Mapping the Artistic Terrain: 1904–1907

Abstract

The poem ‘The Wild Knight’ contained a radical divergence between Chesterton’s style and the apparent meaning of his story. The style indicated a conflict between the conscious control of the writer through emblem, and the unconscious control that allowed for spontaneity within metaphor. However, the content of the poem implied that spontaneity had to be destroyed completely in order to avoid the danger of anarchy and chaos. At the root of this division lay an inability to differentiate between a personal spontaneity, advocated by Lord Orm, and an externally inspired spontaneity, as found in the Wild Knight. The author recognised the positive value of the Wild Knight, and the decision to destroy him contradicts this awareness. Yet the conflict in the style indicates an intuitive knowledge that something is unbalanced.