Whether you think C.S. Lewis is a racist and xenophobe of Arabic culture after reading the Narnia series or not, it becomes evidentially clear after reading the Horse and His Boy that C.S. Lewis does have something against a particular kind of wisdom. This wisdom is expressed in the form of Calormen poetry throughout the book, and isn’t endemic to Arabic culture. I thought it would be fun to look at the poetry and wisdom that C.S. Lewis puts down and see what we can make of this.
“Natural affection is stronger than soup and offspring more precious than carbuncles”
“He who attempts to deceive the judicious is already baring his own back for the scourge”
“Swords can be kept off with shields:but the Eye of Wisdom pierces through every defence.”
“Deep draughts from the fountain of reason are desirable:in order to extinguish the fire of youthful love.”
Taken from the encyclopedia AllExperts.com, “The poetry of Calormen is prolix, sententious, and moralizing, "full of choice apothegms and useful maxims".” I think that definition of Calormen poetry is the best I have yet seen, and shows what C.S.Lewis has against this kind of wisdom. In a world where analogies and poetry can be used in defense of any morality using language in any variety of ways, true meaning becomes lost.
But I would go on to say that there is nothing wrong with these kinds of apothegms, epigrams, and sayings, or any that we use ourselves like “Haste makes waste”, “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch,” , “Don’t burn any bridges”, etc. These terse sayings give a liveliness to language, much how metaphors, similes, proverbs, and parables do. This creative and artistic use of language should not be looked down upon, but perhaps I would agree with C.S.Lewis that they cannot lead you to any absolute morality or truth. This is shown when Shasta’s adopted father Arsheesh and the Tarkaan bounce back and forth their poetry to make their points.
On the flip side, C.S. Lewis predictably venerates Narnian poetry, while not creating any that we can actually look at, he gives a description in the end of The Horse and His Boy about Narnian poetry being about war and love, which Shasta (now Cor) and Aravis thought to be much more exciting than the useful maxims of Calormen poetry, which they were raised on. While poetry about war and love may be just as good, I think they too can become trite (much like how nearly every song on today’s radio is about love and heartbreak.) And I think poetries about war and love can just as well be misused to justify any set of moralities.
In conclusion, Calormen styled poetry and Narnian style poetry both has their place.
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