For a War Memorial

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.

          G.K. Chesterton

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Last modified: 26th February, 2007

Martin Ward, De Montfort University, Leicester.
Email: martin@gkc.org.uk