English 401: C. S. Lewis, Poet: The Legacy of his Poetic Impulse

Spring 2003; Don King, dking@montreat.edu; McGowan 107; 828-669-8012, ex. 3819

Table of contents:

Course Description
Course Rationale
Texts
Course Objective
Goals
Course Outline
Evaluation
Bibliography
Final comments
End of Course Survey

Course Description: This course will explore the life, letters, and work of C. S. Lewis with a particular emphasis upon his early aspirations to be a poet, his poetry and fiction, and his apologetics and critical writings. 

Course Rationale: C. S. Lewis is one of the most popular writers of the twentieth century from his children's stories to his literary criticism. However, many who enjoy his books know little about his life, especially his early aspirations to be an accomplished poet. After establishing this as an early aspiration through looking at his letters, diaries, and first publications, we will explore how his desire to be a poet may have influenced his later writings as an adult. In the end we will gain new insight into Lewis' success as a writer as well as an awareness of his use of language as an artist.

Texts:

Required:

Spirits in Bondage (1919)
Out of the Silent Planet (1938)
The Screwtape Letters (1942)
Perelandra (1943)
The Great Divorce (1945)
Poems (1964)
The Pilgrim's Regress (1933)
Till We Have Faces (1956)
A Grief Observed (1962)
Jack:  A Life of C. S. Lewis by George Sayer (1988; reprinted 1994)
C. S. Lewis, Poet: The Legacy of His Poetic Impulse by Don W. King (2001)

Recommended:

Surprised by Joy (1955)
The C. S. Lewis Encyclopedia, Eds. Jeffrey Schultz and John West (1998)
Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis, Vol. 1, Family Letters, 1905-1931, Ed. Walter Hooper (2000)
C. S. Lewis:  A Companion and Guide, Ed. Walter Hooper (1996)
A Handbook to Literature, Eds. William Harmon and C. Hugh Holman
MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (5th ed), Ed. Joseph Gibaldi.

Also, see Oxford Reference Online www.oxfordreference.com for some basic reference assistance.  It contains desktop access to 100 key Oxford dictionaries and reference works. The Core Collection brings together 100 language and subject dictionaries and reference works - containing well over 60,000 pages - into a single cross-searchable resource.  Also, see the Oxford English Dictionary, the grandfather of all dictionaries at http://dictionary.oed.com 

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Course Objective: The central objective of this course is to show how Lewis' early aspirations to be known as a poet influenced his later writings. As a part of our study we will naturally focus a good deal on Lewis' poetry as well as letters and diary entries that reveal his poetic ambitions. Furthermore, we will consider how his prose, particularly his fiction, reflects a poet's eye, ear, and hand. In a related manner, we will see how his love of logos may have led him to a love for the Logos (Montreat College Educational Objectives 1.1, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 1.8, 3; 7).

In addition, we will discuss several questions as we move through the readings, including but not limited to:

1. What is the relationship between Lewis' faith in Christ and his activities as scholar, literary critic, social critic, and artist? What is a Christian scholar, Christian literary critic, Christian social critic, or Christian artist? Where does Lewis "fit" best?
2. What is Lewis' understanding of myth? How is his concept of myth different from the one commonly held? How does an understanding of his notion of myth inform a deeper appreciation of Lewis' work?
3. What does "joy" mean for Lewis? How important is joy in his work? Can we trace its appearance in his work? Does his understanding of joy change over time? If so, how and why?
4. What is the literary legacy of C. S. Lewis? How is his influence apparent? Is his a lasting contribution or a temporary one?

Goals:

1. That you read and analyze the important poetry and fiction of C. S. Lewis(EO 2, 3, and 5).
2. That you write annotated bibliography entries as assigned in the development of a class Lewis annotated bibliography (EO 2, 3, and 5).
3. That you write an analytic research paper on some aspect of Leiws' poetry and/or fiction (EO 2, 3, and 5).
4. That you successfully complete all tests and in class essay assignments (EO 2, 3, and 5).
5. That you engage in sustained research on Lewis (EO 3, 4, and 5).
6. That you utilize email to extend class discussion, to communicate with me, and to perform assigned small group work (EO 4, 5, and 6).
7. That you turn in all important written assignments via email attachments or on diskette (EO 2, 3, 4, and 5).

Course Outline:

Jan. 14-16:  Course introduction; Jack:  A Life of C. S. Lewis.

Jan. 21-23:  Lewis' poetic aspirations; C. S. Lewis Poet.

