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Lewis, Wordsworth, and the Education of the Soul

When Lewis first read Wordsworth’s Prelude in 1919, at the age of 21, he was not very impressed by it. He reported the following to Arthur Greeves:

"You will perhaps be surprised to hear that I am reading ‘The Prelude’ by way of graduating in Wordsworth-ism. What’s even funnier, I rather like it! I’m coming to the conclusion that there are two orders of poetry–real poetry and the sort you read while smoking a pipe. ‘The Prelude’ nearly always on the second level but very comfortable and interesting all the same…" (Together, 261).

Almost thirty years later, in a letter to Dom Bede Griffiths, he revealed that The Prelude had considerably grown in his favour:

A succession of illnesses and a holiday in Ireland have so far kept me from tackling Lubac. The Prelude has accompanied me through all the stages of my pilgrimage: it and the Aeneid (which I never feel you value sufficiently) are the two long poems to which I most often return" (Letters, 408).

About ten years after this, Lewis listed The Prelude as one of the books which most shaped his "vocational attitude and [his] philosophy of life" (Canadian, 27). What did Lewis discover in this poem over the years which made it so important to him? I would like to suggest a few answers to this question. There are several interests, circumstances, and loves which Lewis and Wordsworth shared in common, only a few of which I can name here, such as a deep admiration of the talents of Vergil, Milton, and Coleridge, a love of long walks, an association with Cambridge, and an early loss of their mothers, for example. As well, Lewis shared Wordsworth’s position on many fundamental political questions; for instance, both were democrats although they respected certain of the aristocratic features of society. Moreover, Lewis sympathized with Wordsworth’s opinions on the proper status and function of Reason and Imagination, and appreciated Wordsworth’s love of Nature in many of its moods. But I think Lewis’ relationship withWordsworth was yet more profound than these answers indicate: Lewis regarded Wordsworth’s poetry as an important stepping stone on the path which led to his conversion. He considered Wordsworth a model of one who came close to perceiving the deepest truths, yet fell short in the end; he frequently referred to Wordsworth as a cautionary example of the loss of "Joy" which must result in treating nature as a god. Furthermore, Wordsworth’s poetry furnished Lewis with the language by which he understood his own conversion: Lewis’ idiosyncratic understanding of "Joy", especially, was adapted from Wordsworth’s use of the term. Finally, Lewis’ Pilgrim’sRegress was not merely modeled on The Prelude, but was, in fact, an interpretation and revision of Wordsworth’s poem.

