Sunday, June 29, 2008

Don John of Austria is going to the war...

...and I'm going to firmly fix it in my mind.

It's not typical of me to follow one post with another so quickly. Either it's summer and I have the time, or I have an idea.

In this case, it's both.

I'm hugely attached to Chesterton's Lepanto. I love it for itself, for it's imagery and beautiful expression, for the thrills of valor and honor and 'swords about the cross,' and I love it, of course, for all the history behind it. If a strange doom were put upon me to know only one poem in the course of my life, I think I would choose this one.

Memorizing Ballad of the White Horse is something I want to do one day, but it seems just a little ambitious, especially when I have college applications and other such things taking up my time. Lepanto, however, wouldn't be quite as much of a challenge, and so it's something I intend to do over the next couple of weeks. I want to have that poem firmly in my heart and mind, so I can always 'read' it over even when I have no hard copy available.

It's occurred to me that this might be a rather fun joint endeavor. Are any of you other Chesterteens, or Flying-Ins, I should say, interested in memorizing Lepanto over the summer?

3 comments:

Racoon said...

Oh !! I also love Lepanto and you gave me an idea! I had in mind to memorize some poems of Lope de Vega and others poets I like (Quevedo, Manuel Machado, Lorca...), but now I'll add Lepanto to my list. An ambitious project!

don pedro said...

mapaz?!?!?!?!?!?!?! You like Federico García Lorca?!?!?!?! Since when and why??? (why not substitute with poetry of a slightly (cough) higher level: José María Heredia =D

Racoon said...

Hahaha !! Politically I don't like Lorca very much, and he was what Borges (you know Borges, don't you? If not, you should! He was porteño !! and also loved Chesterton. He used to call him 'discurridor y exornador de elegantes misterios'). Anyway, Borges called Lorca 'andaluz profesional'. But there are some poems by him I do like, though. So don't look at me like that ! :P