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Greybeards at play, and other comic verse
Very good condition first edition hardcover with clipped dust jacket, however adhesive Elek price sticker noted above the clipped edge. Board spine ends are a little bumped, and page block is lightly tanned. A section of approximately ten pages are creased at the lower leading edge corner, however this has not affected the legibility at all. Pages are otherwise clear, binding is sound and boards are clean. LW
96 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1900
About the author
G.K. Chesterton
4,621 books5,898 followersGilbert 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
January 13, 2024
We seniors are TRILOBITES!
Whazzat, you ask?
A trilobite is a marine Arthropod that has now been forever consigned to extinction!
And we seniors know our own faded time on this improvised hasty pudding of a planet - for that’s what it is these days, and plus, it all leaves an acrid taste in us old timers’ mouths! - is fast approaching midnight on the old extinction clock.
You know, there’s an easy plastic formula for everything now.
Gone are those wonderful days around 1953 when my brontosaurus Dad would tell me to think and work SLOWLY and CAREFULLY when I undertake a new task.
Who nowadays does that? In the workplaces we live in NOW we’d NEVER survive.
Output!
Quantity - not QUALITY!
Ra Ra Ra...
“You’ve got to TAKE PAINS with your work!” Dad would repeat. So I took pains all my life. And who am I now? A perpetual pain in the neck, that’s what.
Have you seen old folks crossing the street lately? Well, Streetcorners are fast and furious dense jungles to us...
Well, OK - kids, the rant is over.
Now, I’ll address the geritol generation, if you’ll excuse me...
Had a tough time getting thru that last attack of arthritis, that last bout of insomnia, that last dismal succession of grey depressing weather?
Take this quick remedy with a nice cuppa something strong, and you’ll forget all about it!
Cause it’s time for a chuckle or two...
Ya know, even GREYBEARDS can make time for Play!
This book first appeared in 1900 - and, you know, Chesterton was REALLY starting with a fresh page in his career, AND a fresh century.
Gone was the stressed-out, competitive purgatory of Fleet Street - for Chesterton had started to live by his Pen alone - and was learning to PLAY for a change.
In an obituary after his death it was noted that, wrongheaded as it sounds to us now, old Chesterton would likely be remembered for his poetry - like the madcap rhymes in this very slim collection of four poems!
That poor guy was obviously blind to the fact that somewhere out there in an old Church, at rest, lay one of the foremost Christian apologists of our age.
But poetry was a pleasant diversion for Chesterton after his first career in the workaday world. And it would lead to a new career in charming the English-speaking world with the sheer Freedom of Madcap Fictional Fun.
With the famous sideline of a defender of faith.
So what did his very first reviewers say about it?
They were bowled over!
Get a load of this...
‘Egoism is not in Mr Chesterton; but his ideas possess him exactingly, and his gift of self-expression is equal to his candour.´
Weighty and earnest words (as in The Importance of Being...?) for such flighty and flyweight fun as these verses display! Did you get his drift?
I didn’t, I have to admit.
The prewar critics took their light amusements VERY seriously. Small things for small minds.
But now to the verses!
People my age know how REALLY weighty our senior years can be health-wise and energy-wise, but at least young Gil Chesterton had no illusions about that (this collection of Grey-Beards’ nonsense bears the subtitle Literature and Art for Old Gentlemen):
MORAL
I am, I think I have remarked,
Terrifically old,
(The second Ice Age was a farce,
The first was rather cold.)
A friend of mine, a trilobite
Had gathered in his youth,
When trilobites were trilobites,
This all-important truth:
We aged ones play solemn parts -
Sire, Guardian, Uncle, King -
Affection is the salt of life,
Kindness a noble thing.
The old alone may comprehend
A sense in my decree;
But - if you find a fish on land,
Oh throw it in the sea!
***
To me that’s wonderful.
Chesterton REALLY knew us old folks - with our snail’s pace of life, and all our myriad aches and pains - to be Strangers in a Strange (and much too Modern) Land, like long-forgotten trilobites, fish on dry land.
