• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Poetry Catalog

We honor great poets. We honor great poetry.

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Submit Your Work
  • Writers
  • Advertising / Subscription

To Them That Mourn, By: G.K. Chesterton

March 23, 2023 by Editors

To Them That Mourn, By: G.K. Chesterton

    Lift up your heads: in life, in death,
    God knoweth his head was high.
    Quit we the coward’s broken breath
    Who watched a strong man die.

    If we must say, ‘No more his peer
    Cometh; the flag is furled.’
    Stand not too near him, lest he hear
    That slander on the world.

    The good green earth he loved and trod
    Is still, with many a scar,
    Writ in the chronicles of God,
    A giant-bearing star.

    He fell: but Britain’s banner swings
    Above his sunken crown.
    Black death shall have his toll of kings
    Before that cross goes down.

    Once more shall move with mighty things
    His house of ancient tale,
    Where kings whose hands were kissed of kings
    Went in: and came out pale.

    O young ones of a darker day,
    In art’s wan colours clad,
    Whose very love and hate are grey–
    Whose very sin is sad.

    Pass on: one agony long-drawn
    Was merrier than your mirth,
    When hand-in-hand came death and dawn,
    And spring was on the earth.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window) Tumblr
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) Pinterest

Related

Filed Under: Poems

Get Every Post In Your Inbox 😳

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.
(This is not the newsletter.)

Primary Sidebar

Never Miss A Poem (Newsletter)

Be Social

  • X
  • Facebook

Top Posts & Pages

  • By The Babe Unborn, By: G.K. Chesterton
    By The Babe Unborn, By: G.K. Chesterton
  • O'er The Wide Earth, On Mountain And On Plain, By: William Wordsworth
    O'er The Wide Earth, On Mountain And On Plain, By: William Wordsworth
  • Boom Box, By: Mary Bone
    Boom Box, By: Mary Bone
  • Prayer Mats, By: Mary Bone
    Prayer Mats, By: Mary Bone
  • All Clear, By: Paul White
    All Clear, By: Paul White
  • Clarion, By: Paul White
    Clarion, By: Paul White
  • The Mimic, By: Mary Bone
    The Mimic, By: Mary Bone
  • My Mother's Thyroid, By: Diane Elayne Dees
    My Mother's Thyroid, By: Diane Elayne Dees
  • I Could Stay Lost, By: Mary Bone
    I Could Stay Lost, By: Mary Bone
  • Potato Digger, By: Mary Bone
    Potato Digger, By: Mary Bone

Advertising/Subscribing = Loving

Buy Me A Coffee

Sign up for the newsletter. Get a gift.

Footer

Made with ❤ in Lubbock, TX.

Poetry Catalog Sponsors

Haiku Examples

Search

Copyright © 2025 · Magazine Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in