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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=400534" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Ballad of St. Barbara</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=400534" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">(St Barbara is the patron saint of gunners, and those in danger<br>of sudden death.)</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=400534" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">When the long grey lines came flooding upon Paris in the plain,<br>We stood and drank of the last free air we never could taste again:<br>They had led us back from the lost battle, to halt we knew not where<br>And stilled us: and our gaping guns were dumb with our despair.<br>The grey tribes flowed for ever from the infinite lifeless lands<br>And a Norman to a Breton spoke, his chin upon his hands.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=400534" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">'There was an end to Ilium; and an end came to Rome;<br>And a man plays on a painted stage in the land that he calls home;<br>Arch after arch of triumph, but floor beyond falling floor,<br>That lead to a low door at last; and beyond that is no door.'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=400534" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">And the Breton to the Norman spoke, like a small child spoke he,<br>And his sea-blue eyes were empty as his home beside the sea:<br>'There are more windows in one house than there are eyes to see,<br>There are more doors in a man's house, but God has hid the key:<br>Ruin is a builder of windows; her legend witnesseth<br>Barbara, the saint of gunners, and a stay in sudden death.'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=400534" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">It seemed the wheel of the world stood still an instant in its turning,<br>More than the kings of the earth that turned with the turning of Valmy mill:<br>While trickled the idle tale and the sea-blue eyes were burning,<br>Still as the heart of a whirlwind the heart of the world stood still.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=400534" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">'Barbara the beautiful<br>Had praise of tongue and pen:<br>Her hair was like a summer night<br>Dark and desired of men.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=400534" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Her feet like birds from far away<br>That linger and light in doubt;<br>And her face was like a window<br>Where a man's first love looked out.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=400534" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Her sire was master of many slaves,<br>A hard man of his hands;<br>They built a tower about her<br>In the desolate golden lands,</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=400534" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Sealed as the tyrants sealed their tombs,<br>Planned with an ancient plan,<br>And set two windows in the tower<br>Like the two eyes of a man.'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=400534" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Our guns were set towards the foe; we had no word for firing.<br>Grey in the gateway of St Gond the Guard of the tyrant shone;<br>Dark with the fate of a falling star, retiring and retiring,<br>The Breton line went backward and the Breton tale went on.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=400534" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">'Her father had sailed across the sea<br>For the harbour of Africa<br>When all the slaves took up their tools<br>For the bidding of Barbara.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=400534" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">She smote the bare wall with her hand<br>And bade them smite again;<br>She poured them wealth of wine and meat<br>To stay them in their pain.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=400534" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">And cried through the lifted thunder<br>Of thronging hammer and hod<br>'Throw open the third window<br>In the third name of God.'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=400534" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Then the hearts failed and the tools fell,<br>And far towards the foam,<br>Men saw a shadow on the sands<br>And her father coming home.'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=400534" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Speak low and low, along the line the whispered word is flying,<br>Before the touch, before the time, we may not loose a breath:<br>Their guns must mash us to the mire and there be no replying,<br>Till the hand is raised to fling us for the final dice to death.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=400534" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">''There were two windows in your tower,<br>Barbara, Barbara,<br>For all between the sun and moon<br>In the lands of Africa.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=400534" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Hath a man three eyes, Barbara,<br>A bird three wings,<br>That you have riven roof and wall<br>To look upon vain things?'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=400534" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Her voice was like a wandering thing<br>That falters yet is free,<br>Whose soul has drunk in a distant land<br>Of the rivers of liberty.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=400534" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">'There are more wings than the wind knows<br>Or eyes that see the sun<br>In the light of the lost window<br>And the wind of the doors undone.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=400534" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">For out of the first lattice<br>Are the red lands that break<br>And out of the second lattice<br>Sea like a green snake,</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=400534" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">But out of the third lattice<br>Under low eaves like wings<br>Is a new corner of the sky<br>And the other side of things.'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=400534" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">It opened in the inmost place an instant beyond uttering,<br>A casement and a chasm and a thunder of doors undone,<br>A seraph's strong wing shaken out the shock of its unshuttering,<br>That split the shattered sunlight from a light beyond the sun.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=400534" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">'Then he drew sword and drave her<br>Where the judges sat and said,<br>'Caesar sits above the gods,<br>Barbara the maid.