#14: "Locksley Hall" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Today I'm reading "Locksley Hall" and "Locksley Hall Sixty Years After". I used to really like "Locksley Hall", and thought that the love story was irrelevant and that certain distasteful opinions of the protagonist disfigured it. Now I think that the fact that the love story would never work and the opinions are stupid... is maybe the point. The protagonist thinks he's a great lover (and Amy was smart to get shed of him). He thinks he's a great liberal (and really, he's an elitist who despises just about everyone). In "Locksley Hall Sixty Years Later", he's grown up to learn a little sense, but really, I think he still needs a good smacking.

And yet, both poems are well worth a listen. It's amazing how much you can like and disagree with something at the same time.

"For I dipt into the future, far as human eye could see,
Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be;

Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails,
Pilots of the purple twilight dropping down with costly bales...."

If you get tired of the sound of my voice, you can read "Locksley Hall" and "Locksley Hall Sixty Years Later" online.

MANUAL DOWNLOAD HERE:
"Locksley Hall" (1842)
"Locksley Hall Sixty Years Later" (1886)

49 min. ("Locksley Hall" is a lot shorter than the sequel.)