The Ballad of the White Horse

A poem by English author G. K. Chesterton called The Ballad of the White Horse describes the bravery of the Saxon King Alfred the Great in an idealized manner. The poem, a ballad, has been regarded as one of the last truly fantastic traditional epic poems ever composed in English. The poem describes how the Virgin Mary helped Alfred beat the Dane invaders in the Battle of Ethandun. Chesterton opted to include the Battle of Ethandune in the Valley of the White Horse even though there is no historical support for it in his poem. There are 2,684 lines of English verse throughout the entire poem. They are broken up into stanzas, which normally include 4 to 6 lines each. The Ballad Of The White Horse has been deemed a classic and has been a great collection of ideas comprehended in a single draft to be read by readers of several age groups.