Lewis tells the story of his conversion in Surprised By Joy and The Pilgrim’s Regress. He describes the first step in his conversion as an experience of "Joy." Joy has a singular definition for Lewis: it is the experience "of an unsatisfied desire which is itself more desirable than any other satisfaction" (Joy, 17-18). According to Lewis, Joy is not an experience of contentment or plenitude, but a fleeting, sensuous experience of desire for an object which is wholly other. The desire is ultimately the desire for God in response to God’s calling; all other objects which seem to evoke the desire are "false Florimels" (Regress,13). I contend that Lewis developed this notion of Joy from his reading of Wordsworth’s poetry in general and The Prelude in particular.In The Prelude, Wordsworth’s long poem on his own spiritual and artistic development, the poet describes various "spots of time" which may be understood as moments of insight into the divine spirit immanent in nature (Prelude [1805] XI, 257). As Wordsworth explains, even as a young child "[He] felt/Gleams like the flashing of a shield; –the earth/And common face of nature spake to [him]/Rememberable things"(Prelude [1805] I, 585-588). These vivid sensual experiences early in life find later correspondence with his inner modes of being; they stir his creative faculties to the production of poetry in which he celebrates his experience of the Spirit (Kuhn 190). As Duncan Wu explains, "the psychological hinge on which the spots of time turn [is this]: in each there is at some profound level an unsatisfied craving in the mind–a yearning for what has been taken away" (6). Yet Wordsworth often describes these"spots of time" as joyful: indeed, "joy" is one of his favourite words, used 45 times in The Prelude. For example, the poet recalls feeling a "sublimer joy" on certain lonely nighttime walks in which he "drink[s] the visionary power" (Prelude [1805]II, 321); later he tells the reader to "Wonder not/If such my transports were, for in all things/I saw one life, and felt that it was joy" (Prelude[1805] II, 428-431); and in describing Coleridge’s influence on him, Wordsworth relates that "the deep enthusiastic joy,/The rapture of the hallelujah sent/From all that breathes and is, was chastened, stemmed/And balanced by…[those things which Coleridge taught him]" (Prelude [1805]XIII, 261-264). As this last quotation indicates, Wordsworth contends that the joy he has experienced during his "spots of time" is chastened and hallowed by the spiritual knowledge he has gained through his intercourse with Coleridge. This is essentially the development Lewis traces in Surprised By Joy and The Pilgrim’s Regress, although he attributes the hallowing of his Joy to God. As he reveals in these, Lewis experiences more fleeting and irregular "spots of time" than does Wordsworth, though, like Wordsworth’s, they are often evoked by images, real or imagined, of nature. In Surprised By Joy, for example, Lewis describes three early "spots of time": the first is a memory of his brother’s toy garden which is prompted by the sight of "a flowing currant bush on a summer day"; the second is a powerful vision of what he calls "the Idea of Autumn", which washes over him while reading Squirrel Nutkin; and the third is a powerful insight in the idea of "Northernness", which he experiences while reading The Saga of King Olaf (Joy, 16-17).The story of his search for the fulfillment of the desire these "spots of time" inspire in him is the story of his spiritual development into a Christian. In Surprised By Joy, Lewis recognizes the similarity of his story to Wordsworth’s story of his development as a poet in The Prelude, pointing out that "The thing [writing this story] has been much better done by Traherne and Wordsworth, but every man must tell his own tale" (Joy, 16). In addition, the title of the book comes fromWordsworth’s "Surprised by Joy-Impatient as the Wind", a poem about memory and intense longing for a love who is wholly other because dead.

In these two spiritual autobiographies, Lewis recounts the various stages of his conversion, which he once described as follows: "My own progress had been from ‘popular realism’ to Philosophical Idealism; from Idealism to Pantheism; from Pantheism to Theism; and from Theism to Christianity"(Regress, 9). Although he does not explicitly identify his own pantheism with Wordsworth’s, Lewis clearly indicates that it inspired or at least influenced his own. This stage is the first in which Lewis really accepts the idea of an active divine spirit: it is therefore crucial to his conversion to Christianity. Moreover, this stage is powerfully and long experienced by Lewis: according to Hooper, it lasted for most of the 1920s and therefore Lewis’ twenties (Lewis converted in 1929) (329). In 1924, for example, Lewis gave a paper to the Philosophical Society on "The Hegemony of Moral Values", in which "he accepted the primacy of a spiritual reality, which was essentially one of divine immanence rather than transcendence–the spirit within man and all reality, rather than a personal Father above him" (Hooper 329). This is, of course, pantheism in a nutshell and succinctly describes Wordsworth’s philosophy in The Prelude. Wordsworth identifies this spirit as one which "rolls through all things" but is best perceived in solitude and in nature ("Tintern Abbey",102).

