Poetry Codex

Modern

G. K. Chesterton

1874–1936

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936) was an English writer, born in London, known for his journalism, his Father Brown stories and his Christian apologetics, and also a prolific poet. He wrote on politics, history, and literature with a style full of paradox.

His poems range from the rousing ballad “Lepanto” and the long “Ballad of the White Horse” (1911) to comic verses on wine and inns, such as “The Rolling English Road.” The poems here are drawn from The Wild Knight (1900), Poems (1915), Wine, Water and Song (1915), and The Ballad of St. Barbara (1922).

Major Works (1)

  1. The Ballad of the White Horse — Ballad, 1911

Poems (166)

  1. The Donkey
  2. The Wild Knight
  3. By the Babe Unborn
  4. The Happy Man
  5. The Praise of Dust
  6. The Beatific Vision
  7. A Christmas Carol
  8. King's Cross Station
  9. The Holy of Holies
  10. The Last Masquerade
  11. The Pessimist
  12. Ecclesiastes
  13. The Fish
  14. Lepanto
  15. The House of Christmas
  16. Antichrist, or the Reunion of Christendom
  17. The Secret People
  18. A Ballade of Suicide
  19. A Ballade of an Anti-Puritan
  20. A Ballade of a Book-Reviewer
  21. A Cider Song
  22. When I Came Back to Fleet Street
  23. The Shakespeare Memorial
  24. The Higher Unity
  25. Glencoe
  26. The Great Minimum
  27. A Song of Defeat
  28. A Hymn
  29. Love's Trappist
  30. The Wise Men
  31. The Englishman
  32. Wine and Water
  33. The Song against Grocers
  34. The Rolling English Road
  35. The Song of Quoodle
  36. Pioneers, O Pioneers
  37. The Logical Vegetarian
  38. The Saracen's Head
  39. The Good Rich Man
  40. The Song against Songs
  41. Me Heart
  42. The Song of the Oak
  43. The Road to Roundabout
  44. The Song of the Strange Ascetic
  45. The Song of Right and Wrong
  46. Who Goes Home?
  47. The Ballad of St. Barbara
  48. Elegy in a Country Churchyard
  49. The Sword of Surprise
  50. The Old Song
  51. The Philanthropist
  52. The English Graves
  53. Memory
  54. For a War Memorial
  55. The Convert
  56. To Captain Fryatt
  57. A Prayer in Darkness
  58. The World's Lover
  59. The Skeleton
  60. A Chord of Colour
  61. The Unpardonable Sin
  62. A Novelty
  63. Ultimate
  64. The Hope of the Streets
  65. The Song of the Children
  66. Gold Leaves
  67. Thou Shalt Not Kill
  68. A Certain Evening
  69. A Man and His Image
  70. The Mariner
  71. The Triumph of Man
  72. Cyclopean
  73. Joseph
  74. Modern Elfland
  75. Eternities
  76. Alone
  77. The Human Tree
  78. To Them That Mourn
  79. The Outlaw
  80. Behind
  81. The End of Fear
  82. The Mirror of Madmen
  83. The Desecraters
  84. An Alliance
  85. The Ancient of Days
  86. The Earth's Shame
  87. Vanity
  88. The Lamp Post
  89. A Fairy Tale
  90. A Portrait
  91. Femina Contra Mundum
  92. To a Certain Nation
  93. The Ballad of the Battle of Gibeon
  94. Vulgarised
  95. The Ballad of God-Makers
  96. At Night
  97. The Wood-Cutter
  98. Art Colours
  99. The Two Women
  100. E. C. B.
  101. To Edmund Clerihew Bentley
  102. To Hilaire Belloc
  103. To M. E. W.
  104. The March of the Black Mountain 1913
  105. Blessed Are the Peacemakers
  106. The Wife of Flanders
  107. The Crusader Returns from Captivity
  108. Confessional
  109. Music
  110. The Deluge
  111. The Strange Music
  112. The Mortal Answers
  113. A Marriage Song
  114. Bay Combe
  115. A Song of Gifts to God
  116. The Kingdom of Heaven
  117. A Hymn for the Church Militant
  118. The Truce of Christmas
  119. A Christmas Song for Three Guilds
  120. The Nativity
  121. A Child of the Snows
  122. A Word
  123. The Revolutionist, or Lines to a Statesman
  124. The Horrible History of Jones
  125. The New Freethinker
  126. In Memoriam P. D.
  127. Sonnet with the Compliments of the Season
  128. A Song of Swords
  129. Sonnet
  130. Africa
  131. The Dead Hero
  132. An Election Echo
  133. The Song of the Wheels
  134. Lost
  135. Ballad of the Sun
  136. Translation from Du Bellay
  137. The Earth's Vigil
  138. On Righteous Indignation
  139. The Last Hero
  140. Ballade d'une Grande Dame
  141. A Ballade of the First Rain
  142. To F. C.
  143. A Wedding in War-time
  144. The Mystery
  145. "The Myth of Arthur"
  146. The Trinkets
  147. On the Downs
  148. The Red Sea
  149. Nightmare
  150. A Second Childhood
  151. "Mediævalism"
  152. Poland
  153. The Hunting of the Dragon
  154. Sonnet ("High on the wall that holds Jerusalem")
  155. Fantasia
  156. A Christmas Carol ("God rest you merry gentlemen")
  157. For Four Guilds: I. The Glass-Stainers
  158. For Four Guilds: II. The Bridge-Builders
  159. For Four Guilds: III. The Stone-Masons
  160. For Four Guilds: IV. The Bell-Ringers
  161. Songs of Education: I. History
  162. Songs of Education: II. Geography
  163. Songs of Education: III. For the Crèche
  164. Songs of Education: IV. Citizenship
  165. Songs of Education: V. The Higher Mathematics
  166. Songs of Education: VI. Hygiene

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