Song of the Day - 9th November

In the run-up to Armistice Day, I have two songs to share.

The first, for Remembrance Sunday, is a setting of a thought-provoking poem by G. K. Chesterton (1974 - 1936), called "For a War Memorial".

Chesterton was a huge figure, both literally—standing 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m) tall and weighing around 20 stone 6 pounds (130 kg; 286 lb)—and figuratively, in British late 19th and early 20th century literature. He wrote around 80 books, several hundred poems, some 200 short stories, 4,000 essays (mostly newspaper columns), and several plays.

He was a literary and social critic, historian, playwright, novelist, journalist, BBC broadcaster, Catholic theologian and apologist, debater, and mystery writer. He was a columnist for the Daily News, The Illustrated London News, and his own paper, G. K.'s Weekly; he also wrote articles for the Encyclopædia Britannica, including the entry on Charles Dickens and part of the entry on Humour in the 14th edition (1929).

For A War Memorial

By G. K. Chesterton

(Suggested Inscription probably not selected by the Committee.)

    The hucksters haggle in the mart

    The cars and carts go by;

    Senates and schools go droning on;

    For dead things cannot die.

    A storm stooped on the place of tombs

    With bolts to blast and rive;

    But these be names of many men

    The lightning found alive.

    If usurers rule and rights decay

    And visions view once more

    Great Carthage like a golden shell

    Gape hollow on the shore,

    Still to the last of crumbling time

    Upon this stone be read

    How many men of England died

    To prove they were not dead.