Lewis's first published work contains poetry reflecting a frustrated dualism; that is, poems reveal a tension between his feeling life is controlled by a cruel, malicious deity and his sense the world of faery gives evidence to transcendental beauty. Furthermore, many of the poems suggest the profound impact of Lewis's World War I experiences as a soldier in the trenches in France. Don King presented an earlier version of this essay to the Oxford C. S. Lewis Society on October 21, 1997. Mr. King is Academic Dean and Associate Professor of English at Montreat College.