{"id":1907,"date":"2010-07-13T19:45:11","date_gmt":"2010-07-13T19:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saintmichaelsrcc.org\/acs\/?page_id=285"},"modified":"2018-12-06T13:14:20","modified_gmt":"2018-12-06T19:14:20","slug":"lecture-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chesterton.org\/store\/lecture-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Lecture 1: Greybeards at Play and The Wild Knight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When G.K. Chesterton died in 1936, many of his obituaries predicted that he would be best remembered as a poet. This may be surprising to most of Chesterton\u2019s readers today because they are more likely drawn to him by his still timely and quotable essays, his detective fiction, his social and literary criticism, or his eloquent defense of the faith. But Chesterton published several volumes of poetry during his life. In fact, his first two books, both published in 1900, were books of poetry. The first, <em>Greybeards at Play<\/em>, a slim collection of four poems, also contains several of his whimsical illustrations, as whimsical as the rhymes themselves:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">My niece, the Barnacle, has got<br \/>\nmy piercing eyes of black;<br \/>\nthe Elephant has got my nose,<br \/>\nI do not want it back.<\/p>\n<p>His second book,<em> The Wild Knight<\/em>, includes some memorable poems, such as \u201cBy the Babe Unborn\u201d and \u201cThe Beatific Vision,\u201d as well as what proved to be his most famous poem, &#8220;The Donkey.&#8221; \u201cThe Donkey\u201d is a microcosm of Chesterton and his philosophy. Already present in this sweet little poem are all the elements that would fill his writing for the rest of his life: paradox, humor, humility, wonder, the defense of the poor and the simple, the rebuke of the rich and worldly wise. The other recurrent theme, seen in everything from his Father Brown stories to his public debates, is the presentation of a character we would at first dismiss, but who surprises us by being in direct contact with Truth itself. Be careful before you call someone an ass. He may be carrying Christ.<\/p>\n<p>A contemporary reviewer of the book astutely observed, \u201cEgoism is not in Mr. Chesterton; but his ideas possess him exactingly, and his gift of self-expression is equal to his candour.\u201d (For those who no longer comprehend English, this sentence can roughly be translated: \u201cChesterton isn\u2019t at all full of himself, and he\u2019s a really clear-thinker, has a way with words, and says what\u2019s on his mind.\u201d)<\/p>\n<p>The title piece of the collection is a brief poetic drama, full of chivalry and swords and mystery, themes which would always be connected with Chesterton in his fiction, and, for that matter, his non-fiction. Even his life. For Chesterton himself would be referred to as a kind of wild knight in caricatures, in criticisms, and in Walter de la Mere\u2019s final tribute, written for Chesterton\u2019s memorial:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Knight of the Holy Ghost, he goes his way,<br \/>\nWisdom his motley, Truth his loving jest;<br \/>\nThe mills of Satan keep his lance in play,<br \/>\nPity and Innocence his heart at rest.<\/p>\n<p>It may be helpful to remember that Chesterton came to us first as a poet. It may explain why his prose is so wonderful, why all his words still dance. It may be that what Chesterton said about St. Francis, is also true of himself: \u201cHe was a poet whose whole life was a poem.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chesterton&#8217;s Early Poetry<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"right-sidebar","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[138],"tags":[921,922],"class_list":["post-1907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chesterton-101","tag-greybeards-at-play","tag-the-wild-knight"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Lecture 1-Greybeards at Play<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In Lecture 1, Dale Ahlquist reminds us that amongst the many writings of G.K. 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