G. K. Chesterton

Gloria in Profundis

G. K. Chesterton

[1874–1836]

Gloria in Profundis

Illustrated by

Eric Gill

[1882–1940]

1927

London: Faber & Faber Ltd, 1927 (first edition)

[The Ariel Poems, No. 5]

GLORIA IN

PROFUNDIS

By G. K. CHESTERTON

WOOD ENGRAVINGS BY ERIC GILL

GLORIA IN PROFUNDIS

(Chorus from an Unfinished Play)

There has fallen on earth for a token

A god too great for the sky.

He has burst out of all things and broken

The bounds of eternity:

Into time and the terminal land

He has strayed like a thief or a lover,

For the wine of the world brims over,

Its splendour is spilt on the sand.

Who is proud when the heavens are humble,

Who mounts if the mountains fall,

If the fixed suns topple and tumble

And a deluge of love drown all—

Who rears up his head for a crown,

Who holds up his will for a warrant,

Who strives with the starry torrent

When all that is good goes down?

For in dread of such falling and failing

The Fallen Angels fell

Inverted in insolence, scaling

The hanging mountain of hell:

But unmeasured of plummet and rod

Too deep for their sight to scan,

Outrushing the fall of man

Is the height of the fall of God.

Glory to God in the Lowest

The spout of the stars in spate—

Where the thunderbolt thinks to be slowest

And the lightning fears to be late:

As men dive for a sunken gem

Pursuing, we hunt and hound it,

The fallen star that has found it

In the cavern of Bethlehem.

G. K. CHESTERTON

THE ARIEL POEMS

1. By Thomas Hardy: Yuletide in a Younger World

With Drawings by Albert Rutherston

2. By Sir Henry Newbolt: The Linnet's Nest

With Drawings by Ralph Keene

3. By Laurence Binyon: The Wonder Night

With Drawings by Barnett Freedman

4. By Walter de la Mare: Alone

With Wood Engravings by Blair Hughes-Stanton

5. By G. K. Chesterton: Gloria in Profundis

With Wood Engravings by Eric Gill

6. By Wilfrid Gibson: The Early Whistler

With Drawings by John Nash

7. By Siegfried Sassoon: Nativity

With Designs by Paul Nash

8. By T. S. Eliot: Journey of the Magi

With Drawings by E. McKnight Kauffer

This is Number 5 of

THE ARIEL POEMS

Published by Faber & Gwyer Limited

at 24 Russell Square, London, W.C.1

Printed at The Curwen Press, Plaistow