Lepanto: With Explanatory Notes and Commentary

by G.K. Chesterton, Dale Ahlquist (Editor)

Edited by Dale Ahlquist

Hilaire Belloc called "Lepanto" Chesterton's greatest poem and the greatest poem of his generation. But not only have English classes neglected this masterpiece of rhyme and meter, History classes have neglected the story of the pivotal battle upon which the poem is based.

This book brings together the poem, the historical background of the famous battle, a riveting account of the battle itself, and a discussion of its historical consequences. The poem is fully annotated, and is supplemented with two interesting essays by Chesterton himself. Well-known Chesterton expert, Dale Ahlquist, has gathered together all the insightful commentaries and explanatory notes. Here is the story behind the modern conflict between Christianity and Islam, between Protestant and Catholic Europe, and the origin of the Feast of the Holy Rosary. A fascinating blend of literature, history, religion and romance!

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AUSTRALIACANADAGREAT BRITAINNEW ZEALANDSOUTH AFRICA

Genres: Poetry, History, Catholic, Classics, Christian, Religion, Historical

124 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1911

About the author

Gilbert Keith Chesterton was an English writer, philosopher, lay theologian, and literary and art critic.

He was educated at St. Paul’s, and went to art school at University College London. In 1900, he was asked to contribute a few magazine articles on art criticism, and went on to become one of the most prolific writers of all time. He wrote a hundred books, contributions to 200 more, hundreds of poems, including the epic Ballad of the White Horse, five plays, five novels, and some two hundred short stories, including a popular series featuring the priest-detective, Father Brown. In spite of his literary accomplishments, he considered himself primarily a journalist. He wrote over 4000 newspaper essays, including 30 years worth of weekly columns for the Illustrated London News, and 13 years of weekly columns for the Daily News. He also edited his own newspaper, G.K.’s Weekly.

Chesterton was equally at ease with literary and social criticism, history, politics, economics, philosophy, and theology.

Reviews

[Fiona Altschuler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this on the Holy Feast of the Rosary!

[Nicole Catherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. This poem has so many layers. First I would just recommend reading it aloud, listening to the sounds of the words, and then the second time through you can worry about what they mean. And that's really interesting, too. All the little historical references are so much fun to discover and puzzle out - seriously! And I don't even like this sort of thing usually, I had to read this poem for school. And guess what? I'm actually enjoying analyzing it!

[Michele · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a mesmerizing poem, and this edition contains annotations and several commentaries. Some of the commentaries provide the historical setting for the Battle for Lepanto that changed world history and is swept under the rug today.

[Emma · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read "Lepanto," and man-oh-man, G.K. Chesterton's poetry never does disappoint. I read it aloud (albeit alone), and found myself in almost some kind of a trance, rocking and rising to the brilliance and the rhythm of this work. My favorite bit? Well, all of it, but abbreviatedly, this:

"The North is full of tangled things and texts and aching eyes
And dead is all the innocence of anger and surprise,
And Christian killeth Christian in a narrow dusty room,
And Christian dreadeth Christ that hath a newer face of doom,
And Christian hateth Mary that God kissed in Galilee,
But Don John of Austria is riding to the sea."

Oh wait, and this:

"They rise in green robes roaring from the green hells of the sea
Where fallen skies and evil hues and eyeless creatures be;
On them the sea-valves cluster and the grey sea-forests curl,
Splashed with a splendid sickness, the sickness of the pearl..."

That is all. I plan to go be splashed with the splendid sickness that is hypnotization by Chesterton poetry...

[Ashley Stangl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I now understand the poem! I always loved it, but now I understand all the historical references!

Also, if I ever get sad, I will just remember that G.K. Chesterton once wrote a 22-page essay about how Mary, Queen of Scots/Don John of Austria is his OTP and he spends time headcanoning their romance.

[Maya Joelle]

Dim drums throbbing, in the hills half heard,
Where only on a nameless throne a crownless prince has stirred . . . .
In that enormous silence, tiny and unafraid,
Comes up along a winding road the noise of the Crusade.

Since the actual poem is only a few pages long (and I didn't read any commentary on it), I'm not counting this for my books read in 2022, but I did read it in 2022. It took me 15 minutes when I should have been studying for finals, and I'm not sorry. Chesterton's poetic voice is wonderfully recognizable and rhythmic, and his ideas are vivid and challenging. Definitely would recommend reading this on a study break.

It is he whose loss is laughter when he counts the wager worth:
Put down your feet upon him, that our peace be on the Earth!

(Side note: I would not be at all surprised if this poem inspired some of N.D. Wilson's characterization of Cyrus in the Ashtown Burials, and I approve.)

[Juan Martínez-Miguel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Además del maravilloso ensayo con el que cierra el libro, y que da muestra de su humor, la selección está bastante bien hecha. Las traducciones se desvían por momentos mucho de lo literal, y el aspecto rítmico llega a palidecer mucho por ello.

[Peter Nguyen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick read, perfect for the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. Will have to reread to gain greater insight.

[Jacob Baley · Rating 2 out of 5]

As I get older, I get tired of the sectarianism of Christian denominations. And this book bleeds of it. It attributes one of the “most important battles of the world” as being Lepanto. (Which is obviously doubtful) Which then the author goes on to make the case that this is another shining example of the catholic faith coming and promoting freedom and God’s Kingdom on Earth. All the while making sure to denigrate the Protestant denominations. You won’t miss allusions and reminders of just how great the crusades were and just how holy the pope was during this time.

Don’t get me wrong. The poem itself is brilliant. Its style is alliterated beautifully. It moves from plot point to plot point almost flawlessly and it creates a picturesque scene of the historical event. But the stuff after… 🤮.

