A Ballade of Suicide - a poem by G.K.Chesterton

http://www.famousliteraryworks.com/chesterton_ballade_of_suicide.htm A Ballade of Suicide - a poem by G.K.Chesterton
		A Ballade of Suicide G.K. Chesterton 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.