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Aug 4, 2026 1 min

Within and Without

from Ririro.com - Poetry Hosted by Ririro

"Within and Without" by James Russell Lowell sets a blazing Christmas hall against the frozen night outside. While firelight, ivy, and laughter fill the great hall, the aged Sir Launfal is driven from the castle porch by the seneschal's harsh command and left to sit in the gateway all night, watching the warm light flicker through stone window-slits. The poem's fierce contrasts — roaring Yule-log and shrilling wind, festive plenty and shelterless cold — give the scene a stark, almost painful edge. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/ririro-com-poetry--6577576/support.

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Within and Without

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Song Against Songs, The by G. K. Chesterton (1874 - 1936) LibriVox LibriVox volunteers bring you 9 recordings of The Song Against Songs by G. K. Chesterton. This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for October 16, 2011. Chesterton was a large man, standing 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m) and weighing around 21 stone (130 kg; 290 lb). His girth gave rise to a famous anecdote. During World War I a lady in London asked why he was not 'out at the Front'; he replied, 'If you go round to the side, you will see that I am.' On another occasion he remarked to his friend George Bernard Shaw: "To look at you, anyone would think a famine had struck England". Shaw retorted, "To look at you, anyone would think you have caused it". P. G. Wodehouse once described a very loud crash as "a sound like Chesterton falling onto a sheet of tin."( Summary from Wikipedia )

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