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A Ballade of Suicide by Gilbert Keith Chesterton   
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Gilbert Keith Chesterton
Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874 - 1936 / London / England)
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Gilbert Keith Chesterton was born in London, England on the 29th of May, 1874. Though he considered himself a mere "rollicking journalist," he was act .. more >>
60 poems of Gilbert Keith Chesterton
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A Ballade of Suicide

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  The gallows in my garden, people say,
Is new and neat and adequately tall;
I tie the noose on in a knowing way
As one that knots his necktie for a ball;
But just as all the neighbours--on the wall--
Are drawing a long breath to shout "Hurray!"
The strangest whim has seized me. . . . After all
I think I will not hang myself to-day.

To-morrow is the time I get my pay--
My uncle's sword is hanging in the hall--
I see a little cloud all pink and grey--
Perhaps the rector's mother will not call-- I fancy that I heard from Mr. Gall
That mushrooms could be cooked another way--
I never read the works of Juvenal--
I think I will not hang myself to-day.

The world will have another washing-day;
The decadents decay; the pedants pall;
And H.G. Wells has found that children play,
And Bernard Shaw discovered that they squall,
Rationalists are growing rational--
And through thick woods one finds a stream astray
So secret that the very sky seems small--
I think I will not hang myself to-day.

Envoi

Prince, I can hear the trumpet of Germinal,
The tumbrils toiling up the terrible way;
Even to-day your royal head may fall,
I think I will not hang myself to-day.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton


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  Chris Mendros  (3/21/2007 5:18:00 PM)

it's never too far away, is it?
 
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11/26/2009 6:03:56 PM. #.34# You Are Here: A Ballade of Suicide by Gilbert Keith Chesterton

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