                    Early poems: The Collected Poems of C. S. Lewis and Poems

Jan. 28-Feb. 4:  Spirits in Bondage and Dymer

Feb. 6:  Test 1

Feb. 11-13:  The Pilgrim's Regress

Feb. 18-20:  Poetry of the 1930's: Poems

Feb. 25-Mar. 4:  Lewis on myth & fiction; Out of the Silent Planet

Mar. 6:  Test 2

Mar. 18-20:  Perelandra

Mar. 25-Apr. 1:  The Screwtape Letters and The Great Divorce

Apr. 3-8: Poetry of the 1940's: Poems; 

Apr. 10:  Test 3

 Apr. 15-17: Joy Davidman: Life and Letters

Apr. 24-29: Till We Have Faces; 

May 1-6: Poetry of the 1950's-60's, A Grief Observed, and Poems

Final exam:  Week of May 9-13

FINAL EXAM

Evaluation: Your final grade in the course will be developed by the following:

1. Class participation including involvement in discussion, reading of assigned material, in and out of class short writing assignments, and Lewis web site searches will count 20%.
2. Development of annotated bibliography of Lewis' writings as part of a class project to include a minimum of two, 125-150 word entries will count 10%; all entries must be submitted electronically, either as an e-mail attachment or on a diskette.
3. Development of a major literary analysis of 2,500-3,250 words (ten to fifteen typed pages) with appropriate documentation on any aspect of Lewis' work will count 20%; all research papers must be submitted electronically, either as an e-mail attachment or on a diskette.
4. In class essays and the final exam will count 50%.

Academic integrity:  For all individual assignments students are expected to present their own work; documentation of research must follow the MLA Handbook for Writer of Research Paper or MLA-Style Citations of Electronic Sources.  Cases of academic dishonesty, including but not limited to cheating and plagiarism, will result in either of failure of the assignment or of the course.  For the college's policy on this issue, please click academic integrity. 

Bibliography: As you begin to do research, the following resources may be helpful; in addition, consider the following journals: Mythlore, The Bulletin of the New York C. S. Lewis Society, The Canadian C. S. Lewis Journal, SEVEN: An Anglo-American Literary Review, Chronicle of the Portland C. S. Lewis Society, Lamp-Post of the Southern California C. S. Lewis Society, and The Lewis Legacy. The two major collections of Lewis material are located at the Marion E. Wade Center at Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois, and at the Department of Western Manuscripts at the Bodleian Library, Oxford University, Oxford, England.

Selected Bibliography:

Barfield. Own. Poetic Diction: A Study in Meaning. London: Faber and

Faber,1928.

Edwards, Bruce, ed. The Taste of the Pineapple: Essays on C. S. Lewis as

Reader, Critic, and Imaginative Writer. Bowling Green, Ohio:

Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1988.

Green, Roger L. and Walter Hooper. C. S. Lewis: A Biography. New York:

Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1974.

Hooper, Walter. Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis:  Family Letters, 

1905-1931.  Volume 1.  London:  HarperCollins, 2000.

------------.  C. S. Lewis: A Companion and Guide. London: HarperCollins,

1996. (review)

King, Don. "A Bibliographic Review of C. S. Lewis as Poet:

1952-1995, Part One" The Canadian C. S. Lewis Journal No.

91(Spring 1997): 9-23. "Part Two." The Canadian C. S. Lewis

Journal No. 91 (Autumn 1997): 34-56.

-------------.  “A Grief Observed as Free Verse.” Bulletin of the New York C. 

S. Lewis Society 32 (March 2001): 1-7.

------------. "The Collected Poems of C. S. Lewis" (124-26); "Dymer" (144-146);

"Narrative Poems" (289-90); "Poems" (325-27); "Spirits in

Bondage" (385-87); and eighty other short entries in The C. S. Lewis

Readers’ Encyclopedia. Eds. Jeffrey D. Schultz and John G. West.

Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 1998.

---------. "C. S. Lewis's Spirits in Bondage: World I Poet as Frustrated Dualist."

The Christian Scholar's Review 27 (Summer 1998): 454-474.

---------. "C. S. Lewis’ ‘The Quest of Bleheris’ as Prose Poetry." The 

Lamp-Post of the Southern California C. S. Lewis Society 23, no. 

1 (Spring 1999): 3-15.

----------. "Glints of Light: The Unpublished Short Poetry of C. S. Lewis."

SEVEN: An Anglo-American Literary Review 15 (1998): 73-96.

----------. "'Making the Poor Best of Dull Things: C. S. Lewis as Poet." SEVEN:

An Anglo-American Literary Review 12 (1995): 79-92.

