A Ballade of Suicide

A Ballade of Suicide is a ballade by G. K. Chesterton.

The text

The gallows in my garden, people say,Is new and neat and adequately tall;I tie the noose on in a knowing wayAs 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 allI 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. GallThat 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.

External links

* [http://www.cse.dmu.ac.uk/~mward/gkc/ The G.K.Chesterton web site] : more works by G. K. Chesterton