Have a little compassion, kids - throw us back into the Eternal Sea...
For Chesterton, faithful Christian in this crazy madcap world, knew that’s where our HEARTS’ EASE will lie!
Now, for your grinning listening enjoyment, is the complete audiobook!
https://youtu.be/4dEge3dJDjk
Whazzat, you ask?
A trilobite is a marine Arthropod that has now been forever consigned to extinction!
And we seniors know our own faded time on this improvised hasty pudding of a planet - for that’s what it is these days, and plus, it all leaves an acrid taste in us old timers’ mouths! - is fast approaching midnight on the old extinction clock.
You know, there’s an easy plastic formula for everything now.
Gone are those wonderful days around 1953 when my brontosaurus Dad would tell me to think and work SLOWLY and CAREFULLY when I undertake a new task.
Who nowadays does that? In the workplaces we live in NOW we’d NEVER survive.
Output!
Quantity - not QUALITY!
Ra Ra Ra...
“You’ve got to TAKE PAINS with your work!” Dad would repeat. So I took pains all my life. And who am I now? A perpetual pain in the neck, that’s what.
Have you seen old folks crossing the street lately? Well, Streetcorners are fast and furious dense jungles to us...
Well, OK - kids, the rant is over.
Now, I’ll address the geritol generation, if you’ll excuse me...
Had a tough time getting thru that last attack of arthritis, that last bout of insomnia, that last dismal succession of grey depressing weather?
Take this quick remedy with a nice cuppa something strong, and you’ll forget all about it!
Cause it’s time for a chuckle or two...
Ya know, even GREYBEARDS can make time for Play!
This book first appeared in 1900 - and, you know, Chesterton was REALLY starting with a fresh page in his career, AND a fresh century.
Gone was the stressed-out, competitive purgatory of Fleet Street - for Chesterton had started to live by his Pen alone - and was learning to PLAY for a change.
In an obituary after his death it was noted that, wrongheaded as it sounds to us now, old Chesterton would likely be remembered for his poetry - like the madcap rhymes in this very slim collection of four poems!
That poor guy was obviously blind to the fact that somewhere out there in an old Church, at rest, lay one of the foremost Christian apologists of our age.
But poetry was a pleasant diversion for Chesterton after his first career in the workaday world. And it would lead to a new career in charming the English-speaking world with the sheer Freedom of Madcap Fictional Fun.
With the famous sideline of a defender of faith.
So what did his very first reviewers say about it?
They were bowled over!
Get a load of this...
‘Egoism is not in Mr Chesterton; but his ideas possess him exactingly, and his gift of self-expression is equal to his candour.´
Weighty and earnest words (as in The Importance of Being...?) for such flighty and flyweight fun as these verses display! Did you get his drift?
I didn’t, I have to admit.
The prewar critics took their light amusements VERY seriously. Small things for small minds.
But now to the verses!
People my age know how REALLY weighty our senior years can be health-wise and energy-wise, but at least young Gil Chesterton had no illusions about that (this collection of Grey-Beards’ nonsense bears the subtitle Literature and Art for Old Gentlemen):
MORAL
I am, I think I have remarked,
Terrifically old,
(The second Ice Age was a farce,
The first was rather cold.)
A friend of mine, a trilobite
Had gathered in his youth,
When trilobites were trilobites,
This all-important truth:
We aged ones play solemn parts -
Sire, Guardian, Uncle, King -
Affection is the salt of life,
Kindness a noble thing.
The old alone may comprehend
A sense in my decree;
But - if you find a fish on land,
Oh throw it in the sea!
***
To me that’s wonderful.
Chesterton REALLY knew us old folks - with our snail’s pace of life, and all our myriad aches and pains - to be Strangers in a Strange (and much too Modern) Land, like long-forgotten trilobites, fish on dry land.
Have a little compassion, kids - throw us back into the Eternal Sea...
