arthur
by Chesterton · Cluster: Artist and Society · Truth · Regency Georgian England
Abstract
A sonnet mocking the over-skeptical scholar who would explain away King Arthur; it defends legend and the imaginative truth of the Arthurian tradition against reductive rationalism.
Testo / Text
Connections
Settings: Medieval England (2)
Topoi: Ubi Sunt, Immortality Through Verse
Archetypes: King Motifs: Swords and Weapons, Crown, Flags and Banners Themes & Concepts: Truth, Imagination, Critique of Progress, Nostalgia, Faith and Doubt, Kingship and Legitimacy, Ratiocination Detection Forms & Genres: Sonnet Historical References: Arthurian Legend Characters: King Arthur
Testo integrale / Full text
“The Myth of Arthur”
By G. K. Chesterton
O learned man who never learned to learn,
Save to deduce, by timid steps and small,
From towering smoke that fire can never burn
And from tall tales that men were never tall.
Say, have you thought what manner of man it is
Of who men say “He could strike giants down” ?
Or what strong memories over time’s abyss
Bore up the pomp of Camelot and the crown.
And why one banner all the background fills,
Beyond the pageants of so many spears,
And by what witchery in the western hills
A throne stands empty for a thousand years.
Who hold, unheeding this immense impact,
Immortal story for a mortal sin;
Lest human fable touch historic fact,
Chase myths like moths, and fight them with a pin.
Take comfort; rest—there needs not this ado.
You shall not be a myth, I promise you.