In The Pilgrim’s Regress, Romanticism is most clearly represented by Mr. Halfways, who is identified with Keats. As his name suggests, Mr. Halfways can get John only halfway to his destination, which is, unbeknownst to him, conversion to Christianity. But pantheism, identified with Wordsworth, can get John almost all the way there. In Book 8 (the book in which John accepts the grace of God), Chapter 4 of The Pilgrim’s Regress, titled "John Finds His Voice", John begins as a Wordsworthian pantheistic optimist, but ends by praying to a God who is more transcendent than immanent. In the very next chapter, John meets Christ and accepts his offering. Lewis thus suggests that pantheism is a significant stepping stone to Christianity: it grasps God’s immanence but not his transcendence. Moreover, in the introduction to The Pilgrim’s Regress, Lewis calls love of the higher levels of Nature "the real praeparatio evangelica" (18).1 In Book 8, the character of History confirms this suggestion by explaining to John that nature-loving Romanticism, which is explicitly identified in the introduction of the book with The Prelude (Regress 11), is the most recent of the revelations sent by God to man in order to guide man to himself (though this revelation can be corrupted or obscured by Satan). At the end of The Prelude, Wordsworth suggests to Coleridge that they are possessed of a revelation and that their mission is to convey it to mankind. He says that they are "Prophets of Nature" who can show men through their poetry that the mind of man has the potential for divinity even greater than that of Nature (Prelude [1805] XIII, 442-452). In The Pilgrim’s Regress, History also explains to John that the Romantics possessed an especially sophisticated revelation, and that their peculiar calling was to make men see nature differently by revealing to them images of Nature which improved on Nature or which renewed Nature in their eyes. Essentially, then, Lewis validates Wordsworth’s version of his project; he accepts Wordsworth’s claim to be a "Prophet of Nature". The Pilgrim’s Regress is subtitled An Allegorical Apology for Christianity, Reason, and Romanticism, but in his introduction, Lewis points out that he would not have used the word "Romanticism" if he had the book to re-title, for "Romanticism" has so many meanings that it is too broad for his purpose, which is to defend a certain kind of romanticism, one associated with his understanding of "Joy". I contend that Lewis was concerned to defend Wordsworth’s particular brand of romanticism especially, which was being widely debunked at the time Lewis was writing The Pilgrim’s Regress.

Lewis, then, felt a deep sympathy and perhaps indebtedness to the Wordsworth of The Prelude.2 But in the end, he disagreed with this Wordsworth. For The Prelude is, from a traditionally Christian point of view, theologically unsound. Wordsworth’s theology makes no mention of the trinity, the fall, or salvation, and treats heaven and hell as if they were states of mind only. As one scholar puts it, Wordsworth is "apparently endeavouring in this poem to express a philosophy free from the complication of technical theology" (Beach 348). Lewis regarded Wordsworth as one who ultimately misinterpreted and therefore missed God’s calling; perhaps this increased Lewis’ sympathy for him. Wordsworth was thus also important to Lewis as a cautionary model. Wordsworth represented to Lewis what he might have remained and what others might become. Lewis’ doctrine of "first and second things" was perhaps written with this in mind. In it, Lewis argues that "every preference of a small good to a great, or a partial good to a total good, involves the loss of the small or partial good for which the sacrifice was made…You can’t get second things by putting them first; you can get second things only by putting first things first" (qtd.in Hooper 560). According to Lewis, because he treated nature as a god, Wordsworth lost both God and nature. Similarly, in The Four Loves, Lewis warns that

Nature ‘dies on’ those who try to live for a love of nature. Coleridge ended by being insensible to her; Wordsworth, by lamenting that the glory had passed away. Say your prayers in a garden early, ignoring steadfastly the dew, the birds and the flowers, and you will come away overwhelmed by its freshness and joy; go there in order to be overwhelmed and, after a certain age, nine times out of ten nothing will happen to you (32).

Wordsworth is often used as an example in Lewis’ writings of one who lost the "Joy" through neglecting to discover its true source. Wordsworth, then, powerfully represented to Lewis one who remained enchantedby a "false Florimel".

The Prelude itself was no mere cautionary tale to Lewis, however.The Prelude gave Lewis a frame and model for thinking about his own spiritual and artistic developments, which were inextricably intertwined, as they were for Wordsworth. In Surprised By Joy and The Pilgrim’sRegress, Lewis follows the example of The Prelude, completing and correcting the story of the education of the soul which The Prelude begins. Most notably, Lewis imagines his childhood in much the same way that Wordsworth does his in The Prelude. And this way is so unique that it cannot simply be counted a common feature of the spiritual autobiography of Christian Europe, for it is not so much a catalogue of events or actions or reasoned positions, but a narrative of "spots of time" and their effects on the development of the writer’s mind. This is not to deny that both Lewis’ books are influenced by earlier spiritual autobiographies–such as Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress for example–but to suggest that there is a strong Wordsworthian influence among these other influences, as a closer comparison of The Pilgrim’s Regress and The Prelude will, I hope, prove.

