Under what pen name did C.S. Lewis publish his first poetry collection?

C.S. Lewis published his first poetry collection under the pen name Clive Hamilton. The collection, Spirits in Bondage, appeared in 1919.

Lewis chose the pseudonym partly because he was still a young former soldier beginning his literary career. The poems reflect themes including suffering, nature, war, pessimism, and the search for meaning. Their tone differs markedly from the Christian apologetics and children’s fantasy for which Lewis later became famous.

He used Clive Hamilton again for Dymer, a narrative poem published in 1926. Lewis later published poetry under his own name, including the collection Poems, which appeared posthumously in 1964.

N.W. Clerk was not a Lewis pen name for this early poetry. It was the name used by Lewis for the biography A Grief Observed, published in 1961. Keeping these names separate helps distinguish his youthful poetry from his later autobiographical writing.