The Wild Knight and Other Poems/The Fish

by Gilbert Keith Chesterton

Dark the sea was: but I saw him,
  One great head with goggle eyes,
Like a diabolic cherub
  Flying in those fallen skies.

I have heard the hoarse deniers,
  I have known the wordy wars;
I have seen a man, by shouting,
  Seek to orphan all the stars.

I have seen a fool half-fashioned
  Borrow from the heavens a tongue,
So to curse them more at leisure -
  - And I trod him not as dung.

For I saw that finny goblin
  Hidden in the abyss untrod;
And I knew there can be laughter
  On the secret face of God.

Blow the trumpets, crown the sages,
  Bring the age by reason fed!
(He that sitteth in the heavens,
  'He shall laugh' - the prophet said.)