This poem by GK Chesterton is the source of the phrase, "Before the gods that made the gods," which is the title of PART SIX of Poul Anderson's The Shield of Time.
One stanza from the poem:
I tell you naught for your comfort,
Yea, naught for your desire,
Save that the sky grows darker yet
And the sea rises higher.
- is quoted at the beginning of Chapter 15 of Anderson's After Doomsday.
I have only just found out all this by googling.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Ah, Chesterton! I remember how well Anderson thought of GKC, both in THE BYWORLDER and in one of his letters to me. I need to check if one of the Chesterton books I have has THE BALLAD OF THE WHITE HORSE.
I definitely have his other famous poem, LEPANTO.
Ad astra! Sean
Chesterton was a wonderful writer, and in some senses quite perceptive.
OTOH, he was encapsulated in a fantasy life much of the time -- a fantasy of an imaginary rural England, for example.
You can see both in the article he wrote on Henry Ford's car factories in the 1920's.
He's all for a small, inexpensive auto for the masses; so far, so good. When he was a young man, automobiles were a plaything for the heedless rich; see Toad's motoring adventures in THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS for the flavor of the period.
Then he goes off on a tangent about how this small, inexpensive car would be perfect if it was made by a small team of generalists in their own workshop.
In which case, it would cost the earth and ordinary people couldn't afford it; but he never seemed to grasp that elementary fact.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I loved THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS and I remember very well the misadventures of Mr. Toad, of Toad Hall!
Yes, Chesterton's grasp of economics was weak--and he was bafflingly unable to grasp how it was precisely because of the division of labor and economies of scale seen in Ford's factories that made cars affordable for people of modest means.
But so much of what Chesterton wrote remains worth reading. Such as THE EVER-LASTING MAN.
Ad astra! Sean
On the hill in Lancaster, there is a Taj Mahal-like structure called the Ashton Memorial in Williamson Park. (Lord Ashton and James Williamson were the same person.) The Dukes Playhouse in Lancaster sometimes performs in the open air in the Park. In a new dramatization of THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS by a then local playwright, the Memorial was Toad Hall and Toad climbed down from a balcony on a rope. The Memorial has also been Nottingham Castle in ROBIN HOOD, Alice's house in LOOKING GLASS and Camelot and Heaven in KING ARTHUR. Galahad carried the Grail up to Heaven.
When we saw the WIND, it was the day after a rail strike so, when a train driver refused to accept Toad without a ticket, Toad exclaimed, "Why not? The strike was yesterday!"
The Dukes on stage in town presented a play about Williamson in which he was seen walking in his Park...
Kaor, Paul!
One esp. amusing part of THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS was how Mr. Toad's friends, alarmed by his profligacy, fecklessness, and irresponsibility, staged what we would call an "intervention," to argue, plead, and cajole with him, urging on him the need to live more sensibly.
Ad astra! Sean
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