Explore "The Wild Knight and other Poems: a Fairy Tale" by G.K. Chesterton on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
All things grew upwards, foul and fair: / The great trees fought and beat the air / With monstrous wings that would have flown; / But the old earth clung to her own, / Holding them back from heavenly wars, / Though every flower sprang at the stars.
But he broke free: while all things ceased, / Some hour increasing, he increased. / The town beneath him seemed a map, / Above the church he cocked his cap, / Above the cross his feather flew / Above the birds and still he grew.
The trees turned grass; the clouds were riven; / His feet were mountains lost in heaven; / Through strange new skies he rose alone, / The earth fell from him like a stone, / And his own limbs beneath him far / Seemed tapering down to touch a star.
He reared his head, shaggy and grim, / Staring among the cherubim; / The seven celestial floors he rent, / One crystal dome still o'er him bent: / Above his head, more clear than hope, / All heaven was a microscope.