Anyways, that’s my opinion lol 😆

[Insurrecto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Breve recopilación de traducciones del poema épico que Chesterton escribe sobre la hazaña de la Batalla de Lepanto, que contiene también el original en inglés.

Loa a la intrépida acción por la que España, representada en la figura de Juan de Austria, generosamente salvó a la Cristiandad de la amenza islámica.

El libro se completa con el breve ensayo El gallo que no canta, en el que el autor pondera el canto coral que acompañaba a las labores cotidianas, planteando si podría ocurrir ahora, en la modernidad. Porque los hombres que cantan juntos están alegres mientras trabajaban cantando, frente a los tristes hombres que lo hacen en silencio.

Imprescindible.

[J. Alfred · Rating 1 out of 5]

Chesterton is a vastly interesting, underrated writer, and it's a crime that you can't get his complete works for anything close to a reasonable rate (I've looked into this several times). Yet the way to fix all that is certainly not to print tiny little books with bits and pieces of him in there surrounded by uncivil nonsense like the following:

"Chesterton deserves to be placed among the immortals of literature for this poem alone. Like every masterpiece, it is a work of art that continues to get better and better with time and leaves the reader in awe. It should be memorized and studied and discussed and revisited by every student of English literature and world history. It should be in every anthology of English literature and part of the standard syllabus in every class of English 101-- but it isn't. Hardly anyone knows of the poem. It suffers in obscurity because of a combined prejudice against rhyme and meter, against Catholicism, and against G.K. Chesterton."

The poem, you may be interested to know, is less than six pages long (it's a kind of condensed version of the Ballad of the White Horse on a naval theme). Then follows a long, redundant commentary which does not even pretend to scholarly objectivity but preaches, hard, to the choir. Then follows a few essays by others, suffering from the same defects.
We read Chesterton, we fans of Chesterton, because we like the flavor and the exuberance of his absurd exaggerations or, as he is often pleased to say, his jokes. People who take his jokes too seriously are the people who make the rest of us want to leave him suffering in obscurity.
If this was the first book with Chesterton's name on it I ever read I'd never have read another one.

[Marcos Junior · Rating 5 out of 5]

Este poema só não é estudado no mundo inteiro como uma obra prima da língua inglesa porque Chesterton ousou metrificar, rimar, defender as cruzadas contra os muçulmanos e ter um pensamento cristão mesmo antes de ser um católico. Ou seja, tudo que a crítica moderna abomina. Se houver justiça neste mundo, estes críticos serão todos esquecidos e ficará Lepanto, um poema que sozinho coloca Chesterton entre os grandes escritores de todos os tempos.

[Tripleguess · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful historical poetry.

Recommend you also find a good (preferably non-PC) history book on the Battle of Lepanto and read that first. It will increase your understanding and enjoyment of Chesterton's poem.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Besides the actual poem which is just seven pages, there is four commentaries

The Background by Brandon Rogers
The Battle by Melvin (Buzz) Kriesel
The Aftermath by William Cinfici
The Poem by Dale Ahlquist

The second commentary describes the exciting battle detail against Ali Pasha’s galleys and the miraculous change of fortune and prayer of St. Pope Pius V on October 7th. A battle won through Mary’s intercession.

[Daniel Millard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chesterton's epic poem with a large amount of historical context, commentary from Dale Ahlquist, and a couple of similarly-themed essays from Chesterton that relate to Lepanto and its cast of characters. This was an October read for the anniversary of the battle of Lepanto. The poem is worth reading yearly, and the concise notes on the state of the world at this time is extremely helpful for those not well schooled in Reformation- and Ottoman-era history.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why Lepanto was not required reading in Catholic school is a question I am asking myself after reading this incredible poem. The notes and essays add considerably to the context of this all important poem about this all important naval battle. Western society would be markedly different had this battle gone the other way.

[Josie Beres · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a good read as a follow up to the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary last week. Not only is this a beautiful poem, but it was so interesting to read more about the history of the Battle of Lepanto. The commentary was extremely relevant to the world we live in today and also provided historical anecdotes that I didn’t know before.

[kesseljunkie · Rating 5 out of 5]

For the poem alone I would give this five stars. It resolutely demands all their glory with additional notes and explanatory text, and two essays by the incomparable Chesterton himself. A magnificent volume.

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful poem, great analysis and contextualization. Would be 5 stars if the contemporary authors didn’t inject Islamophobia and nonsense about the disappearance of the unified Christian West. Can a girl get literature critique and history without smacking prejudice please?

[Jesús de la Garza · Rating 3 out of 5]

El segundo texto de este libro me parece magnífico, pero creo que no se explora hasta sus últimas consecuencias, se lee algo apresurado.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good poem, excellent commentary.

[Janine Samz · Rating 5 out of 5]

A classic. Never done reading it.

[Lawrence Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

An annual re-read. Brilliant

[Luke Mohan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Do yourself a favor and read this out loud. And then read it again. And again. And again.

[Maxwell Ladhoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short read, the excitement Chesterton has poured into every line of this work is hard to put into words.

[Renato Tinajero · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ejemplar como todo lo de Chesterton. A reprocharle su brevedad, nada más.

[Dave · Rating 3 out of 5]

Upon the first reading, not so enjoyable.
I see why there are explanatory notes!

[Douglas Biggs · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Chesteron and I love history though epic poetry is not my forte. The massive amount of supplements made this an enjoyable reading experience

[Mephistopheles · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the poem, not the commentary.

This is beautiful, and heroic, with a mesmerizing, thundering meter.

[Alexandria Green · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant. Bloody brilliant.