Mar 22, 2021
Welcome to Season 2 of The Well Read Poem podcast. During this season, our host, classicist and poet Thomas Banks will be reading and interpreting six poems of history. This week's poem is "The Wife of Flanders" by G. K. Chesterton. Poem begins at timestamp 3:58.
by G. K. Chesterton
Low and
brown barns, thatched and repatched and tattered,
Where I
had seven sons until to-day,
A little
hill of hay your spur has scattered. . . .
This is
not Paris. You have lost your way.
You,
staring at your sword to find it brittle,
Surprised
at the surprise that was your plan,
Who,
shaking and breaking barriers not a little,
Find never
more the death-door of Sedan —
Must I for
more than carnage call you claimant,
Paying you
a penny for each son you slay?
Man, the
whole globe in gold were no repayment
For what
you have lost. And how shall I repay?
What is
the price of that red spark that caught me
From a
kind farm that never had a name?
What is
the price of that dead man they brought me?
For other
dead men do not look the same.
How should
I pay for one poor graven steeple
Whereon
you shattered what you shall not know?
How should
I pay you, miserable people?
How should
I pay you everything you owe?
Unhappy,
can I give you back your honour?
Though I
forgave, would any man forget?
While all
the great green land has trampled on her
The
treason and terror of the night we met.
Not any
more in vengeance or in pardon
An old
wife bargains for a bean that’s hers.
You have
no word to break: no heart to harden.
Ride on
and prosper. You have lost your spurs.