For Chesterton, faithful Christian in this crazy madcap world, knew that’s where our HEARTS’ EASE will lie!
Now, for your grinning listening enjoyment, is the complete audiobook!
https://youtu.be/4dEge3dJDjk
August 17, 2025
These poems are upbeat and fun. To top it off, Chesterton's illustrations are delightful. I don't like poetry that rhymes (as a rule) but I found the rhymes here to be a positive boon rather than an archaic, negative characteristic of the piece. This is Chesterton at his finest, and I really enjoyed the book overall. My only wish is that it was longer.
September 11, 2013
Well, what do I know about poetry? But I did enjoy reading this because it had some humour to it. My favourite was, 'The oneness of the philosopher with nature'. Will always go back to it for a good laugh.
"I am the tiger's confidant,
And never mention names:
The lion drops the formal "Sir,"
And lets me call him James."
"I am the tiger's confidant,
And never mention names:
The lion drops the formal "Sir,"
And lets me call him James."
January 29, 2026
It is a book of nonsense and comedic verses, yet Chesterton says profound stuff in the middle of them.
February 10, 2021
This is very short, only 4 poems, but enjoyable, even to one who normally doesn't like poetry. These poems are fun.
February 15, 2013
Definitely an odd book, but in a wonderful way! I first read it years ago, and I love it just as much now as I did when I was a kid -- Chesterton's verses are short, snappy, and very, very funny (IMO) with some amazing concepts and turns of phrase...
Best of all, my edition is illustrated with Chesterton's own line drawings, which are filled with life and verve, and at least as funny as the verses themselves. Anyone who has read the famous essay, "On Lying In Bed," will know that Chesterton loved to draw -- it's great to have some actual examples of what he could do! Maybe he wouldn't be everybody's idea of an "artist," but he was a really superlative illustrator.
And the poems themselves are worth reading.
BTW, If you'd like to get an idea of what his verse is like, here is an example (caveat: this one is not in the book -- but it definitely shows his spirit)!
Best of all, my edition is illustrated with Chesterton's own line drawings, which are filled with life and verve, and at least as funny as the verses themselves. Anyone who has read the famous essay, "On Lying In Bed," will know that Chesterton loved to draw -- it's great to have some actual examples of what he could do! Maybe he wouldn't be everybody's idea of an "artist," but he was a really superlative illustrator.
And the poems themselves are worth reading.
BTW, If you'd like to get an idea of what his verse is like, here is an example (caveat: this one is not in the book -- but it definitely shows his spirit)!
February 27, 2015
This short collection of nonsense verse was G.K. Chesterton's first published work, and it was privately published, as was The Wild Knight and Other Poems. Greybeards at Play is a quick read and has a number of droll moments -- but it was only the beginning of what was to be a great career.
Accompanying the poems are drawings by Chesterton, which go well with poems such as the one that ends:
Accompanying the poems are drawings by Chesterton, which go well with poems such as the one that ends:
We aged ones play solemn parts—
Sire—guardian—uncle—king.
Affection is the salt of life,
Kindness a noble thing.
The old alone may comprehend
A sense in my decree;
But—if you find a fish on land,
Oh throw it in the sea.
May 3, 2014
These poems are pretty cute... Too bad I don't like cute.
February 13, 2018
I've vowed to read all of Chesterton this year, including what I've read before, and this one scampered across my field of vision when I had a spare moment, but I have to admit that it was inconsequential.
January 31, 2020
Really fun.
May 18, 2020
A book of poems!
January 18, 2021
A small volume of early poetry which was enjoyable and amusing.
February 4, 2013
Four longish not-very-depressing poems by GK Chesterton. The one about the fish was peculiar, but I quite enjoyed the others.
June 11, 2014
A decent collection of poems. I read it in one day. But his The White Knight has better ones.
May 1, 2015
Very interesting.
January 7, 2016
Well, it was not dreadful, but nothing of it really stuck with me. Juvenilia, I suppose, perhaps of interest to the Chesterton completist.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews