The Wild Knight and Other Poems
()
About this ebook
G. K. Chesterton
G.K. Chesterton (1874–1936) was an English writer, philosopher and critic known for his creative wordplay. Born in London, Chesterton attended St. Paul’s School before enrolling in the Slade School of Fine Art at University College. His professional writing career began as a freelance critic where he focused on art and literature. He then ventured into fiction with his novels The Napoleon of Notting Hill and The Man Who Was Thursday as well as a series of stories featuring Father Brown.
Read more from G. K. Chesterton
The Floating Admiral Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Manalive Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Man Who Knew Too Much Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Eugenics and Other Evils: An Argument against the Scientifically Organized State Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Everlasting Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Saint Thomas Aquinas Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What I Saw in America Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Heretics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Father Brown: The Complete Collection Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Short History of England Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tremendous Trifles: Essays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5What's Wrong with the World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Club of Queer Trades Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Defendant: Essays Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Christmas Library: 250+ Essential Christmas Novels, Poems, Carols, Short Stories...by 100+ Authors Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Alarms and Discursions Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5St Francis Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Complete Works of G. K. Chesterton (Illustrated) Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Ballad of the White Horse: An Epic Poem Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Victorian Age in Literature Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSaint Francis of Assisi Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Father Brown (Complete Collection): 53 Murder Mysteries: The Scandal of Father Brown, The Donnington Affair & The Mask of Midas… Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSaint Francis of Assisi: The Life and Times of St. Francis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Orthodoxy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related to The Wild Knight and Other Poems
Related ebooks
The Wild Knight and Other Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Wild Knight and Other Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Wild Knight and Other Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSpirits in Bondage: A Cycle of Lyrics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Challenge Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSpirits in Bondage Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Apples from Shinar: A Book of Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHappy Ending: The Collected Lyrics of Louise Imogen Guiney Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsH. P. Lovecraft: The Complete Fiction Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsH.P. Lovecraft: Complete Poetry (Golden Deer Classics) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEanthe - A Tale of the Druids and Other Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTwo plays for dancers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Green Helmet & Other Poems: “There are no strangers, only friends you have not met yet.” Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Poetry Of HP Lovecraft: "Almost nobody dances sober, unless they happen to be insane." Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Earthly Paradise (Part II) A Poem Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Rhyme A Dozen - 12 Poets, 12 Poems, 1 Topic ― Churchyards Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Roadside Harp: A Book of Verses Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMiscellany of Poetry: 1919 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPoems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Man And His Image And Other Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Children of the Night Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPoems by G. K. Chesterton Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The White Sail, and Other Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGreybeards at Play Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPoems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMaking Ends Meet for All Souls Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOxford Poetry, 1919 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPoems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Lonely Flute Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Poetry Of George Meredith - Volume 4: “We never know what’s in us till we stand by ourselves” Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
General Fiction For You
The Covenant of Water (Oprah's Book Club) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Silmarillion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Shantaram: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fellowship Of The Ring: Being the First Part of The Lord of the Rings Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Priory of the Orange Tree Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Man Called Ove: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The City of Dreaming Books Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ulysses: With linked Table of Contents Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Life of Pi: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dante's Divine Comedy: Inferno Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Unhoneymooners Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Candy House: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jackal, Jackal: Tales of the Dark and Fantastic Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5My Sister's Keeper: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Labyrinth of Dreaming Books: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Meditations: Complete and Unabridged Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Second Life of Mirielle West: A Haunting Historical Novel Perfect for Book Clubs Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Beartown: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everything's Fine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Canterbury Tales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Recital of the Dark Verses Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Alchemist: A Graphic Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5It Ends with Us: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Terminal List: A Thriller Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Other Black Girl: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for The Wild Knight and Other Poems
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
The Wild Knight and Other Poems - G. K. Chesterton
Knight
G. K. Chesterton
Gilbert Keith Chesterton was born in London in 1874. He studied at the Slade School of Art, and upon graduating began to work as a freelance journalist. By 1905, he had a regular and popular column with the Illustrated London News, and began to write on an array of topics. Over the course of his life, his literary output was incredibly diverse and highly prolific, ranging from philosophy and ontology to art criticism and detective fiction. However, he is probably best-remembered for his Christian apologetics, most notably in Orthodoxy (1908) and The Everlasting Man (1925). George Bernard Shaw dubbed Chesterton a man of colossal genius,
and of his fiction Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges said Chesterton knew how to make the most of a detective story.
Chesterton died in 1936, aged 62.
NOTE
My thanks are due to the Editors of the Outlook and the Speaker for the kind permission they have given me to reprint a considerable number of the following poems. They have been selected and arranged rather with a view to unity of spirit than to unity of time or value; many of them being juvenile.
THE WILD KNIGHT
Another tattered rhymster in the ring,
With but the old plea to the sneering schools,
That on him too, some secret night in spring
Came the old frenzy of a hundred fools
To make some thing: the old want dark and deep,
The thirst of men, the hunger of the stars,
Since first it tinged even the Eternal’s sleep,
With monstrous dreams of trees and towns and mars.
When all He made for the first time He saw,
Scattering stars as misers shake their pelf.
Then in the last strange wrath broke His own law,
And made a graven image of Himself._
BY THE BABE UNBORN
If trees were tall and grasses short,
As in some crazy tale,
If here and there a sea were blue
Beyond the breaking pale,
If a fixed fire hung in the air
To warm me one day through,
If deep green hair grew on great hills,
I know what I should do.
In dark I lie: dreaming that there
Are great eyes cold or kind,
And twisted streets and silent doors,
And living men behind.
Let storm-clouds come: better an hour,
And leave to weep and fight,
Than all the ages I have ruled
The empires of the night.
I think that if they gave me leave
Within that world to stand,
I would be good through all the day
I spent in fairyland.
They should not hear a word from me
Of selfishness or scorn,
If only I could find the door,
If only I were born.
THE WORLD’S LOVER
My eyes are full of lonely mirth:
Reeling with want and worn with scars,
For pride of every stone on earth,
I shake my spear at all the stars.
A live bat beats my crest above,
Lean foxes nose where I have trod,
And on my naked face the love
Which is the loneliness of God.
Outlawed: since that great day gone by—
When before prince and pope and queen
I stood and spoke a blasphemy—
‘Behold the summer leaves are green.’
They cursed me: what was that to me
Who in that summer darkness furled,
With but an owl and snail to see,
Had blessed and conquered all the world?
They bound me to the scourging-stake,
They laid their whips of thorn on me;
I wept to see the green rods break,
Though blood be beautiful to see.
Beneath the gallows’ foot abhorred
The crowds cry ‘Crucify!’ and ‘Kill!’
Higher the priests sing, ‘Praise the Lord,
The warlock dies’; and higher still
Shall heaven and earth hear