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1874–1936

FOR A WAR MEMORIAL

Gilbert Keith Chesterton

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.

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FOR A WAR MEMORIAL · Gilbert Keith Chesterton · Poetry Cove