fashions of his day; he followed in the footsteps of his favorite Romantic authors and adopted strict forms and fantastical topics. Personally, I believe Lewis spent too much time emulating and responding to the poetry and ideas of his predecessors and did not fully develop his own unique style. Whatever the reason, his poetry never garnered much success. Still, it allowed him to channel the imagination that went into his other writings. For instance, the personification in his poems about trees mirrors the feelings that led him to include nymphs and satyrs (nature spirits) in The Chronicles of Narnia:
Pattern
Some believe the slumber
Of trees is in December
When timber’s naked under sky
And squirrel keeps his chamber.
But I believe their fibres
Awake to life and labour
When turbulence comes roaring up
The land in loud October,
And plunders, strips, and sunders
And sends the leaves to wander
And undisguises prickly shapes
Beneath the golden splendour.
Then form returns. In warmer,
Seductive day, disarming
Its firmer will, the wood grew soft
And put forth dreams to murmur.
Into earnest winter
With spirit alert it enters;
The hunter wind and the hound frost
Have quelled the green enchanter.
J. R. R. Tolkien was born in South Africa and moved to England after the death of his father. After the death of his mother, he was brought up with the help of Father Francis Morgan and was influenced strongly by Catholicism and Christianity. Among his other influences were the beauty of the English countryside, his love story with his wife Edith, his study of early forms of language and mythology, his experiences in World War I, and his rejection of modernization. Comparatively, Tolkien had a somewhat similar writing style to Lewis, emulating the epic style and form of the Romantic and medieval poets, but despite seeing himself as more of a philologist, he was a very good poet indeed. His poems are lesser known in comparison to his works of worldbuilding and fantasy (The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and The Silmarillion) but are woven into his stories through his characters’ daily musings and oral folklore. The Lord of the Rings alone is supplemented by 60 stories and songs; among them are the lighthearted and nonsensical ditties of Tom Bombadil, timeless Shire poetry, and songs of the Riders of Rohan which reflect Old English oral poetry. If you are ever tempted to gloss over the long poems when reading the books, don’t; the verses are integral to Tolkien’s narrative, character formation, and worldbuilding. Below is an example of his lyric poetry, which appears in The Lord of the Rings when Galadriel bids farewell to the Fellowship of the Ring before their journey south along the Great River:
Galadriel’s Song
I sang of leaves, of leaves of gold, and leaves of gold there grew:
Of wind I sang, a wind there came and in the branches blew.
Beyond the Sun, beyond the Moon, the foam was on the Sea,
And by the strand of Ilmarin there grew a golden Tree.
Beneath the stars of Ever-eve in Eldamar it shone,
In Eldamar beside the walls of Elven Tirion.
There long the golden leaves have grown upon the branching years,
While here beyond the Sundering Seas now fall the Elven-tears.
O Lórien! The Winter comes, the bare and leafless Day;
The leaves are falling in the stream, the River flows away.
O Lórien! Too long I have dwelt upon this Hither Shore
And in a fading crown have twined the golden elanor.
But if of ships I now should sing, what ship would come to me,
What ship would bear me ever back across so wide a Sea?
I hope it is understood that I am not trying to objectively compare the poetry of Tolkien and Lewis; they were very different men with different writing styles and legacies. Nevertheless, their lives were closely intertwined through their writing group and personal interactions, and I thought it fitting to combine their poetic biographies in one article that could appeal to both their fan groups.
I hope you enjoyed learning more about Tolkien and Lewis’ lives, their poetry, why they wrote, and what their poetry helped them accomplish. Bear this knowledge well, Sons of Adam and Daughters of Eve! Namárië!
Photo Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/christopherclarkart/50011116062
Sources:
“C. S. Lewis.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/c-s-lewis.
Chap, Chiswick. “Poetry in the Lord of the Rings.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 1 Feb. 2023, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetry_in_The_Lord_of_the_Rings.
Cupo, Janet. “52 Poems, Week 7: Pattern (C.S. Lewis).” Light On Dark Water, Light on Dark Water, 15 Feb. 2018, https://www.lightondarkwater.com/2018/02/52-poems-week-7-pattern-cs-lewis.html.
“J R R Tolkien.” All Poetry, All Poetry, https://allpoetry.com/J-R-R-Tolkien.
Mallonee, Laura C. “The Imaginative Man.” Poetry Foundation, Poetry Foundation, 19 Nov. 2019, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/70077/the-imaginative-man.
Tolkien, J R R. “Galadriel’s Song by J R R Tolkien.” All Poetry, All Poetry, Sept. 2010, https://allpoetry.com/Galadriel’s-Song.
Ward, Michael. “A Look at Lewis’s Poetry.” C S Lewis, HarperCollins Publishers, 19 Jan. 2009, https://www.cslewis.com/a-look-at-lewiss-poetry/.