A Ballade of Suicide


Read by LibriVox Volunteers

(4.3 stars; 3 reviews)

LibriVox volunteers bring you 18 recordings of A Ballade of Suicide by G. K. Chesterton. This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for May 20, 2012.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton was an English writer. He published works on philosophy, ontology, poetry, plays, journalism, public lectures and debates, literary and art criticism, biography, Christian apologetics, and fiction, including fantasy and detective fiction. Chesterton has been called the "prince of paradox". Time magazine, in a review of a biography of Chesterton, observed of his writing style: "Whenever possible Chesterton made his points with popular sayings, proverbs, allegories—first carefully turning them inside out." For example, Chesterton wrote "Thieves respect property. They merely wish the property to become their property that they may more perfectly respect it." (Summary by Wikipedia ) (0 hr 38 min)

Chapters

A Ballade of Suicide - Read by ALP 1:55 Read by Algy Pug
A Ballade of Suicide - Ready By CMP 2:24 Read by CaprishaPage
A Ballade of Suicide - Read by DL 2:05 Read by David Lawrence
A Ballade of Suicide - Sung by EZWA 3:39 Read by Ezwa
A Ballade of Suicide - Read by FS 2:24 Read by fshort
A Ballade of Suicide - Read by GC 1:42 Read by Snapdragon
A Ballade of Suicide - Read by JCM 2:04 Read by Jason Mills
A Ballade of Suicide - Read by JL 1:47 Read by April Gonzales
A Ballade of Suicide - Read by JM2 2:03 Read by Jannie Meisberger
A Ballade of Suicide - Read by JN 1:32 Read by Julia Niedermaier
A Ballade of Suicide - Read by LAH 1:48 Read by Lee Ann Howlett
A Ballade of Suicide - Read by LLW 2:15 Read by Leonard Wilson (1930-2024)
A Ballade of Suicide - Read by MG 2:25 Read by Martin Geeson
A Ballade of Suicide - Read by MJF 2:22 Read by MJ Franck
A Ballade of Suicide - Read by REF 2:06 Read by Rhonda Federman
A Ballade of Suicide - Read by RH 1:56 Read by Rhajimas Holmes
A Ballade of Suicide - Read by RN 2:26 Read by ravenotation
A Ballade of Suicide - Read by UM 1:54 Read by ekzemplaro

Reviews

Darkly humorous short poem


(4 stars)

This is a difficult poem to interpret with sense- stresses in the wrong places, for instance, quickly render parts of the rhyme confusing or meaningless. It is arch, which can be hard to convey. I recommend the readings by MG and LLW. One reader has put the poem to music- for which I give her much credit for the effort involved. I'm not sure it's appropriate for this poem, however. I don't think the line "Perhaps the rector's mother will not come" was ever meant to be sung. Amusing and odd poem.