1 of 1 members found this review helpful.
“There is about this epic poem a sense at once of darkening, deepening gloom, and brightness maintained by hard but hearty labor. I do not think this is an accident: for the main theme of Chesterton's retelling of the legend of the English King Alfred's battled against the Danish Guthrum at Ethandune is life as a battle, as a neverending struggle against encroaching evil, without and within. Hence the name The White Horse: the horse, a huge image cut from a chalky hill in Wiltshire, is a symbol of the spiritual state of the land; when it is invaded and occupied by the Danes it grows weedy and clouded, but when goodness prevails the work of men strips it and makes it white and pristine again. Chesterton's poetry is alive and vigorous, merry and defiant, sober and contemplative, humble and vigilant. In short, it has all the flavor of Christianity. It tells the tale of an epic battle, but builds toward it, and recedes from it, with earthy care and attention to detail: the descriptions of Alfred's chieftains -- Colan the Gael, Eldred the Saxon, and Mark the Roman -- and of their homesteads, the incident at the house of the old woman whom the king contemplates and pities, the legendary origins of Elf the Dane's spear, the harping contest between the Danish chiefs and a disguised Alfred: all these things have the beauty, the texture, the resonance of myth, and the scale and rootedness of legend and folklore. This indeed is a poem I would read again and again. ”
Michael wrote this review Thursday, September 17 2009.
(
reply |
permalink )
