Lays and Legends (Second Series)

audiobook

Lays and Legends (Second Series)

by E. (Edith) Nesbit

EN·~1 hours·1 chapter

Chapters

1 total

Transcriber's note:

1:42:00

Description

A richly textured anthology of verse, this collection opens with a bridal ballad that weaves together the intoxicating swirl of wine, jewels, and a doomed romance. The poet’s language retains its original hyphenation and accented spellings, lending an authentic, almost tactile feel to each stanza. From the echo of a lover’s poisoned kiss to the mournful confession of a betrayed heart, the early pieces set a tone of passionate intensity.

The next section shifts to a haunting, lyrical meditation on loss and memory, where the speaker wanders leaf‑strewn woods and listens for a ghost’s whispered presence. The poems blend natural imagery with spiritual yearning, capturing the tension between earthly longing and the promise of something beyond. Their cadence is both soothing and unsettling, inviting listeners to linger in the quiet spaces between lines.

Throughout, the work balances medieval motifs with a Victorian sensibility, exploring themes of love, betrayal, and the search for meaning amid fleeting pleasures. Its varied forms—ballads, elegies, moral dialogues—offer a mosaic of voices that feel both timeless and intimately personal. Listeners will find themselves drawn into a world where every rhyme carries the weight of history and the whisper of a hidden soul.

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Details

Language

en

Duration

~1 hours (97K characters)

Publisher of text edition

Project Gutenberg

Credits

Produced by Mary Akers, Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

Release date

Dec 23, 2012

Rights

Public domain in the USA.

About the author

E. (Edith) Nesbit

E. (Edith) Nesbit

1858–1924

Best known for blending everyday family life with sudden magic and adventure, this classic author helped shape modern children's fantasy. Her stories, including The Railway Children and Five Children and It, still feel lively, funny, and warmly human.

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