Page:Poems (1915) G K Chesterton.djvu/84



St. Crispin to the shoemakers said on a Christmas-tide:

"Who fashions at another's feet will get no good of pride.

They were bleeding on the Mountain, the feet that brought good news,

The latchet of whose shoes we were not worthy to unloose.

See that your feet offend not, nor lightly lift your head,

Tread softly on the sunlit roads the bright dust of the dead.

Let your own feet be shod with peace; be lowly all your lives.

But if they touch the Charter, ye shall nail it with your knives.

And the bill-blades of the commons drive in all as dense array

As once a crash of arrows came, upon St. Crispin's Day."

St. Luke unto the painters on Christmas Day he said:

"See that the robes are white you dare to dip in gold and red;

For only gold the kings can give, and only blood the saints;