It Is Something
An Illustrated Poem from the Past
I am fond of Chesterton, and the next few weeks may make much of him, I warn you. That, and this poem gave me the opportunity to splash out into art fill of wonder and magic, as the words make me feel like it. Isn’t that what poetry is all about?
The Great Minimum
It is something to have wept as we have wept,
It is something to have done as we have done,
It is something to have watched when all men slept,
And seen the stars which never see the sun.
It is something to have smelt the mystic rose,
Although it break and leave the thorny rods,
It is something to have hungered once as those
Must hunger who have ate the bread of gods.
To have seen you and your unforgotten face,
Brave as a blast of trumpets for the fray,
Pure as white lilies in a watery space,
It were something, though you went from me to-day.
To have known the things that from the weak are furled,
Perilous ancient passions, strange and high;
It is something to be wiser than the world,
It is something to be older than the sky.
In a time of sceptic moths and cynic rusts,
And fattened lives that of their sweetness tire
In a world of flying loves and fading lusts,
It is something to be sure of a desire.
Lo, blessed are our ears for they have heard;
Yea, blessed are our eyes for they have seen:
Let thunder break on man and beast and bird
And the lightning. It is something to have been.
—G. K. Chesterton
We were hammered flat by circumstances this year.
This poem reminds me that the iron on the anvil is blessed by the touch of the Hammer. after being immersed in the Fire.
It is the skill and the intent of the Smith that makes the difference between despair and redemption, and that skill and intent we can trust in.
You can certainly bring on the Chesterton. My goodness this is lovely! The passion of a Higher Calling ... complete with Eagle's wing! I'm not awake enough to do this justice.