"Spirits in Bondage" is the first published work of C. S. Lewis. He wrote it during a period of great contrasts in his life. On the one hand, he was enjoying his last year under the private tutorship of W. T. Kirkpatrick, who expanded Lewis' love for Greek literature, mythology, and reason. On the other hand, he enlisted in the British army to fight in the trenches of World War I, a messy reality that must have seemed irreconcilable to the beauty of words and clarity of reason he had come to know through his studies. Not surprisingly, this moving, masterfully crafted cycle of lyrics is marked both by Romanticism and Cynicism. Beauty and the trenches are equally present in these poems. They show us an anguished soul that struggles with the conflicting experiences in this world. Come and join C. S. Lewis on his stormy voyage.