Reason (poem)

"Reason" is a short poem of sixteen lines by C. S. Lewis, written in about 1925.Set on the soul's acropolis the reason standsA virgin, arm'd, commercing with celestial light,And he who sins against her has defiled his ownVirginity: no cleansing makes his garment white;So clear is reason.Wound not in her fertile painsDemeter, nor rebel against her mother-right.Oh who will reconcile in me both maid and mother,Who make in me a concord of the depth and height?Who make imagination's dim exploring touchEver report the same as intellectual sight?Then could I truly say and not deceive,Then wholly say that I BELIEVE.The poem, initially untitled in manuscript form, was only published posthumously in Walter Hooper's critical edition The Collected Poems of C.S.[2] Hooper dates the poem to as early as 1925—after Lewis embraced theism, but before his conversion to Christianity in 1931."[3] Guite finds allusion to the Annunciation in these lines,[4] and sees in the spatial language of the poem the following passage from Ephesians: That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.
C. S. LewisMinervaAthenaDemeterWalter HoopertheismChristianityMalcolm Guiteextended metaphorAthensAtheneReasonImaginationsestetAnnunciationEphesiansEph. 3C. S. LewisBibliographySpirits in BondageThe Pilgrim's RegressThe Screwtape LettersThe Great DivorceTill We Have FacesScrewtape Proposes a ToastLetters to MalcolmThe Space TrilogyOut of the Silent PlanetPerelandraThat Hideous StrengthThe Dark TowerThe Chroniclesof NarniaThe Lion, the Witch and the WardrobePrince CaspianThe Voyage of the Dawn TreaderThe Silver ChairThe Horse and His BoyThe Magician's NephewThe Last BattleThe Allegory of LoveThe Personal HeresyThe Problem of PainA Preface to Paradise LostThe Abolition of ManMiraclesThe Weight of Glory and Other AddressesMere ChristianitySurprised by JoyThe Four LovesStudies in WordsThe World's Last Night and Other EssaysAn Experiment in CriticismA Grief ObservedThey Asked for a PaperSelections from Layamon's BrutThe Discarded ImageOf Other WorldsGod in the DockJoy DavidmanDouglas GreshamWarren LewisThe KilnsLewis's trilemmaThe InklingsLanguage and Human NatureCS Lewis Nature ReserveShadowlandsThe Most Reluctant ConvertFreud's Last Session