Wordsworth wrote an endless poem in blank verse on” the growth of a poet’s mind.” I shall attempt a more modest feat for a more distracted age: a blog, “Things which a Lifetime of Trying to Be a Poet has Taught Me.”
When I finally made it to C. S. Lewis’s grave, I was struck by the fact that, though his remains were only six feet away, I was closer to him with my head in one of his books on the other side of the Atlantic. For that very reason it was a powerful experience of the futility of death, and hence of life, if the Christian hope of the resurrection is not true. But if it is true . . . Only a villanelle (think Dylan Thomas and “Do not go gentle into that goodnight”) could come close to capturing that moment.
THE GRAVE OF C. S. LEWIS
Holy Trinity Church, Headington Quarry, Oxfordshire
There was a marble slab, the evidence
Of burial, with writing on the stone
Which said, “Men must endure their going hence.”
The mind that had restored my mind to sense
Was there reduced to elemental bone;
There was a marble slab, the evidence.
That well of wisdom and of eloquence
Was now cut back to just one phrase alone,
Which said, “Men must endure their going hence.”
No monument of rich magnificence
Stood fitting one who had so brightly shone;
There was a marble slab. The evidence
That plain things have their power to convince
Was in that simple block with letters strewn
Which said, “Men must endure their going hence.”
The weight of time was focused there, intense
With wrecked Creation’s universal groan:
There was a marble slab, the evidence,
Which said, “Men must endure their going hence.”
Remember: for more poetry like this, go to https://lanternhollow.wordpress.com/store/ and order Stars Through the Clouds! Also look for Inklings of Reality and Reflections from Plato’s Cave, Williams’ newest books from Lantern Hollow Press: Evangelical essays in pursuit of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty. And look for Williams’ very latest books: Deeper Magic: The Theology behind the Writings of C. S. Lewis (Baltimore: Square Halo Books, 2016) and “An Encouraging Thought”: The Christian Worldview in the Writings of L. R. R. Tolkien (Cambridge, OH: Christian Publishing House, 2018)!
Donald T. Williams, PhD
