"I tell you naught for your comfort,
"Yea, naught for your desire,
"Save that the sky grows darker yet
"And the sea rises higher."
"-Chesterton"
-Poul Anderson, After Doomsday (Panther Books, Frogmore, St Albans, Herts, 1975), Chapter Fifteen, p. 149.
The phrase, "Before the gods that made the gods...," which Anderson uses in The Shield Of Time (see here), is taken from the same source although, in this case, Anderson does not tell us that it is a quotation. I can't remember how I found out.
Chesterton's poem also contains at least one other relevant line:
After a judgment day."
-copied from (see the first link above).
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Dang! I have read a fair amount of Chesterton's works, both fiction and nonfiction, but not, to my regret, "The Ballad of the White Horse." I have read his other famous poem, "Lepanto."
I usually recommend to possible first time readers of Chesterton THE EVERLASTING MAN, because I think that a good introduction to both how he thought and wrote. And Poul Anderson mentioned to me in one of his letters of how much he loved the works of Chesterton.
Sean
Sean,
I find Chesterton too contemptuous and dismissive of other points of view.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I disagree, I never got that impression from Chesterton himself. Yes, he was a debater and controversialist, but he counted among his closest friends men he strongly disagreed with, such as George Bernard Shaw.
Sean
Kaor, Sean!
I do recommend “The Ballad of the White Horse,” which I have read; I memorized “Lepanto” as a teenager, and could still recite at least substantial parts of it. And I’m probably less of a Chesterton fan than you!
Best Regards,
Nicholas
Kaor, Nicholas!
Thanks! I know "The Ballad of the White Horse" is one of those classics of English literature we should read and take pleasure in. Alas, I'm not one of those who can recite verbatim from memory large parts of a text.
I think Poul Anderson had almost as much of a high opinion for the works of Chesterton as he did for those of Rudyard Kipling. Anderon mentioned in one of his letters to me of how much he loved GKC's THE FLYING INN.
Sean
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