Skip to content
Linespedia

Sonnet

Topics: classic

High on the wall that holds Jerusalem     I saw one stand under the stars like stone.     And when I perish it shall not be known     Whether he lived, some strolling son of Shem,     Or was some great ghost wearing the diadem     Of Solomon or Saladin on a throne:     I only know, the features being unshown,     I did not dare draw near and look on them.     Did ye not guess ... the diadem might be     Plaited in stranger style by hands of hate ...     But when I looked, the wall was desolate     And the grey starlight powdered tower and tree:     And vast and vague beyond the Golden Gate     Heaved Moab of the mountains like a sea.

AI analysis available. Enable JavaScript to interact.

About this line

"High on the wall that holds Jerusalem..."

"Sonnet" is a quintessential example of Gilbert Keith Chesterton's signature style... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

Classified Tags

Related lines

"The gallows in my garden, people say,     Is new and neat and adequately tall.     I tie the noose on in a knowing way     As one that knots"

"Laugh your best, O blazoned forests,     Me ye shall not shift or shame     With your beauty: here among you     Man hath set his spear of flam"

"When you came over the top of the world     In the great day on the Downs,     The air was crisp and the clouds were curled,     When you came"

"The wasting thistle whitens on my crest,     The barren grasses blow upon my spear,     A green, pale pennon: blazon of wild faith     And love"

"Here morning in the ploughman's songs is met     Ere yet one footstep shows in all the sky,     And twilight in the east, a doubt as yet,     S"

"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Continue Reading

"The gallows in my garden, people say,     Is new a..."

Weekly Poetic Insight

Join our literary Sanctuary

Get the most inspiring lines, poetic analysis, and secret shayaris delivered to your inbox every Sunday.