C.S. Lewis’s 1926 narrative poem is titled Dymer.
Lewis published Dymer under the pseudonym Clive Hamilton. It is a long narrative poem in rhymed couplets, telling the story of a monstrous child who grows into a violent and troubled adult. The work reflects Lewis’s interest in myth, morality, and imaginative literature before his public reputation as a Christian author was established.
The poem appeared before his 1933 allegorical novel The Pilgrim’s Regress and before the books that made him widely known. Lewis later viewed Dymer critically, but it remains important for tracing the development of themes that recur in his fiction, including temptation, pride, transformation, and the consequences of disordered desire.
Readers sometimes confuse Dymer with The Dark Tower, another work associated with Lewis’s poetry. The Dark Tower is an unfinished and posthumously published fragment, while Dymer was a completed narrative poem published during Lewis’s lifetime. “Clive Hamilton” was a pen name, not a separate author.