G. K. Chesterton’s “The Secret People”
The Daily Poem
Goldberry Studios
4.6 • 729 Ratings
🗓️ 27 June 2025
⏱️ 5 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today’s poem is Chesterton’s ode to the silent majority. Happy reading.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to The Daily Poem, a podcast from Goldberry Studios. |
| 0:08.1 | I'm Sean Johnson, and today is Friday, June 27, 2025. |
| 0:13.5 | Today's poem is by G.K. Chesterton, and it's called The Secret People. |
| 0:18.4 | If you're listening to this episode on the day it releases, then that means |
| 0:22.8 | I am still in the UK, along with the other hosts of the Close Reeds podcast. And with any |
| 0:29.1 | luck, I am currently on board a train traveling south from Scotland toward London. I chose this poem then |
| 0:35.7 | because it would be in keeping with the theme of the general moment. |
| 0:40.2 | It is Chesterton's, hymn to the yeoman, his celebration of the English every man. |
| 0:47.1 | It's fairly long. I'll read it just once, and I'm fairly certain it can speak for itself. |
| 0:51.9 | So here is The Secret People. Smile at us. Pay us, pass us, |
| 0:59.7 | but do not quite forget, for we are the people of England that never have spoken yet. |
| 1:05.9 | There is many a fat farmer, the drinks less cheerfully, there's many a free French peasant who |
| 1:10.7 | is richer and sadder than |
| 1:11.8 | we. There are no folk in the whole world so helpless or so wise. There is hunger in our bellies, |
| 1:18.6 | there is laughter in our eyes. You laugh at us and love us. Both mugs and eyes are wet. |
| 1:24.7 | Only you do not know us, for we have not spoken yet. The fine French kings |
| 1:29.5 | came over in a flutter of flags and dames. We liked their smiles and battles, but we never |
| 1:34.4 | could say their names. The blood ran red to Bosworth, and the high French lords went down. |
| 1:40.5 | There was not but a naked people under a naked crown. |
| 1:47.7 | In the eyes of the king's servants turned terribly every way, |
| 1:50.8 | and the gold of the king's servants rose higher every day. |
| 1:54.6 | They burnt the homes of the shaven men that had been quaint and kind, |
... |
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