Chesterton’s The Ballad of The White Horse is a lengthy read.
Here’s a snippet from Book VII The Scouring of the Horse:
And all the while on White Horse Hill
The horse lay long and wan,
The turf crawled and the fungus crept,
And the little sorrel, while all men slept,
Unwrought the work of man.
With velvet finger, velvet foot,
The fierce soft mosses thenCrept on the large white commonweal
All folk had striven to strip and peel,
And the grass, like a great green witch’s wheel,
Unwound the toils of men.