The Ballad of the White Horse

G.K. Chesterton

Summary

First published in 1911, "The Ballad of the White Horse" is a poem by G. K. Chesterton about the idealised exploits of the Saxon King Alfred the Great. 
Written in ballad form, the work has been described as one of the last great traditional epic poems ever written in the English language. 
The epic ballad tells the story of how the King defeated the invading Danes at the Battle of Ethandun in the Valley of the White Horse, beneath an ancient equine image on the Berkshire hills.

Available since: 04/21/2021.

Other books that might interest you

Folk Ballad Collection 001

Various Various

Librivox’s first collection of sung and spoken folk ballads (13 in collection).

Show book

The Porcupinity of the Stars

Gary Barwin

Poet and musician Gary Barwin both continues and extends the alchemical collision of language, imaginative flight and quiet beauty that have made him unique among contemporary poets. As the Utne Reader has noted, what makes this work so compelling is 'Barwin’s balance of melancholy with wide-eyed wonder.' The Porcupinity of the Stars sees the always bemused and wistful poet reaching into new and deeper territory, addressing the joys and vagaries of perception in poems touching on family, loss, wonder and the shifting, often perplexing nature of consciousness. His Heisenbergian sensibility honed to a fine edge, the poems in this bright, bold and acutely visual book add a surreptitious intensity and wry maturity to Barwin’s trademark gifts for subtle humour, solemn delight, compassion and invention.
 
'Between the freaky, funny filmmaker Guy Maddin and author Gary Barwin, Canada is producing some of the most innovative creative works of our time.' – Utne Reader

Show book

Wild Swimming (NHB Modern Plays)

Marek Horn

Nell and Oscar meet on a beach in Dorset. It's 1595… or maybe 1610. Oscar has returned from university and Nell is doing fuck-all. They will meet here, again and again, on this beach for the next four hundred years. Stuff will change. As it does with time. They will try to keep up.
A kaleidoscopic exploration of cultural progress, Marek Horn's play Wild Swimming is an interrogation of gender and privilege, and a wilfully ignorant history of English Literature.
The play premiered at the 2019 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, produced by FullRogue in association with Pleasance Futures and Bristol Old Vic Ferment, and directed by Julia Head. It subsequently transferred to the Bristol Old Vic, and toured the UK in 2020.
'Deliciously immodest, formally inventive and searingly clever' - Guardian
'Sarcastic barbs, a puckish spirit and big ideas all merrily co-exist here' - The Stage

Show book

The Dubliners' Christmas Story

James Joyce

A story adapted from James Joyce's classic and John Huston's film classic, The Dead, we drop in on the Morkan sisters, hosting their annual soiree, and one of their more curious guests, Mr. Gabriel Conroy. Over the course of the evening, he discovers more than he ever knew about both his wife and himself.  
STARRING: DAN O'HERLIHY as The Narrator and Mr. Brown, HELENA CARROLL as Aunt Kate, KATHLEEN FREEMAN as Aunt Julia, THOMAS MacGREEVY as Gabriel, BAIBRE DOWLING as Greta,PEGGY WEBBER as  Lily and Mrs. Malins, JOYCE DEEVER as Mary Jane, SEAN McCLORY as Freddy Malins, LIDA ANDERSON as Miss Ivers, SHAY DUFFIN as Bartel Darcy and The Porter; WITH LES TREMAYNE, and Announcer, WILLIAM WOODSON.

Show book

Ticker-Tape

Rishi Dastidar

From politics to pop, from the UK to California, wherever digital heartbeats flutter and stutter, Ticker-tape is a maximalist take on 21st century living. Rishi Dastidar's first full collection showcases one of contemporary poetry's most distinctive voices, delivering effervescence with equal servings of panache and whiplash-quick wit.
Here is sheer madcap ingenuity and also impressive breadth; ranging from odes of love to deconstructed diversity campaigns and detonations of banter's worst excesses, plus appearances from ex-SugaBabes, a shark who comes to tea, to the matters of matchstick empires and national identity. Ticker-tape is bold, adventuresome and wry – an unmissable and irrepressible debut.

Show book

The Poetry Of William Blake

William Blake

William Blake was born on 28th November 1757 in London to parents of modest income that could only afford a basic education of reading and writing although he did attend a drawing school for a short time. His artistic skill was apparent relatively early and at the age of 14 he stopped working in his father’s hosiery shop and became an apprentice engraver. This apprenticeship finished when he was 21 and at 25 he married Catherine Boucher. He taught her to read and write and together in 1789 they published Songs of Innocence with text and engravings printed from copper plates and illustrations finished by hand with watercolours. It did not sell well and throughout his life he remained largely unrecognised often on the verge of poverty. This led to a deep depression for many years and he was often considered mad by his contemporaries. His creativity and imagination with its undercurrents of mysticism, spiritualism and philosophy are apparent in this selection of poems and whilst classed as a seminal figure in the Romantic Age it wasn’t until the late 19th century that his work was recognised. The 20th century saw an even greater appreciation of his poetry with Blake’s voyage beyond the rational and material chiming with the Beat poets, Dylan, Van Morrison and Jim Morrison of the band the Doors , named after Blake’s phrase Doors of Perception from his poem Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Further acclaim has been attributed to him from many scholars of art, psychology and of course literature. His poems have inspired composers such as Vaughn Williams, Britten and Taverner and Jerusalem a hymn still sung today. Blake’s vivid and intense work is still relevant to all to this day and he is recognised as a saint in the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica. William Blake died on 12th August 1827 and in 1957 a memorial was erected at Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey. Here we present two of his exceptionally fine epic poems.

Show book