At the last Omaha Chesterton Society meeting, it was decided that we only tackle a portion of G.K.’s poetry at our next gathering. Sr. Rita Jane had wisely pointed out that the book we had chosen was terrific (Collected Poetry, Volume 10 of the Ignatius Press G.K. Chesterton series) but that it was over 600 pages long! Point taken.Therefore, we figured we would read together a mere selection of Chesterton's poems for our discussion as well as reserving some time for individuals to read aloud some of their favorites. The nominated list of poems runs to about 60 in number but many of these are extremely short (like, 4 lines) and none take more than three pages of expanded text. Very do-able.
Among the poems we’ll be reading then are the expected: “The Donkey,” “The House of Christmas,” “The Song of Quoodle,” “Wine and Water,” “Elegy in a Country Churchyard,” “The Babe Unborn,” “Regina Angelorum,” “Post-Recessional,” “To Edmund Clerihew Bentley,” "A Wedding in War Time,” “A Hymn for the Church Militant,” “The Ballad of King Arthur,” “Gloria In Profundis,” and “Love, We Have Looked on Many Shows.”
But there's a lot more Chesterton wit, wisdom and winsomeness in his other poems too. Just come and find out how much!
So, if you're not one of the regulars but would like to come to this, the OCS version of Poet's Corner on Monday, June 11th, just e-mail us for the full list of poems (with page numbers even!) as well as careful directions to the place. That contact address is vitalsigns@vitalsignsministries.org
We’d sure love to have you.