In both these works, the protagonist’s awareness of the divine grows from intuitions or "spots of time" experienced in early childhood. In The Pilgrim’s Regress, the child John first experiences Joy in remembering a green wood full of primroses (33), which is soon followed by a vision of island with a smooth turf (33), both images of nature. In The Prelude, most of Book 1 is devoted to Wordsworth’s recollections of "spots of time" in his early childhood in which he experienced a sensuous connection to or insight into nature. Both books open with animage of the protagonist going for a walk: in The Pilgrim’s Regress, for example, John is first introduced as he scampers out of his parents ‘garden across the road into the woods; The Prelude describes the feel of a gentle breeze on the solitary walker’s face. Both books, indeed, are full of the imagery of walking, which recalls both the metaphor of the spiritual journey and Rousseau’s Confessions of a Solitary Walker. In both works, the protagonists experience powerful revelations on a mountainor cliffside; this, of course, recalls Moses’ revelation on the Mount. In both, the divine spirit is perceived not primarily through the faculty of "Reason" (though both authors respect "Reason") but through experience, and experience which is filtered through the sensuous faculty which Wordsworth (and Lewis, following the Romantics) calls the"Imagination". In his intercourse with the divine spirit, Wordsworth reports: "I felt, and nothing else; I did not judge/I never thoughtof judging" (Prelude [1805] XI, 237-238). In The Pilgrim’s Regress, the figure of Reason is somewhat helpful in John’s coming to Christianity, but John departs from her long before he crosses the canyon which divides the secular world and the religious world in the story. For both writers, "Reason" needs to be supplemented by faith in the divine, which is in turn supported by intuition of the divine, which intuition is fueled by the "Imagination". Both texts share the same thematic structure, a recurring one in Wordsworth’s poetry, in which the protagonist begins in a good position, close to divinity, and then experiences a fall, in which he is disillusioned and led away from the divine spirit, and finally, the protagonist reascends to his former good position and rises even higher above it, attaining a final position in which the protagonist is satisfied with his more profound relation to the divine spirit. Both characters, then, experience a psychological or spiritual felix culpa, or happy fall, like that of the non-figurative felix culpa of Adam and Eve in Milton’s Paradise Lost. Lewis explicitly reveals that John’s fall is like that of Wordsworth’s in The Prelude by quoting the following famous passage from The Prelude, in which Wordsworth expresses his most profound alienation from the standard of morality which Nature had formerly provided him: "Sick, wearied out with contrarieties, he yields up moral questions in despair"(Regress 145; Prelude [1805] X, 899-900). This quotation prefaces the chapter in which John and Virtue, sickened and disillusioned with all that they have found in the northland, turn to leave the northland and head south. In both works, this moment of sickening disillusionment is the lowest point of the pilgrim’s progress; from this point on, the pilgrim begins his ascent towards the divine. Moreover, as in The Prelude, the purpose of the journey is not fully discovered until the end, though it is hinted at before: in The Prelude, the purpose and culmination of the journey is reached when Wordsworth realizes that he is called by nature to be a poet and her prophet; in The Pilgrim’s Regress, this is reached when John walks beyond his own former home in Puritania and crosses the brook into the Landlord’s world, or heaven. Both poems powerfully express their frustration with certain philosophies: Wordsworth rejects Burke’s understanding of the French Revolution and John must ultimately leave the House of Wisdom, which is where various personified philosophies live, in order to seek what he finally perceives as the real source of all good philosophies: God. Moreover, it is noteworthy that in both works, Virtue is represented as a passion. Once Virtue fights the Southern Dragon in The Pilgrim’s Regress, he is enflamed and impassioned by the southern spirit, which he corrects and saves by killing its dragon. For Wordsworth, too, virtue is a passion which one feels in the limbs, and which is often renovated and re-impassionedby intercourse with that spirit which "rolls through all things".Finally, in the ascension which both characters experience, they receive back their "Reason" and "Imagination" in new and better forms. Book 7, Chapter 7 of The Pilgrim’s Regress is subtitled "John’s imagination re-awakes" and describes the renovation of John’s imagination by the help of Contemplation, one of the daughters of wisdom. This is surely modeled on Book 11 of The Prelude, titled "Imagination, How Impaired and Restored", in which Wordsworth tells much the same story, describing the renewal of his relationship to Nature. In The Pilgrim’sRegress, moreover, Reason becomes a constant companion of John’s once he has crossed the canyon, or converted to Christianity. This echoes the return of Wordsworth’s moral reasoning powers which accompany his restored "Imagination".3

