unknown-warrior
by Chesterton · Cluster: Heroism · Hero · Last Stand
Abstract
A lyric poem celebrating the anonymous dead soldier whose nameless heroism defeats vulgar publicity and commercial fame; central themes are war’s cost, honour, and the dignity of the unknown.
Testo / Text
Connections
Archetypes: Common Man (2), Hero
Settings: Battlefield
Topoi: Sic Transit Gloria Mundi
Characters: Fatty Arbuckle, P. T. Barnum
Motifs: Death, Silence, Drums and Bugles, Concealment Hidden Identity Themes & Concepts: Heroism, Honour, War and its Cost, Satire of Society, Vanity of Worldly Things, Common Man, Secrecy and Concealment, Fame and Publicity Forms & Genres: Lyric, Ode, Satire Historical References: First World War
Testo integrale / Full text
TO THE UNKNOWN WARRIOR
by G.K.Chesterton
You whom the kings saluted; who refused not
The one great pleasure of ignoble days,
Fame without name and glory without gossip,
Whom no biographer befouls with praise.
Who said of you “Defeated”? In the darkness
The dug-out where the limelight never comes,
Nor the big drum of Barnum’s show can shatter
That vibrant stillness after all the drums.
Though the time comes when every Yankee circus
Can use our soldiers for its sandwich-men,
When those that pay the piper call the tune,
You will not dance. You will not move again.
You will not march for Fatty Arbuckle,
Though he have yet a favourable press,
Tender as San Francisco to St. Francis
Or all the angels of Los Angeles.
They shall not storm the last unfallen fortress,
The lonely castle where uncowed and free,
Dwells the unknown and undefeated warrior
That did alone defeat Publicity.