Please explain this Chesterton poem to me!

[oiboyz]

I actually understand almost all of it, or think I do. But I don’t get the first four lines of the last stanza.

GLORIA IN PROFUNDIS
G.K. Chesterton

There has fallen on earth for a token
A god too great for the sky.
He has burst out of all things and broken
The bounds of eternity:
Into time and the terminal land
He has strayed like a thief or a lover,
For the wine of the world brims over,
Its splendour is split on the sand.

Who is proud when the heavens are humble,
Who mounts if the mountains fall,
If the fixed stars topple and tumble
And a deluge of love drowns all-
Who rears up his head for a crown,
Who holds up his will for a warrant,
Who strives with the starry torrent,
When all that is good goes down?

For in dread of such falling and failing
The fallen angels fell
Inverted in insolence, scaling
The hanging mountain of hell:
But unmeasured of plummet and rod
Too deep for their sight to scan,
Outrushing the fall of man
Is the height of the fall of God.

Glory to God in the Lowest
The spout of the stars in spate-
Where thunderbolt thinks to be slowest
And the lightning fears to be late:
As men dive for sunken gem
Pursuing, we hunt and hound it,
The fallen star has found it
In the cavern of Bethlehem.

                    Gilbert Keith Chesterton

So, does anyone know what GKC meant by “the spout of the stars in spate?” And the stuff about the thunderbolt and lightening, which are of course the same thing, so why does one want to be slow while the other is afraid to be late? I don’t get it at all. But I love, love, love the rest of this poem!

 

[TOP]

Christ who though all things came to be, the Creator of the stars in a flash, which all things are subject to, humble appearance as a babe?

 

[glenaitken]

I actually understand almost all of it, or think I do. But I don’t get the first four lines of the last stanza.

So, does anyone know what GKC meant by “the spout of the stars in spate?” And the stuff about the thunderbolt and lightening, which are of course the same thing, so why does one want to be slow while the other is afraid to be late? I don’t get it at all. But I love, love, love the rest of this poem!

I think that it’s about how creation is reacting to the Incarnation. that the universe itself is rushing to embrace the God-man, but they are racing to get there to Bethlehem. they heavens are diving to earth in a race to see Christ just as divers would jump into the sea to chase after pearls. I think.

 

[Joe_Kelley]

From the Collected Works, Ignatius -

The poem is the chorus of an unfinished play.

An earlier version of the last stanza reads:

Our god that is more than immortal
Is mortal and made; is there;
Thrust through an unthinkable portal
And escaped out of everywhere.
With the falling stars descending
We descend in the deluge of all
To find where a thing unending
Has slipped into space and is small.
Pursuing we hunt and hound it
As man hunts for a stolen gem,
For the fallen star that has found it
In the cavern of Bethlehem.

Don’t know if this helps, but thought I would pass it along.

 

[TOBY1]

I actually understand almost all of it, or think I do. But I don’t get the first four lines of the last stanza.

So, does anyone know what GKC meant by “the spout of the stars in spate?” And the stuff about the thunderbolt and lightening, which are of course the same thing, so why does one want to be slow while the other is afraid to be late? I don’t get it at all. But I love, love, love the rest of this poem!

Here’s my take on it:

Glory to God in the Lowest (infant child)
The spout of the stars in spate- (multitude of heavenly host speaking)
Where thunderbolt thinks to be slowest (birth has been foretold)
And the lightning fears to be late: (birth has occurred)
As men dive for sunken gem (make haste)
Pursuing, we hunt and hound it, (for it has been made known to us)
The fallen star has found it (our prize = salvation)
In the cavern of Bethlehem. (born in a stable)

Just my guess.

 

[oiboyz]

Guys, thanks very much for your replies! I think the earlier version that Joe Kelley posted supports glenaitken’s interpretation that all creation is rushing down to Bethlehem.

I’m going to tell my English teacher mom this-- she liked the poem when I printed it for her, but went crazy trying to figure out the last lines.