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G K Chesterton Short Poems

Famous Short G K Chesterton Poems. Short poetry by famous poet G K Chesterton. A collection of the all-time best G K Chesterton short poems


by G K Chesterton
 WE laid him to rest with tenderness;
Homeward we turned in the twilight’s gold;
We thought in ourselves with dumb distress—
All the story of earth is told.
A beautiful word at the last was said: A great deep heart like the hearts of old Went forth; and the speaker had lost the thread, Or all the story of earth was told.
The dust hung over the pale dry ways Dizzily fired with the twilight’s gold, And a bitter remembrance blew in each face How all the story of earth was told.



by G K Chesterton
 Chattering finch and water-fly 
Are not merrier than I; 
Here among the flowers I lie 
Laughing everlastingly.
No; I may not tell the best; Surely, friends, I might have guessed Death was but the good King's jest, It was hid so carefully.

by G K Chesterton
 The men that worked for England
They have their graves at home:
And bees and birds of England
About the cross can roam.
But they that fought for England, Following a falling star, Alas, alas for England They have their graves afar.
And they that rule in England, In stately conclave met, Alas, alas for England, They have no graves as yet.

by G K Chesterton
 There is one sin: to call a green leaf gray,
Whereat the sun in heaven shuddereth.
There is one blasphemy: for death to pray, For God alone knoweth the praise of death.
There is one creed: ’’neath no world-terror’s wing Apples forget to grow on apple-trees.
There is one thing is needful everything The rest is vanity of vanities.

by G K Chesterton
 Why do you rush through the fields in trains, 
Guessing so much and so much.
Why do you flash through the flowery meads, Fat-head poet that nobody reads; And why do you know such a frightful lot About people in gloves and such?



by G K Chesterton
 ‘Elder father, though thine eyes 
Shine with hoary mysteries, 
Canst thou tell what in the heart 
Of a cowslip blossom lies? 

‘Smaller than all lives that be, 
Secret as the deepest sea, 
Stands a little house of seeds, 
Like an elfin’s granary.
‘Speller of the stones and weeds, Skilled in Nature’s crafts and creeds, Tell me what is in the heart Of the smallest of the seeds.
’ ‘God Almighty, and with Him Cherubim and Seraphim, Filling all eternity— Adonai Elohim.

by G K Chesterton
 A Book of verses underneath the bough,
Provided that the verses do not scan,
A loaf of bread, a jug of wine and Thou,
Short-haired, all angles, looking like a man.
But let the wine be unfermented, Pale, Of chemicals compounded, God knows how-- This were indeed the Prophet's Paradise, O Paradise were Wilderness enow.


Book: Shattered Sighs