Record Number: 32399

---

Reading Experience:

Evidence:

'Many thanks for the "Spectator" which I shall certainly keep for the sake of the poem. It is, I quite agree with you, a really notable piece of work, quite above the average. The verse beginning "Life? - 'Twas a little thing to give" is glorious, and also the last two lines "Who bartered for Youth's diadem The dross of after years." I wonder is there any country outside these islands where about every 10th man is a poet, as seems to be the case with us? I wish somebody of real taste would collect all the verse that is appearing in the papers at present and make a selection - it would be the best anthology ever published. As to F.S. Boas I know him well from a book of his on Shakespeare that Kirk has, but it never struck me that there was any relationship.'

Century:

1900-1945

Date:

Between 15 Oct 1916 and 19 Oct 1916

Country:

England

Time

n/a

Place:

Great Bookham
Surrey
'Gastons'

Type of Experience
(Reader):
 

silent aloud unknown
solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

Type of Experience
(Listener):
 

solitary in company unknown
single serial unknown

---

Reader / Listener / Reading Group:

Reader:

Clive Staples Lewis

Age:

Child (0-17)

Gender:

Male

Date of Birth:

29 Nov 1898

Socio-Economic Group:

Professional / academic / merchant / farmer

Occupation:

Student

Religion:

Church of England

Country of Origin:

Northern Ireland

Country of Experience:

England

Listeners present if any:
e.g family, servants, friends

n/a

Additional Comments:

n/a

---

Text Being Read:

Author:

Frederick Samuel Boas

Title:

Ulster on the Somme

Genre:

Poetry, Elegy for a relative killed on the first day of the Somme offensive

Form of Text:

Print: Serial / periodical

Publication Details

'Spectator' (14 October 1916), p. 443

Provenance

owned
Lewis received this copy by post; the owner is his father.

---

Source Information:

Record ID:

32399

Source:

Print

Author:

C. S. Lewis

Editor:

Walter Hooper

Title:

C. S. Lewis Collected Letters

Place of Publication:

London

Date of Publication:

2000

Vol:

1

Page:

237-38

Additional Comments:

From a letter to his father, 19 October 1916. The book on Shakespeare must be 'Shakespeare and his Predecessors', published in 1896. His second book on this subject 'Shakespeare and the Universities' was not published until 1923.

Citation:

C. S. Lewis, Walter Hooper (ed.), C. S. Lewis Collected Letters, (London, 2000), 1, p. 237-38, http://www.open.ac.uk/Arts/reading/UK/record_details.php?id=32399, accessed: 22 November 2024

---

Additional Comments:

'Ulster on the Somme' was later included in an anthology of Boas's poetry, 'Songs of Ulster and Balliol', published by Constable in 1917.