Lepanto

is a ballad by G.K. Chesterton. Dale Ahlquist edited a small book
with this, some notes and several related essays. This would be most profitably read on the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, whose feast day is set on the anniversary of the battle in 1571.

This is a rousing, humorous and heroic poem and shows GKC's talent off well.

RJN R.I.P.

I was saddened to hear of Father Neuhaus's passing yesterday morning. When such important people pass on, it seems as if we are orphaned. Yet, they themselves were saddened by the passing of the great men of the generation they looked up to. So it remains for us to stand tall for those who look up to us. Here's a poem for the occasion:

RJN R.I.P.:

Death
like forest canopies
cathedrals and Roman columns
makes us feel small
makes us recall
that God alone perdures.

(Via Video meliora, proboque; Deteriora sequor.)

Lepanto

How could I forget that today is that great day?

Lepanto:

Today is the anniversary of the Battle of Lepanto. In this battle, allied Christian nations destroyed a vastly larger Turkish fleet. This battle inspired G.K. Chesterton to write one of his best poems. Here is the rousing first stanza:

White founts falling in the Courts of the sun,

And the Soldan of Byzantium is smiling as they run;

There is laughter like the fountains in that face of all men feared,

It stirs the forest darkness, the darkness of his beard;

It curls the blood-red crescent, the crescent of his lips;

For the inmost sea of all the earth is shaken with his ships.

They have dared the white republics up the capes of Italy,

They have dashed the Adriatic round the Lion of the Sea,

And the Pope has cast his arms abroad for agony and loss,

And called the kings of Christendom for swords about the Cross.

The cold queen of England is looking in the glass;

The shadow of the Valois is yawning at the Mass;

From evening isles fantastical rings faint the Spanish gun,

And the Lord upon the Golden Horn is laughing in the sun.

(Via First Things.)