Amor Agonistes: A Note on Two Previously Unpublished Sonnets by Joy Davidman

Joy Davidman's forty-five love sonnets to C. S. Lewis were first published in 2015 in A Naked Tree: Joy Davidman's Love Sonnets to C. S. Lewis and Other Poems. Critics have suggested these sonnets were influenced by John Donne, Andreas Cappellanus, Philip Sidney, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, and even Lewis's own discussion of Shakespeare's love sonnets. However, I now believe the influence of Louise Charlin Perrin Labé, (1524-1566) a French poet of the Renaissance who wrote twenty-four love sonnets centering upon the longings, torments, and exhilarations of romantic love, also had an important influence on Davidman's love sonnets. The evidence of this appears in two previously unpublished sonnets by Davidman. The first is Davidman's translation of Labé's sonnet 14, and the second is ‘Answer to Louise Labe's, written at The Kilns, Headington Quarry, Christmas 1952.’ In this brief note, I discuss both sonnets and suggest their influence upon Davidman.