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G. K. Chesterton's Early Poetry
(2004)Greybeards At Play / The Wild Knight And Other Poems / The Ballad of the White Horse
A collection of poems by G K Chesterton
Here under one cover are the complete texts and sketches of G. K. Chesterton's first three books of poetry: Greybeards at Play (1900), The Wild Knight and Other Poems (1900) and The Ballad of the White Horse (1911).
The poet W. H. Auden said that Greybeards at Play, "contains some of the best pure nonsense verse in English.... Surely, it is high time such enchanting pieces should be made readily available.... By natural gifts, Chesterton was, I think, essentially a comic poet."
In The Wild Knight Chesterton is asking an important question, Can someone be so evil that they are unreachable by anything someone else might do or say?
The playful humor of Greybeards contrasts with the high seriousness of Chesterton's great Tolkien-like epic, The Ballad of the White Horse. During one of the darkest moments of World War II The Times of London would quote these words from it: "I tell you naught for your comfort, Yea naught for your desire, Save that the sky grows darker yet, And the sea rises higher." They expressed better than anything else the great trials England was facing just five years after Chesterton's death."
With his great epic, Chesterton had done with English history what Tolkien would later do with his imaginary history of Middle-earth. He had molded events and place them in a new light to give meaning and purpose to history. As Chesterton would note on the epic's title page, quoting from the King Alfred of the tale, "I say, as do all Christian men, that there is a divine purpose that rules and not fate."
Genre: Inspirational
The poet W. H. Auden said that Greybeards at Play, "contains some of the best pure nonsense verse in English.... Surely, it is high time such enchanting pieces should be made readily available.... By natural gifts, Chesterton was, I think, essentially a comic poet."
In The Wild Knight Chesterton is asking an important question, Can someone be so evil that they are unreachable by anything someone else might do or say?
The playful humor of Greybeards contrasts with the high seriousness of Chesterton's great Tolkien-like epic, The Ballad of the White Horse. During one of the darkest moments of World War II The Times of London would quote these words from it: "I tell you naught for your comfort, Yea naught for your desire, Save that the sky grows darker yet, And the sea rises higher." They expressed better than anything else the great trials England was facing just five years after Chesterton's death."
With his great epic, Chesterton had done with English history what Tolkien would later do with his imaginary history of Middle-earth. He had molded events and place them in a new light to give meaning and purpose to history. As Chesterton would note on the epic's title page, quoting from the King Alfred of the tale, "I say, as do all Christian men, that there is a divine purpose that rules and not fate."
Genre: Inspirational
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