… A poem by C.S. LEWIS :

I heard in Addison’s Walk a bird sing clear:
This year the summer will come true. This year. This year.

Winds will not strip the blossom from the apple trees
This year, nor want of rain destroy the peas.

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.

This year, this year, as all these flowers foretell,
We shall escape the circle and undo the spell.

Often deceived, yet open once again your heart,
Quick, quick, quick, quick!—the gates are drawn apart.

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This poem by C.S. Lewis is inscribed on a plaque found on Addison’s Walk, a scenic mile long path that circles the water meadow at Magdalen College, Oxford.

It is said that C.S. Lewis had his famous late-night conversation about myth and Christianity with J.R.R. Tolkien and Hugo Dyson when they went out for a stroll on Addison’s Walk on September 19, 1931. 

This led to the writing of this poem by Lewis, among other things. 

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Addison’s Walk & Magdalen College, Oxford, England, U.K. ~ 30 July 2023

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*Photography: Original and sourced.