Analysis “On Being Human” Essay

C.S. Lewis gets straight to the point in his first lines, particularly with the first two row angelic minds. Readers will discern immediately that Lewis is going to discuss the concept of experience from the stall of supernatural non-human beings such as angels. Readers whitethorn also guess, by comparing this idea to the poems title On Being Human, that he intends to go on to compare this idea with our experience of the world from the implied lowliness of mankinds perspective.Students may wonder where the latter implication comes from, and in this, at the beginning of the poem at least, C.S. Lewis is no help at all in referring to a sable they who apparently hold that angels use intelligence alone to comprehend the forms of nature, not needing the added senses enjoyed by more sensate humankind. Some readers may be reminded here of the uncivilized battles between the angels and demons of Milton or the arrows of desire of Blake. Indeed the nature of love and its forms was thorough ly explored and analysed elsewhere in the Four Loves by C.S. Lewis himself. As he outlines his argument in the next few lines, readers are left wondering which way Lewis is going to go with this.They may wonder which dimension of experience the poet will say is dress hat intelligence or sensory experience? Here, the idea of an enigma or puzzle gives the poem drive and suspense as students read on to take care out what happens next. Initially C.S. Lewis presents, and continues to develop, the theory that those with purely spiritual, non sensual minds can unerringly discern crucial timeless truths, the verities, through intelligence alone, without recourse to the five senses. reality either lack knowledge of these truths or have come to learn them indirectly through the implied less satisfactory means of sensual experience. Truths of nature be to be given particular weight by Lewis here as he tells readers of earthness and stoneness that can be perceived by angels from their clea r uncluttered viewpoint uncluttered by the supposed inferior extraneous baggage of mortal sensate feelings and experiences.Both in Lewiss use of the word unvarying and in his use of the word unerringly in the opening lines, some readers may pick up echoes of the popish Catholic belief in the infallibility of the Pope and the watertight adherence to doctrine of the Roman Catholic church even in the face of calls for relaxation and modernisation by common popular dissent. This serves to reinforce the design of the fundamental nature of ancient truths. Being human, Lewis seems to ponder, may result in a clouding of the vision of fundamental principles by a veil or a muddled fog of distracting sensual experiences. It is at this point that the reader may perceive a divergence in Lewiss view with that of the poets, theologians and philosophers of the they in his initial lines. In his list of the understanding of the notion of being, of existence, being human is left outThe angels app ear to understand the scientific principles of the beauty of nature, the properties of a manoeuver for example, or the evaporatory properties of the sea, but their achievements in the field of understanding human existence are not mentioned. C.S. Lewis thusly sketches, with exquisite delicacy, the human experience of the blissful nip of shade as relief from the blistering unrelenting glare of the sun and, next, the severance of sun from shadow where the trees begin. This use of the word severance also serves to jell the point where Lewis breaks faith temporarily with the they of the first lines as he introduces humor, remarking that an angel has no skin and therefore (presumably) no conduit for the sense of touch.Then follows a serial publication of ravishing images, deftly painted by Lewis, of the drinking-in of experiences of natures loveliness such as the sweetness of a peach basking in the warmth of a sunlit wall or the delightfully natural fragrances of the countryside. He re Lewis picks up again the comical atmosphere that underlies the conversational narrative style of the poem, adding that angels are uneffective to appreciate the delights of the fragrance of the field, new mown hay, the sea smells and the therapeutic incense of wood smoke. With humor he bluntly posits that an angel has no noseThe poet then appears to struggle between two possibilities firstly that angels get the best deal as they are not burdened with the five confusing senses. Conversely, he wonders whether military personnel are the better off of the two beings. After all, they are guarded from the shock of perceiving the whole of existence the heavens at once, because mankinds distracting senses veil the truth of it.Crucially, in terms of understanding Lewiss own opinion on the subject, the poet draws attention to the way in which God himself may want us to have one small area of our personalities devoted to appreciating the environment through our senses. Perhaps in so doin g we are the better able to comprehend the skip scale of the wonders of nature and sense that He has provided for our happiness. The angels with their cold intelligence may be unable to profoundly appreciate, thank and love God to the full. Indeed, some lines from the Roman Catholic church service, The Mass, may spring to mind when reflecting upon the benefits this being human has in our relationship with God the lines refer to a Christ who low-spirited himself to share in our humanity. As Lewis puts it, we share a privacy that is forever ours, not theirs.