Slipping when quoting from a poem

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is a post about the poem Lepanto written by G. K. Chesterton made by Dr. John Livingston at the Gem State Patriot News blog on October 11, 2026 titled What Makes A Civilization Worth Defending. You can find the full text of that poem here at the Poetry Foundation. John incorrectly says that:

 

“Chesterton gives that conviction memorable expression:

‘It is he whose loss is laughter when he counts the labour worth.’ ”

 

But that line instead actually is:

 

‘It is he whose loss is laughter when he counts the wager worth,’

 

Labour is not the same as a wager, so John didn’t even make a proper paraphrase. His other two quotes from that poem were correct. And the last sentence of John’s post is that (with labor rather than labour):

 

“We can decide whether the cause is worth our labor—and whether we will do our part.” 

 

I have found Dr. Livingston to be notoriously poor at editing quotes. On October 22, 2024 I discussed another example in a post titled How not to write a blog post (or speech) using a quotation.

 

The slipping warning sign was adapted from here at OpenClipArt.