This is Malcolm Guy, the author of David's Crown, and you're listening to Pints with Jack.

This is Pints with Jack, Season 5, Episode 59, The Poetic Spirit, after hours with Reverend Dr. Malcolm Guy.

Well, good morning, everyone. Pints with Jack is your weekly C.S. Lewis podcast, where David, Matt, and I break down and

discuss the works of C.S. Lewis.

Today we begin our final dedicated series of the season, Poetry Month.

In subsequent episodes of this season, we'll dive more into detail about Lewis's

own poetic works, as well as those of his wife. While I'm sure we'll mention them today,

this episode is going to be a wide-ranging talk about poetry, especially Lewis's own. Many people

haven't read poetry since they were in school, and few people, probably too few, have read Lewis's works.

And who better to help us through this than the Reverend Dr. Malcolm Gite?

Malcolm Gite appeared briefly on Pints with Jack, when he recorded a tribute to the late Walter Hooper.

He's an accomplished poet, an important voice in the Church of England and throughout the world,

author of Mariner, a definitive study on Coleridge, and one of the most inspiring speakers working on Lewis and the Inklings today.

Malcolm, under trying circumstances, thank you for your courage and welcome to Pints with Jack.

Thank you. Good to be talking poetry in the context of Pints with Jack because of course

Jack, I think Jack was in the very deepest sense. Lewis was in the very deepest sense

a poet. But he wanted to be a poet in the most literal sense. He wanted to be known and remembered

as a poet, really the first part of

his life. His first published book was a book of poetry. He had hoped that his long, strange

narrative poem, Daimah, based on a self-made myth, would make his reputation as a great

modern poet. And sadly, within his own lifetime, that didn't happen. But thanks be to God,

he didn't stop writing poetry. And I'm among those who think that when you look now from

...