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The Pessimist, By: G.K. Chesterton

February 23, 2023 by poetrycatalog

The Pessimist, By: G.K. Chesterton

    You that have snarled through the ages, take your answer and go–
    I know your hoary question, the riddle that all men know.
    You have weighed the stars in a balance, and grasped the skies in a span:
    Take, if you must have answer, the word of a common man.

    Deep in my life lies buried one love unhealed, unshriven,
    One hunger still shall haunt me–yea, in the streets of heaven;
    This is the burden, babbler, this is the curse shall cling,
    This is the thing I bring you; this is the pleasant thing.

    ‘Gainst you and all your sages, no joy of mine shall strive,
    This one dead self shall shatter the men you call alive.
    My grief I send to smite you, no pleasure, no belief,
    Lord of the battered grievance, what do you know of grief?

    I only know the praises to heaven that one man gave,
    That he came on earth for an instant, to stand beside a grave,
    The peace of a field of battle, where flowers are born of blood.
    I only know one evil that makes the whole world good.

    Beneath this single sorrow the globe of moon and sphere
    Turns to a single jewel, so bright and brittle and dear
    That I dread lest God should drop it, to be dashed into stars below.

    You that have snarled through the ages, take your answer and go.

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