Back to series
What The Bird Said Early In The Year
Click here to open a Print - Friendly PDF
I heard in Addison’s Walk a bird sing clear:
This year the summer will come true. This year. This year.
This year time’s nature will no more defeat you.
Nor all the promised moments in their passing cheat you.
This time they will not lead you round and back
To Autumn, one year older, by the well worn track.
- C.S. Lewis, What the Bird Said Early in the Year
More than an intellectual ode to spring, CS Lewis’s poem contrasts the temporal with the eternal. Addison’s Walk is a mile long path through the grounds at Magdalen College, Oxford, where Lewis had a midnight conversation with friends, J.R.R. Tolkien and Hugo Dyson. A plaque with the entire poem stands as a monument on the property. This conversation centered on the truth of Christianity (Christianity as the true myth) and was instrumental in Lewis’ conversion.
As Christians, it is important that we distinguish the temporal from the eternal. Our earthly bodies decay and break down, and we eventually lose our race with time. In eternity, in the presence of the Lord, time and nature lose their grip. All our unfulfilled “promised moments” that left us disappointed will be forgotten and swallowed up in the singular splendor of the Lord’s glory.
![](https://www.cslewisinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/JosephAKohm_headshot_350.png)
Joseph A. Kohm
Vice President for Development, CSLI & CSLI City Director, Virginia BeachJoseph A. Kohm, C.S. Lewis Institute Vice President for Development and City Director for Virginia Beach. Joe is an attorney and formerly worked as a Certified Major League Baseball Player Agent. He earned his Master’s in Management Science from the State University of New York at Oswego and both his J.D. and M.Div. from Regent University. Joe is the author of The Unknown Garden of Another’s Heart: The Surprising Friendship between C.S. Lewis and Arthur Greeves (Wipf and Stock, 2022.)
![](/wp-content/uploads/BUTTON-Explore-Resources-v2-151-x-615-300x74.png)
COPYRIGHT: This publication is published by C.S. Lewis Institute; 8001 Braddock Road, Suite 301; Springfield, VA 22151. Portions of the publication may be reproduced for noncommercial, local church or ministry use without prior permission. Electronic copies of the PDF files may be duplicated and transmitted via e-mail for personal and church use. Articles may not be modified without prior written permission of the Institute. For questions, contact the Institute: 703.914.5602 or email us.
-
Recent Podcasts
The Side B Stories – Nate Sala’s Story
by Jana Harmon, Nate Sala on July 19, 2024Nate Sala rejected his parents’ faith tradition of...Read More
-
Terrorism Through the Eyes of Faith
by Dennis Hollinger on July 12, 2024
-
The Side B Stories – Melanie Beerda’s Story
by Melanie Beerda on July 5, 2024
-
Recent Publications
Hasn’t Science Proven That Belief in God Is an Outdated Superstition?
by Sharon Dirckx on July 1, 2024Many assume that scientific practice and belief in...Read More
-
Has the Bible Been Corrupted as Some Muslims Claim?
by Andy Bannister on June 1, 2024
-
Seeing Jesus Through the Eyes of Women
by Rebecca McLaughlin on May 15, 2024
0
All Booked
0.00
All Booked
0.00
All Booked
21581
GLOBAL EVENT: Conformed to His Image Study Course (Chicago) 6:30 PM CT
https://www.cslewisinstitute.org/?event=local-event-conformed-to-his-image-study-course-chicago&event_date=2024-07-25®=1
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr
2024-07-25
![](https://www.cslewisinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/Conformed-to-His-Image-Summer-2024-640-x-360.jpg)
Next coming event
Days
Hours
Minutes
Seconds
GLOBAL EVENT: Conformed to His Image Study Course (Chicago) 6:30 PM CT
On July 25, 2024 at 6:30 pmSpeakers
Joseph A. Kohm
Vice President for Development, CSLI & CSLI City Director, Virginia Beach
Team Members
![](https://www.cslewisinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/JosephAKohm_headshot_350.png)
Joseph A. Kohm
Vice President for Development, CSLI & CSLI City Director, Virginia BeachJoseph A. Kohm, C.S. Lewis Institute Vice President for Development and City Director for Virginia Beach. Joe is an attorney and formerly worked as a Certified Major League Baseball Player Agent. He earned his Master’s in Management Science from the State University of New York at Oswego and both his J.D. and M.Div. from Regent University. Joe is the author of The Unknown Garden of Another’s Heart: The Surprising Friendship between C.S. Lewis and Arthur Greeves (Wipf and Stock, 2022.)
![](/wp-content/uploads/BUTTON-Explore-Resources-v2-151-x-615-300x74.png)