Literature Network » Gilbert Keith Chesterton » The Wild Knight and Other Poems » By The Babe Unborn

By The Babe Unborn

If trees were tall and grasses short,
  As in some crazy tale,
If here and there a sea were blue
  Beyond the breaking pale,
If a fixed fire hung in the air
  To warm me one day through,
If deep green hair grew on great hills,
  I know what I should do.
In dark I lie: dreaming that there
  Are great eyes cold or kind,
And twisted streets and silent doors,
  And living men behind.
Let storm-clouds come: better an hour,
  And leave to weep and fight,
Than all the ages I have ruled
  The empires of the night.
I think that if they gave me leave
  Within that world to stand,
I would be good through all the day
  I spent in fairyland.
They should not hear a word from me
  Of selfishness or scorn,
If only I could find the door,
  If only I were born.

Literature Network » Gilbert Keith Chesterton » The Wild Knight and Other Poems » By The Babe Unborn