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=400534" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Caesar hath made a treaty<br>With the moon and with the sun,<br>All the gods that men can praise<br>Praise him every one.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=400534" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">There is peace with the anointed<br>Of the scarlet oils of Bel,<br>With the Fish God, where the whirlpool<br>Is a winding stair to hell,</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=400534" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">With the pathless pyramids of slime,<br>Where the mitred negro lifts<br>To his black cherub in the cloud<br>Abominable gifts,</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=400534" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">With the leprous silver cities<br>Where the dumb priests dance and nod,<br>But not with the three windows<br>And the last name of God.''</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=400534" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">They are firing, we are falling, and the red skies rend and shiver us,<br>Barbara, Barbara, we may not loose a breath -<br>Be at the bursting doors of doom, and in the dark deliver us,<br>Who loosen the last window on the sun of sudden death.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=400534" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">'Barbara the beautiful<br>Stood up as queen set free,<br>Whose mouth is set to a terrible cup<br>And the trumpet of liberty.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=400534" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">'I have looked forth from a window<br>That no man now shall bar,<br>Caesar's toppling battle-towers<br>Shall never stretch so far.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=400534" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">The slaves are dancing in their chains,<br>The child laughs at the rod,<br>Because of the bird of the three wings,<br>And the third face of God.'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=400534" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">The sword upon his shoulder<br>Shifted and shone and fell,<br>And Barbara lay very small<br>And crumpled like a shell.'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=400534" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">What wall upon what hinges turned stands open like a door?<br>Too simple for the sight of faith, too huge for human eyes,<br>What light upon what ancient way shines to a far-off floor.<br>The line of the lost land of France or the plains of Paradise?</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=400534" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">'Caesar smiled above the gods<br>His lip of stone was curled,<br>His iron armies wound like chains<br>Round and round the world,</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=400534" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">And the strong slayer of his own<br>That cut down flesh for grass,<br>Smiled too, and went to his own tower<br>Like a walking tower of brass,</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=400534" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">And the songs ceased and the slaves were dumb;<br>And far towards the foam<br>Men saw a shadow on the sands;<br>And her father coming home...</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=400534" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Blood of his blood upon the sword<br>Stood red but never dry.<br>He wiped it slowly, till the blade<br>Was blue as the blue sky.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=400534" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">But the blue sky split with a thunder-crack,<br>Spat down a blinding brand,<br>And all of him lay black and flat<br>As his shadow on the sand.'</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=400534" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">The touch and the tornado; all our guns give tongue together,<br>St Barbara for the gunnery and God defend the right,<br>They are stopped and gapped and battered as we blast away the weather,<br>Building window upon window to our lady of the light.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=400534" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">For the light is come on Liberty, her foes are falling, falling,<br>They are reeling, they are running, as the shameful years have run,<br>She is risen for all the humble, she has heard the conquered calling,<br>St Barbara of the Gunners, with her hand upon the gun.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=400534" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">They are burst asunder in the midst that eat of their own flatteries,<br>Whose lip is curled to order as its barbered hair is curled...<br>Blast of the beauty of sudden death, St Barbara of the batteries!<br>That blow the new white window in the wall of all the world.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=400534" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">For the hand is raised behind us, and the bolt smites hard<br>Through the rending of the doorways, through the death-gap of the Guard,<br>For the cry of the Three Colours is in Conde and beyond<br>And the Guard is flung for carrion in the graveyard of St Gond,<br>Through Mondemont and out of it, through Morin marsh and on<br>With earthquake of salutation the impossible thing is gone,<br>Gaul, charioted and charging, great Gaul upon a gun,<br>Tip-toe on all her thousand years and trumpeting to the sun:<br>As day returns, as death returns, swung backwards and swung home,<br>Back on the barbarous reign returns the battering-ram of Rome.<br>While that the east held hard and hot like pincers in a forge,<br>Came like the west wind roaring up the cannon of St George,<br>When the hunt is up and racing over stream and swamp and tarn<br>And their batteries, black with battle, hold the bridgeheads of the Marne,<br>And across the carnage of the Guard, by Paris in the plain,<br>The Normans to the Bretons cried and the Bretons cheered again...<br>But he that told the tale went home to his house beside the sea<br>And burned before St Barbara, the light of the windows three,<br>Three candles for an unknown thing, never to come again,<br>That opened like the eye of God on Paris in the plain.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><a href="http://poems.citatepedia.com/">poem</a> by <strong><a rel="author" href="http://authors.citatepedia.com/by.php?a=Gilbert+Keith+Chesterton">Gilbert Keith Chesterton</a></strong></div>