I hope, then, that I have been able to clarify the questions with which I began: What did Lewis see in Wordsworth? Why did he so admire The Prelude? I maintain that Lewis’ understanding of "Joy" was particularly Wordsworthian; that he viewed his own pantheist stage, influenced by Wordsworth’s pantheism, as an important stepping stone to his conversion; that he valued Wordsworth also as a cautionary model of one who ultimately misunderstood the divine call; and that The Pilgrim’s Regress is modeled on The Prelude. Wordsworth’s poetry gave Lewis a way to understand his own history, and a language by which to express his own story. It is no wonder,then, that Lewis counted The Prelude among the 10 works which most influenced his life and thought.

 

1 Lewis later changed his mind on this point. In The Four Loves, he suggests that Nature cannot lead men to moral truths, for it reflects too easily what it is that men seek to find in it.

2 Oddly enough, Lewis felt much less sympathy for the later, more devoutly Anglican Wordsworth. In this essay, I confine my remarks to Lewis’ admiration for the early Wordsworth.

3 In discussing Wordsworth’s understanding of Reason and Imagination ,I am indebted to Joseph Warren Beach’s "Reason and Nature in Wordsworth"in Journal of the History of Ideas 1:1/4 (1940:Jan/Oct) 335-351.

 

WORKS CITED

Beach, Joseph Warren. "Reason and Nature in Wordsworth." Journalof the History of Ideas 1.1/4 (1940): 335-351.

Hooper, Walter. C.S. Lewis: A Companion and Guide. San Francisco:Harper, 1996.

——————, ed. Letters of C.S. Lewis. Rev. ed. San Diego, New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1988.

——————, ed. They Stand Together: The Letters of C.S. Lewisto Arthur Greeves (1914-1963). St. James Place, London: Collins, 1979.

Kuhn, Daniel K. "The Joy of the Absolute: A Comparative Study of the Romantic Visions of William Wordsworth and C.S. Lewis." Imagination and the Spirit: Essays in Literature and the Christian Faith Presented to Clyde S. Kilby. Ed. Charles A. Huttar. Grand Rapids, MI: William B.Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1971, 189-214.

Lewis, C.S. The Four Loves. London: Geoffrey Bles, 1960.

————–. Pilgrim’s Regress. Glascow: William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd, 1933.

————–. Surprised By Joy. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1955.

————–. Interview. The Canadian C.S. Lewis Journal, 58(1987), 27.

Ulmer, William A. "The Christian Wordsworth, 1798-1800." Journal of English and Germanic Philology 95:3 (1996), 336-358.

Wordsworth, William, "Lines Composed a Few Miles Above Tintern Abbey."English Romantic Writers. Ed. David Perkins. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Publishers, 1967, 209-211.

Wu, Duncan. "Tautology and Imaginative Vision in Wordsworth."Romanticism on the Net 2 (May 1996): n. pag. Online. Internet. 1 May 1998.