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Poetry Archives

A continuing selection of classic and contemporary poems.

Joseph

G. K. Chesterton

If the stars fell; night’s nameless dreams
  Of bliss and blasphemy came true,
If skies were green and snow were gold,
  And you loved me as I love you;

O long light hands and curled brown hair,
  And eyes where sits a naked soul;
Dare I even then draw near and burn
  My fingers in the aureole?

Yes, in the one wise foolish hour
  God gives this strange strength to a man.
He can demand, though not deserve,
  Where ask he cannot, seize he can.

But once the blood’s wild wedding o’er,
  Were not dread his, half dark desire,
To see the Christ-child in the cot,
  The Virgin Mary by the fire?
Online text © 1998-2008 Poetry X. All rights reserved.
From The Wild Knight and Other Poems | Grant Richards, 1900
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