Thursday, June 22, 2006

The Ballad of the White Horse

I love The Ballad of the White Horse, it is some of the best poetry I have ever read. It is nearly impossible to read to yourself, it begs to be read outloud. Not only is the rhyme scheme wonderful, the story is too, at least once you get the hang of the language enough to understand the story. It can be very difficult to understand but it can be done. There is a book, a very easy chapter book, King Alfred of the Wessex by Frank Morris, which tells the same story in easier language which I found very helpful. Like many other Chesterton books, it can be read, and enjoyed, as a whole or in pieces. Many wonderful quotes can be taken out and appreciated without having read the book, like the one below.
I love this quote from The Ballad of the White Horse, in fact it was the first Chesterton I read ( Thanks to The Shadow of the Bear), other than The Scandal of Father Brown which doesn't really count
a. Because I didn't read it.
b. Because I didn't know it was Chesterton at that point.
Anyways here's the quote:

"The men of the east may spell the stars
And times and triumphs mark
But the men signed with the cross of Christ
Go gaily in the dark."

1 comment:

Nick Milne said...

Hello, young friends! I am very excited about the prospects this blog offers, and I just thought I'd let you know that I will be checking back often. I've been working with some fellow fans at Chesterton and Friends, a blog of which you may have heard. We ran a link to your effort there yesterday, and I'm running one on my own personal blog today, too.

I wish you the best of luck, and look forward to (hopefully) running into you someday at a Chesterton conference. Keep the faith.

Also, while we're on the Ballad of the White Horse:

"For the great Gaels of Ireland
Are the men that God made mad,
For all their wars are merry,
And all their songs are sad."

That's the one that has always done it for me.