Paradoks Chestertonowskiej wizji wolności społecznej na przykładzie wiersza "To St. Michael, in Time of Peace"

Even though Gilbert Keith Chesterton remained a political Rousseauism-like radical throughout his life, with time the ideal of political liberty understood in line with the philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau found less and less vivid expression inhis writings, leaving the most important element animating them virtually invisible for less knowledgeable readers. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate and explain thisfact on the basis of the analysis of one of the most famous poems penned by the English author, entitled To St. Michael, in Times of Peace (1929). The analysis follows the methodology devised by a distinguished Polish scholar, Stefan Sawicki.