Wednesday, March 23, 2011

An Expostulation - A poem by C.S. Lewis

An Expostulation - by C.S. Lewis

Against too many writers of science fiction

Why did you lure us on like this,
Light-year on light-year, through the abyss,
Building (as though we cared for size!)
Empires that cover galaxies
If at the journey's end we find
The same old stuff we left behind,
Well-worn Tellurian stories of
Crooks, spies, conspirators, or love,
Whose setting might as well have been
The Bronx, Montmartre, or Bedinal Green?

Why should I leave this green-floored cell,
Roofed in blue air, in which we dwell,
Unless, outside its guarded gates,
Long, long desired the Unearthly waits
Strangeness that moves us more than fear,
Beauty that stabs with tingling spear,
Or Wonder, laying on one's heart
That finger-tip at which we start
As if some thought too swift and shy
For reason's grasp had just gone by?

1 comment:

  1. Oh I love this!! To me, that is the only reason I read a fantasy/sci-fi book..."to grasp the strangeness that moves us more than fear, beauty that stabs with tingling spear, or wonder, laying on one's heart." Thats probably why I only read so few :P Looking forward to yours though dear!

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