JOHN BULL

London, England

20 March 1909

(page 316)

We have received a pamphlet called "Garnered Grain," said to contain "the representative work of Contemporary Poets." The list of poets is by no means exhaustive, for such singers as Aleister Crowley, the two Alfreds (Austin and Douglas), Violet Charlesworth and John Davidson are omitted. But full atonement is made by the discovery of some autobiographical verses by Mr. Gilbert Keith Chesterton:

THE DONKEY.

When fishes flew and forests walked,

And figs grew upon thorn,

Some moment when the moon was blood.

Then surely I was born.

With monstrous head and sickening cry,

And ears like errant wings,

The devil's walking parody

On all four-footed things.

The tattered outlaw of the earth,

With ancient crooked will,

Starve, scourge, deride me, I am dumb.

I keep my secret still.

Such candour is sublime.