convert
by Chesterton · Cluster: Christianity · Faith and Doubt · Doubt
Abstract
Sonnet on the poet’s conversion: the world turns over, the sages’ maps become ‘less than dust’ because ‘my name is Lazarus and I live’ — faith as resurrection and rebirth.
Testo / Text
Connections
Archetypes: Pilgrim
Topoi: World Upside Down, Sleeper Awakes
Motifs: Road, Dust Themes & Concepts: Conversion, Faith, Grace and Redemption, Wonder and Gratitude, Resurrection, Paradox Forms & Genres: Sonnet Historical References: Bible Characters: Lazarus the Risen Man
Testo integrale / Full text
THE CONVERT
After one moment when I bowed my head
And the whole world turned over and came upright,
And I came out where the old road shone white,
I walked the ways and heard what all men said,
Forests of tongues, like autumn leaves unshed,
Being not unlovable but strange and light;
Old riddles and new creeds, not in despite
But softly, as men smile about the dead.
The sages have a hundred maps to give
That trace their crawling cosmos like a tree,
They rattle reason out through many a sieve
That stores the sand and lets the gold go free:
And all these things are less than dust to me
Because my name is Lazarus and I live.
--G. K. Chesterton