Prison Fare

Seeing as lots of people are reporting on social media how they are feeling as if they are imprisoned in their own homes, I thought I would
record Oscar Wilde's monumentally long poem, The Ballad of Reading Gaol, for an insight into what it is really like to be banged up with no escape in sight (unlike just hanging around at home longer than most of us would wish) - I promise to leave Mr Wilde in peace for a while now, having recorded three of his works in as many days.

This poem is a bleak one, which Wilde dedicated to a soldier who had been sentenced to hang for murder during the period in which the poet was sentenced for what will probably seem to most a very little thing - bedding Lord Alfred Douglas and rather too many rent boys. The poem addresses the awfulness of Victorian prison life and the horror of capital punishment. After all this recording, I think I need to give my throat a rest for a day or two!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Intro to Paganism

 The Ipswich Pagan Council is hosting an afternoon seminar/discussion to introduce interested newcomers to the different varieties of paganism that can be found in Suffolk. This will take place on Saturday 4th December, 12.30pm at the EEFA Centre on St Helen's Street, Ipswich. It is free to attend, refreshments will be provided (if you want to bring some lunch with you, feel free). We will look at the different traditions, theology, festivals, and moral codes found within various types of paganism. For further details see  Facebook Event for Intro to Paganism
Read more

Get my Meaning?

The meaning of life is a topic that has taxed the greatest (and the least able) minds since the dawn of human existence. It was brought to mind again recently in a discussion with a friend who suggested that having a meaning to one’s life was vital to good mental health. Numerous psychologists, philosophers and scholars agree both a sense of purpose, and the degree of spiritual reflection that precedes finding a purpose, are highly beneficial. It is better to have a sense of why you are here than to merely trudge from day to day in a largely pointless routine. In fact, many have argued that just having a purpose in itself is actually far more important than the exact nature of the purpose. One of the key questions in the matter of meaning is the source of that meaning and what is actually more than a linguistic nicety ~ do we discover the meaning of our lives, or create it? That is to say, is the meaning already determined (whether by a god, Wyrd, karma or anything  else) and ther
Read more