Narrative poems - C. S. Lewis

C.S. Lewis enjoyed both stories and poetry. His narrative poems combine his gift in story-telling with his skills as a poet. The four pieces in this book are the only narrative poems by Lewis known to be in existence.

The poems are full of Lewis's romantic imagination; they display his love and knowlege of classic mythology and his own mastery of the English language.

Dymer (1926)
Launcelot (?early 1930s)
The Nameless Isle (1930)
The Queen of Drum (1938)

'Dymer' was begun by Lewis as a story in prose and the original idea had 'come to him' at the age of 17. It tells the story of a man who begets a monster. The monster kills his father and becomes a god.

'Launcelot' is based on the legend of King Arthur and the Holy Grail and 'The Nameless Isle' is the story of a shipwrecked mariner and his adventures on a magic island.

'The Queen of Drum' tells of an old pompous king and his young queen who eventually has to choose between heaven, hell and fairyland.