Gilbert Keith Chesterton

Blessed Are the Peacemakers

OF old with a divided heart
   I saw my people's pride expand,
Since a man's soul is torn apart
   By mother earth and fatherland.

I knew, through many a tangled tale,
   Glory and truth not one but two:
King, Constable, and Amirail
   Took me like trumpets: but I knew

A blacker thing than blood's own dye
   Weighed down great Hawkins on the sea;
And Nelson turned his blindest eye
   On Naples and on liberty.

Therefore to you my thanks, O throne,
   O thousandfold and frozen folk,
For whose cold frenzies all your own
   The Battle of the Rivers broke;

Who have no faith a man could mourn,
   Nor freedom any man desires;
But in a new clean light of scorn
   Close up my quarrel with my sires;

Who bring my English heart to me,
   Who mend me like a broken toy;
Till I can see you fight and flee,
   And laugh as if I were a boy.