{"id":3525,"date":"2012-02-13T10:32:34","date_gmt":"2012-02-13T18:32:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cslewis.org\/blog\/?p=3525"},"modified":"2012-02-13T10:32:34","modified_gmt":"2012-02-13T18:32:34","slug":"walking-shotover-hill-a-cs-lewis-inspired-sonnet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cslewis.org\/blog\/walking-shotover-hill-a-cs-lewis-inspired-sonnet\/","title":{"rendered":"Walking Shotover Hill: A CS Lewis-Inspired Sonnet"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe very air here calls my heart to dance\u2026\u201d I wrote this sonnet while staying as a Scholar in Residence at the Kilns<\/a>, C.S. Lewis\u2019 home.<\/p>\n

During my stay, I realized that Oxford, and the Kilns and surrounding woods and fields in particular, is a \u2018thin place\u2019 for me: a place where what one might call the further dimensions of reality, the spiritual dimensions, were perceptible more vividly and consistently than usual.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve tried to bring that out a little bit here. I also tried to capture my own sense of the connection of landscape and language, with references to A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream<\/a>, Narnia<\/a>, Till We Have Faces<\/a>, and \u201cMeditation in a Toolshed\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You can click on the title of the poem to hear my reading of it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Kilns in morning sun and frost. Photo c. Holly Ordway<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Walking Shotover Hill<\/a><\/p>\n

The hedge is green and silver with the frost,
\nThe garden\u2019s bare brown stems are furred with ice.
\nA weed becomes a Faerie scepter, lost
\nIn midnight revel; every blade of grass
\nIs ornamented with the heraldry
\nOf winter, standing stiff to meet my step
\nAs I set out to walk Shotover Hill.
\nThe hollies stand as sentinel, but let
\nThis walker pass: I give my thanks. The sun
\nNow gilds the path: I look along the beam,
\nAnd see the trees and stones and fence at once
\nAs deeply real and being what they mean.
\nThe very air here calls my heart to dance,
\nAnd so it does: this beauty\u2019s not by chance.<\/p>\n

____________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n

Dr. Holly Ordway
\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Dr. Holly Ordway has a doctorate in English Literature from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, an MA in English Literature from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and an MA in Christian Apologetics from Biola University. Dr. Ordway\u2019s book Not God\u2019s Type: A Rational Academic Finds a Radical Faith<\/em><\/a> (Moody Publishers, 2010) chronicles her intellectual and emotional journey from atheism to faith in Christ as her Lord and Savior.<\/p>\n

She speaks and writes regularly on literature, especially fantasy literature and poetry, and literary apologetics. Her blog, from which this post was used with her permission, is Hieropraxis<\/a>. In it, she explores the intersection of literature and faith, and of reason and imagination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe very air here calls my heart to dance\u2026\u201d I wrote this sonnet while staying as a Scholar in Residence at the Kilns, C.S. Lewis\u2019 home. During my stay, I realized that Oxford, and the Kilns and surrounding woods and fields in particular, is a \u2018thin place\u2019 for me: a place where what one might […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[84,27],"tags":[109,368,82,501,643],"class_list":["post-3525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry-arts-and-culture","category-the-kilns","tag-cs-lewis-study-centre","tag-holly-ordway","tag-poetry","tag-shotover-hill","tag-the-kilns"],"yoast_head":"\nWalking Shotover Hill: A CS Lewis-Inspired Sonnet - Living the Legacy of C.S. 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