May 29, 1874 – G.K. Chesterton born, English author, playwright, critic, poet, and philosopher; noted for his Father Brown mystery series.

Chesterton attempted to break the poetic silence on the subject of cheese with a sonnet. I don’t find it to be among his best work, but Chesterton is better remembered for his essays and mysteries rather than his poetry.

To read Chesterton’s “Sonnet to a Stilton Cheese” click:

Sonnet to a Stilton Cheese

by G.K. Chesterton

Stilton, thou shouldst be living at this hour
And so thou art. Nor losest grace thereby;
England has need of thee, and so have I–
She is a Fen. Far as the eye can scour,
League after grassy league from Lincoln tower
To Stilton in the fields, she is a Fen.
Yet this high cheese, by choice of fenland men,
Like a tall green volcano rose in power.
Plain living and long drinking are no more,
And pure religion reading “Household Words”,
And sturdy manhood sitting still all day
Shrink, like this cheese that crumbles to its core;
While my digestion, like the House of Lords,
The heaviest burdens on herself doth lay.

“Sonnet to a Stilton Cheese” from The Collected Poems of G.K. Chesterton – Forgotten Books Ltd – 2018 edition