Page:Poems (1915) G K Chesterton.djvu/104

 Told him his legs from long disuse,

Were atrophied; and saying "So

From step to higher step we go

Till everything is New and True,"

They cut his legs off and withdrew.

You know the E.T.S.T.'s views

Are stronger than the T.T.U.'s:

And soon (as one may say) took wing

The Arms, though not the Man, I sing.

To see him sitting limbless there

Was more than the K.K. could bear

"In mercy silence with all speed

That mouth there are no hands to feed;

What cruel sentimentalist,

O Jones, would doom thee to exist—

Clinging to selfish Selfhood yet?

Weak one! Such reasoning might upset

The Pump Act, and the accumulation

Of all constructive legislation;

Let us construct you up a bit—"

The head fell off when it was hit:

Then words did rise and honest doubt,

And four Commissions sat about

Whether the slash that left him dead

Cut off his body or his head.

An author in the Isle of Wight

Observed with unconcealed delight