Analysis “On Being Human” Essay

C.S. Lewis gets straight to the point in his first lines, particularly with the first 2 words nonsuchic minds. Readers allow discern straight off that Lewis is going to discuss the concept of experience from the viewpoint of super essential non-human beings such as angels. Readers may also guess, by comparing this thinking to the poems surname 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(prenominal) implication comes from, and in this, at the beginning of the poem at least, C.S. Lewis is no help at all in think ofring to a mysterious they who on the face of it hold that angels use wisdom alone to get over the forms of nature, non needing the added senses enjoyed by more sensate humankind. Some readers may be reminded here of the jolty battles between the angels and demons of Milton or the arrows of desire of Blake. Indeed the natur e of love and its forms was good explored and analysed elsewhere in the Four Loves by C.S. Lewis himself. As he outlines his transmission line in the next few lines, readers are left wondering which guidance Lewis is going to go with this.They may wonder which dimension of experience the poet will say is best intelligence or sensory experience? Here, the idea of an enigma or puzzle gives the poem drive and suspense as students read on to find out what happens next. Initially C.S. Lewis presents, and continues to develop, the theory that those with rigorously spiritual, non stifling minds tin can unerringly discern crucial time little rectitudes, the verities, with intelligence alone, without recourse to the five senses. Humans either lack acquaintance of these truths or have come to learn them indirectly by means of the implied less satisfactory means of sensual experience. Truths of nature seem to be give particular weight by Lewis here as he tells readers of earthness an d stoneness that can be perceived by angels from their clear 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 Roman Catholic belief in the infallibility of the pontiff and the unwavering adherence to doctrine of the Roman Catholic church pull down in the face of calls for relaxation and modernisation by common familiar dissent. This serves to reinforce the nonion 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 variant in Lewiss view with that of the poets, theologians and philosophers of the they in his initial lines. In his inclination of an orbit of the und erstanding of the notion of being, of existence, being human is left outThe angels bet to understand the scientific principles of the beauty of nature, the properties of a tree for example, or the evaporatory properties of the sea, entirely their achievements in the field of understanding human existence are not mentioned. C.S. Lewis then sketches, with exquisite delicacy, the human experience of the blissful coolness of fill in as relief from the blistering unrelenting glare of the sun and, next, the gaolbreak of sun from shadow where the trees begin. This use of the word severance also serves to dinero 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 series 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. Here Lewis picks up again the comical atmosphere that underlies the conversational floor style of the poem, adding that angels are unable to appreciate the delights of the fragrance of the field, new slashed hay, the sea smells and the therapeutic incense of wood smoke. With humor he like blue murder 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 humans are the come apart off of the two beings. After all, they are guarded from the shock of perceiving the unanimous of existence the heavens at once, because mankinds distracting senses obscure the truth of it.Crucially, in terms of understanding Lewiss own opinion on the subject, the poet draws attention to the way in which graven image himself may want us to have one small area of our personalities devoted to appreciating the environment through our senses. Perhaps in so doing we are the better able to comprehend the sheer 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 opening to mind when reflecting upon the benefits this being human has in our relationship with God the lines refer to a Christ who humbled himself to character in our humanity. As Lewis puts it, we share a privacy that is forever ours, not theirs.