Clive Staples Lewis’ life was tragic because he lost his dear wife who died because of cancer. Lewis was devastated because of this loss. However, poetry and writing helped to pull himself together and find another sense of life. The author talked a lot about love with pain and misery, but he believed that God was the only one who could help people overcome such tragic love stories:
“Being in love is a good thing, but it is not the best thing.
Being in love was explosion that started it.”
It is clear that after losing his wife Lewis considered love as a tricky thing because it can give lots of positive feelings but it can be destroyed within seconds. He tried to convince himself that lost love was not the end of one’s life but only another stage in life:
“It is a noble feeling, but it is still a feeling.”
For the writer, love can be divided into various types: affection (storge), friendship (philia), romantic (eros) and charity (agape). Affection is described as family love, the love of mother to her child, for example. Friendship is a friend bond between two people, who have common interests in life, share their thoughts and have similar attitude to life. Romantic love for Lewis is to “be in love” or “be loved” by someone. Charity is the love of God to all people. It lasts forever and has no limits.
C.S. Lewis’s poetry must be the least well-known part of his life and literary contribution. People complain that he was not such a good poet as a writer. But his poetry contains some really great works that should be appreciated more.