Born in Belfast, Ireland on November 29, 1898, C.S. Lewis was already extremely imaginative as a child. He and his brother Warren created a fantastical world full of imaginary animals and tales of feats and heroism. After his mother passed away when he was 10, Lewis continued receiving an education before entering the English army during WWI, though he didn’t remain long in combat. He went to Oxford University and, after graduating from there, joined a “informal collective of writers and intellectuals who counted among their members Lewis’s brother, Warren Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien” (“C.S. Lewis Biography”). A Christian turned atheist, these meetings with literary greats and other intellectuals reinforced the Christian upbringing Lewis received as a child, and he began to expound upon Christian truths in his writing. He became a literary professor in 1954 at Cambridge University and worked there for nine years until his resignation and death soon after on November 24, 1963. His most famous works include Mere Christianity, The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Screwtape Letters, as well as The Great Divorce and The Pilgrim’s Regress which contain Christian truths which he based off of his own Christian conversion and struggle for the faith. ("C.S. Lewis Biography." Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. Feb. 2013. http://www.biography.com/people/cs-lewis-9380969page=2.)
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
"Of Man by Nature"
"Of Man by Nature": John Bunyan
"From God he's a Back slider,
Of Ways, he loves the wider;
With Wickedness a Sider,
More Venom than a Spider.
In Sin he's a Confider,
A Make-bate, and Divider;
Blind Reason is his Guider,
The Devil is his Rider."
The didactic nature of this poem is rather striking. His neutral tone in the title suggests a more analytical style to the poem that it heads, but, from the opening line, he condemns humanity for some mistake that he never defines. He seems to be assuming an agreement to an unstated assumption, perhaps suggesting that this was written in response to a specific event. Central to this assumption is his belief that man is sliding away from god, and, thusly, becoming more immoral. He seems to focus on a loss of order that was occurring during his time period, as he focuses on this in his stylistic elements. His unified rhyme scheme seems central to his message in this poem, as this suggests a great deal of order to his writing that he doesn't seem to see in the world around him. With every word ending as -ider, he creates a poem that functions as one unit. This then connects into the morality he expresses throughout the poem, as his poem contrasts with the chaotic, disordered world he describes
The didactic nature of this poem is rather striking. His neutral tone in the title suggests a more analytical style to the poem that it heads, but, from the opening line, he condemns humanity for some mistake that he never defines. He seems to be assuming an agreement to an unstated assumption, perhaps suggesting that this was written in response to a specific event. Central to this assumption is his belief that man is sliding away from god, and, thusly, becoming more immoral. He seems to focus on a loss of order that was occurring during his time period, as he focuses on this in his stylistic elements.
ReplyDeleteHis unified rhyme scheme seems central to his message in this poem, as this suggests a great deal of order to his writing that he doesn't seem to see in the world around him. With every word ending as -ider, he creates a poem that functions as one unit. This then connects into the morality he expresses throughout the poem, as his poem contrasts with the chaotic, disordered world he describes