-----------. "The Distant Voice in C. S. Lewis's Poems." Studies in the Literary

Imagination 22, ii (Fall 1989): 175-184.

------------.  “The Poetry of Prose:  C. S. Lewis, Ruth Pitter, and Perelandra.”

Christianity and Literature 49 (Spring 2000): 331-356.

------------.  “The Religious Verse of C. S. Lewis: Part One.” The Canadian C. S. 

Lewis Journal No. 97 (Spring 2000): 12-27; "Part Two." The 

Canadian C. S. Lewis Journal No. 98 (Fall 2000): 41-54.

------------.  C. S. Lewis, Poet:  The Legacy of His Poetic Impulse.  Kent, Ohio: 

Kent State University Press, 2001.

Lewis, C. S. All My Road Before Me: The Diary of C. S. Lewis.  

Ed. by Walter Hooper. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 

1991.

--------------. The Discarded Image: An Introduction to Medieval and

Renaissance Literature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,

1964.

-------------. An Experiment in Criticism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,

1961.

-------------. Letters of C. S. Lewis. With memoir by Warren Lewis. New York:

Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1966.  Expanded and updated by 

Walter Hooper, Fount, 1988.

-------------. Selected Literary Essays. Ed. by Walter Hooper. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 1969.

-------------. Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Literature. Ed. by Walter

Hooper. Cambridge University Press, 1966.

-------------. They Stand Together: The Letters of C. S. Lewis to Arthur

Greeves (1914-1963). Ed. by Walter Hooper. New York: Macmillan,

1979.

-------------- and E. M. W. Tillyard. The Personal Heresy. London: Oxford

University Press, 1939.

Lindskoog, Kathryn. Finding the Landlord: A Guidebook to C. S. Lewis's

Pilgrim's Regress. Chicago: Cornerstone Press, 1995.

Schakel, Peter and Charles Huttar, eds. Word and Story in C. S. Lewis. Columbia,

Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 1991. (review)

Walsh, Chad. The Literary Legacy of C. S. Lewis. New York: Harcourt, Brace,

Jovanovich, 1979.

For a more complete bibliography of Lewis' poetry and critical writings about his poetry, click here:

In addition, the summer 1998 issue of The Christian Scholar's Review, guest edited by me, contains "C. S. Lewis: A Centenary Retrospective." The Christian Scholar's Review 27(Summer 1998): 404-405. It is a special issue celebrating the centennial of Lewis' birth.

Other Lewis related essays and reviews by me include: a 1983 essay on other worlds or fantasy literature dealing to some degree with Lewis; a 1984 essay on Narnia and the Seven Deadly Sins; a 1986 essay on the childlike in George Macdonald and C. S. Lewis; a 1987 essay on the Wardrobe as Christian Metphor; a 1988 essay on the rhetorical similarities of C. S. Lewis and Bertrand Russell; a review of A. N. Wilson's 1990 C. S Lewis: A Biography; and a review of the 1993 movie Shadowlands.

Academic integrity: For all individual assignments students are expected to present their own work; documentation of research for your literary analysis must follow the specific criteria as outlined in the MLA Handbook for Writer of Research Paper or MLA-Style Citations of Electronic Sources.  Cases of academic dishonesty, including but not limited to cheating and plagiarism, will result in either of failure of the assignment or of the course.  For the college's policy on this issue, please click academic integrity. 

Final comments: As you can see, this syllabus is on-line and its hot-links will take you to important notes and related information about the course. Class discussions, tests, and writing assignments will assume you have accessed all this materials on-line. Please feel free to come by my office in McGowan Center 107, contact me at extension 3819, or email me at dking@montreat.edu if you need help with any aspect of the course.

Here are some other on-line C. S. Lewis sites: The Cumberland River Lamp Post, Into the Wardrobe; C. S. Lewis Foundation; the C. S. Lewis Connection; and MereLewis, a Lewis listserve (contact dwalheim@aol.com).

I freely give permission to anyone to use the information on this page, English 401, C. S. Lewis, Poet: The Legacy of His Poetic Impulse, as long as appropriate acknowledgement is given either to me or to author’s whose works I have referred to and noted.  

All students are encouraged to take advantage of the resources available in the Writing Center, located adjacent to the Bell Library computer lab.  See

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I freely give permission to anyone to use the information on this page, English 401, C. S. Lewis: The Legacy of His Poetic Impulse, as long as appropriate acknowledgement is given either to me or to authors whose works I have referred to and noted. In addition, I retain copyrights privileges over all original material; such material is clearly marked.

Last updated December 22, 2004