* A Project Gutenberg Canada Ebook *

This ebook is made available at no cost and with very few
restrictions. These restrictions apply only if (1) you make
a change in the ebook (other than alteration for different
display devices), or (2) you are making commercial use of
the ebook. If either of these conditions applies, please
check gutenberg.ca/links/licence.html before proceeding.

This work is in the Canadian public domain, but may be
under copyright in some countries. If you live outside Canada,
check your country's copyright laws. IF THE BOOK IS UNDER
COPYRIGHT IN YOUR COUNTRY, DO NOT DOWNLOAD
OR REDISTRIBUTE THIS FILE.

Title: Gloria in Profundis
Author: Chesterton, Gilbert Keith (1874-1936)
Illustrator: Gill, Arthur Eric Rowton (1882-1940)
Date of first publication: 1927
Edition used as base for this ebook:
   London: Faber & Faber Ltd, 1927 (first edition)
   [The Ariel Poems, No. 5]
Date first posted: 25 December 2009
Date last updated: 25 December 2009
Project Gutenberg Canada ebook #440

This ebook was produced by:
Marcia Brooks and Mark Akrigg




GLORIA IN
PROFUNDIS

By G. K. CHESTERTON

WOOD ENGRAVINGS BY ERIC GILL


[Illustration]




GLORIA IN PROFUNDIS

(_Chorus from an Unfinished Play_)


There has fallen on earth for a token
A god too great for the sky.
He has burst out of all things and broken
The bounds of eternity:
Into time and the terminal land
He has strayed like a thief or a lover,
For the wine of the world brims over,
Its splendour is spilt on the sand.

Who is proud when the heavens are humble,
Who mounts if the mountains fall,
If the fixed suns topple and tumble
And a deluge of love drown all--
Who rears up his head for a crown,
Who holds up his will for a warrant,
Who strives with the starry torrent
When all that is good goes down?

For in dread of such falling and failing
The Fallen Angels fell
Inverted in insolence, scaling
The hanging mountain of hell:
But unmeasured of plummet and rod
Too deep for their sight to scan,
Outrushing the fall of man
Is the height of the fall of God.

Glory to God in the Lowest
The spout of the stars in spate--
Where the thunderbolt thinks to be slowest
And the lightning fears to be late:
As men dive for a sunken gem
Pursuing, we hunt and hound it,
The fallen star that has found it
In the cavern of Bethlehem.

                                  G. K. CHESTERTON


1. By Thomas Hardy: _Yuletide in a Younger World_
   With Drawings by Albert Rutherston

2. By Sir Henry Newbolt: _The Linnet's Nest_
   With Drawings by Ralph Keene

3. By Laurence Binyon: _The Wonder Night_
   With Drawings by Barnett Freedman

4. By Walter de la Mare: _Alone_
   With Wood Engravings by Blair Hughes-Stanton

5. By G. K. Chesterton: _Gloria in Profundis_
   With Wood Engravings by Eric Gill

6. By Wilfrid Gibson: _The Early Whistler_
   With Drawings by John Nash

7. By Siegfried Sassoon: _Nativity_
   With Designs by Paul Nash

8. By T. S. Eliot: _Journey of the Magi_
   With Drawings by E. McKnight Kauffer


This is Number 5 of

THE ARIEL POEMS

Published by Faber & Gwyer Limited
at 24 Russell Square, London, W.C.1
Printed at The Curwen Press, Plaistow




[End of _Gloria in Profundis_ by G. K. Chesterton,
illustrated by Eric Gill]