The four narrative poems are supplemented by Lewis's own comments and general biographical information

Spirits in Bondage - A Cycle of Lyrics by Clive Hamilton / C. S. Lewis - Most of the poems appear to have been written between 1915 and 1918, a period during which Lewis was a student under W. T. Kirkpatrick, a military trainee at Oxford, and a soldier serving in the trenches of World War I. Their outlook varies from Romantic expressions of love for the beauty and simplicity of nature to cynical statements about the presence of evil in this world. In a September 12, 1918 letter to his friend Arthur Greeves, Lewis said that his book was, "mainly strung around the idea that I mentioned to you before—that nature is wholly diabolical & malevolent and that God, if he exists, is outside of and in opposition to the cosmic arrangements." In his cynical poems, Lewis is dealing with the same questions about evil in nature that Alfred Lord Tennyson explored from a position of troubled faith in "In Memoriam A. H." (Stanzas 54f). In a letter written perhaps to reassure his father, Lewis claimed, "You know who the God I blaspheme is and that it is not the God that you or I worship, or any other Christian."

Examines human love, including affection, friendship, erotic love, and the love of God, and uses sources ranging from Jane Austen to St. Augustine to argue that none of the types of love can prosper without the love of God.

The British scholar discusses many aspects of the private dialogue between man and God in these informal letters to a close friend

The literary scholar and children's author recounts his journey from a youthful atheism to a thoughtful Christianity, his experiences in World War I, and his introduction to Oxford

Analyzes a wide range of literary topics, including the nature of science fiction, writing for children, the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, and fairy tales