'But you and all the kind of Christ
Are ignorant and brave,
And you have wars you hardly win
And souls you hardly save.'
The ballad of the white horse

Friday, January 14, 2011

Poetry

Chesterton's first two books are words of poetry. This morning, I read the first (slim) one: 'Greybeards at play'. It consists of five poems: a dedication, three poems, and an envoy. Apparently, the illustrations are made by Chesterton himself.
At first, I found it curious that this first work, published when Chesterton was about 26 years old, is about 'greybeards'. The poems, however, are about a sense of wonder about the world, which children still have, grown-ups have lost in the complexity of life, and old people (maybe) can return to. In the envoy, when a child is reluctant to leave this wonderful world of childhood behind, the 'greybeard' says: "Go on, the world is round.".

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