Ireland, (1898-1963)
Vitrea Circe
- The name of Circe
- Is wrongly branded
- (Though Homer’s verses
- Portrayed her right)
- By heavy-handed
- And moral persons
- Misunderstanding
- Her danger bright.
- She used not beauty
- For man’s beguiling,
- She craved no suitor;
- Sea-chances brought
- To her forest-silent
- And crimson-fruited
- And snake-green island
- Her guests unsought.
- She watched those drunken
- And tarry sailors
- Eat nectar-junket
- And Phoenix-nests;
- Each moment paler
- With pride, she shrank at
- Their leering, railing,
- Salt-water jests.
- They thought to pluck there
- Her rosial splendour?
- They thought their luck there
- Was near divine?
- When the meal ended
- She rose and struck them
- With wand extended
- And made them swine.
- With smiles and kisses
- No man she tempted;
- She scorned love’s blisses
- And toils, until
- There came, undream’t of,
- The tough Ulysses,
- From fate exempted
- By Pallas’ will.
- Then flashed above her
- (Poor kneeling Circe,
- Her snares discovered)
- The Hero’s blade.
- She lay at his mercy,
- His slave, his lover,
- Forgot her curses,
- Blushed like a maid.
- She’d none to warn her,
- He hacked and twisted
- Her hedge so thorny;
- It let him pass.
- Her awful distance,
- Her vestal scornings,
- Were bright as crystals,
- They broke like glass.
About the Poet
Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963), (C.S. Lewis) was an Irish novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist, who was also known for his fiction, especially The Screwtape Letters, The Chronicles of Narnia and Out of the Silent Planet.
Besides writing, Lewis held the position of Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Oxford University for twenty-nine years and later accepted the chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge, where he finished out his teaching career. Lewis was a close friend of J.R.R. Tolkien, another leading figure in the English faculty at Oxford University, with whom he formed the informal Oxford literary group known as the “Inklings.”
During his time at Oxford, Lewis went from being an atheist to being one of the most influential Christian writers of the 20th century. He credited his friendship with J.R.R. Tolkien, as well as the writings of the converted G.K. Chesterton, as influencing his conversion. [DES-11/10]