Living
The Happy Man
From The Wild Knight and Other Poems (1900)
To teach the grey earth like a child,
To bid the heavens repent,
I only ask from Fate the gift
Of one man well content.
Him will I find: though when in vain
I search the feast and mart,
The fading flowers of liberty,
The painted masks of art.
I only find him at the last,
On one old hill where nod
Golgotha's ghastly trinity--
Three persons and one god.
Codex Note
The speaker asks of Fate only 'one man well content', and closes at Golgotha with 'three persons and one god'.
Cite this poem
MLA
Chesterton, G. K. “The Happy Man.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/chesterton/3/.
Chicago
Chesterton, G. K. “The Happy Man.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/chesterton/3/.
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