Joy Without A Cause

[poliphilo]

Overall I think G.K. Chesterton's "Ballad of the White Horse" is a bit too much, its rhetoric too insistent, unbroken, and lacking in nuance, its boyish delight in fighting too naive, its vocabulary often rather too greenery-yallery, but Chesterton was a wise man and a great wordsmith and the poem is full of wonderful lines.

The poem tells the story of King Alfred- "that oft-defeated king"- and his victory over the Danes at Aetheldune and the establishment of something that better resembles the England we know than anything that had gone before.

In his retreat at Athelney in the Somerset marshes the Queen of Heaven appears to him and inspires him to rally his forces and claim his kingdom- though the only thing she promises is difficulty.

"I tell you naught for your comfort,
Nay, naught for your desire,
Save that the sky grows darker yet
And the sea rises higher.

Night shall be thrice night over you,
And heaven an iron cope.
Do you have joy without a cause,
Yea, faith without a hope?"

I was lying in bed last night and the phrase "naught for your comfort" kept running through my head- and I was trying to remember the whole eight lines and failing. Maybe now I've blogged them I'll be able to call them up at will. The second quatrain is weaker than the first, I think, but I love "joy without a cause."

Comments

[cmcmck]

Trevor Huddleston used the quote as the title for a book iirc.

[poliphilo]

Trevor Huddleston was an old boy of my school. We- or at least the school authorities- were very proud of him.

I haven't read the book and presume it's a bit dated now that it's done its work and apartheid has been dismantled.