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/lit/ - Literature

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File: 352 KB, 1200x817, DUbwPOWU8AAm524.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
22932930 No.22932930 [Reply] [Original]

For every tiny town or place
God made the stars especially;
Babies look up with owlish face
And see them tangled in a tree:
You saw a moon from Sussex Downs,
A Sussex moon, untravelled still,
I saw a moon that was the town's,
The largest lamp on Campden Hill.

Yea, Heaven is everywhere at home
The big blue cap that always fits,
And so it is (be calm; they come
To goal at last, my wandering wits),
So is it with the heroic thing;
This shall not end for the world's end
And though the sullen engines swing,
Be you not much afraid, my friend.

This did not end by Nelson's urn
Where an immortal England sits—
Nor where your tall young men in turn
Drank death like wine at Austerlitz.
And when the pedants bade us mark
What cold mechanic happenings
Must come; our souls said in the dark,
"Belike; but there are likelier things."

Likelier across these flats afar,
These sulky levels smooth and free,
The drums shall crash a waltz of war
And Death shall dance with Liberty;
Likelier the barricades shall blare
Slaughter below and smoke above,
And death and hate and hell declare
That men have found a thing to love.

Far from your sunny uplands set
I saw the dream; the streets I trod
The lit straight streets shot out and met
The starry streets that point to God;
This legend of an epic hour
A child I dreamed, and dream it still,
Under the great grey water-tower
That strikes the stars on Campden Hill.

>> No.22932947

Good God, that is absolutely fantastic poetry. It beams and overflows! I have to read it again, but take a walk first. I have to read it again. I want to read it again.

>> No.22932976

>>22932930
Great poem. Thanks for that. And what is that pic? Looks like an interesting anime/manga

>> No.22932987

>>22932976
The Japanese cover for GK Chesterton's "The Napoleon of Notting Hill", drawn by Hayao Miyazaki. The poem is included as a preface to the novel.

>> No.22932991
File: 182 KB, 1500x1000, chesterton-portrait-cigar-1500x1000.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
22932991

>>22932987
The poem is Chesterton's too, right? It's easy to forget how talented he was at doing many different things with words.

>> No.22932992

>>22932987
(NTA) All my life I have been arrogantly dismissive of anime. Yet I cannot recall the last time I saw a new hand-illustrated book cover in America. Drawing seems far more alive in Japan.

>> No.22933002

>>22932987
Cool. Is it a good book? The anime pic looks neat

>> No.22933003

>>22933002
It's my favorite novel
>>22932991
Yea. "To Hilaire Belloc"

>> No.22933005
File: 144 KB, 646x724, 080707_r17456_p646.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
22933005

In general Chesterton feels like he's swung back around to being underrated. About a decade ago he was all the rage with the "trad" set and the new converts to Catholicism while Benedict was still Pope. Then he started to get overplayed and overwrought, and people started to put him down.

Nowadays I don't see him nearly as much in literary circles, on /lit/ or on social media, which may be just as well. I feel like his quality speaks for itself and maybe it's better if he's not some hip, of-the-moment writer.

I will say that, paradoxically, I think I like his writing on religion the least of his stuff. His social commentary in his essays is great, and his short stories and poems are sublime. I think trying to pigeonhole Chesterton as some kind of Catholic apologist doesn't do him justice, and actually serves to deemphasize the most interesting things in his catalog.

>> No.22933018

>>22933003
You have good taste in poetry and art. I will read your book.

>> No.22933540

>>22933018
Read The Man Who Was Thursday as well. Fantastic book and it can be read in a day.

>> No.22933648

>>22932930
BUMP. Love Chesterton.

>> No.22934163

Bump. Started reading Napoleon of Notting Hill last night. Just a few chapters. Chesterton has a fantastic way of writing. I have a hard time thinking of what it is but it is really enjoyable. Its like he's constantly bouncing around between the storyline and other related ideas. Guy must have been a great conversationalist.

>> No.22935384

>>22934163
You should read his essay collections. Start with Heretics.

>> No.22936910

>>22932930
not even going to read that but it's boring

>> No.22936922

>>22932991
>>22932987
>>22933003
Good Heavens, Chesterton really was a giant, wasn't he