In this installment, Alan Halsey reads "Song in the Air" by Thomas Lovell Beddoes. Halsey's books include The Text of Shelley's Death (1995), Wittgenstein's Devil: Selected Writing 1978-98 (2000) and Marginalien (2005). His edition of the later text of Beddoes's Death's Jest-Book was published by West House Books in 2003, and his several essays on Beddoes's life & work have appeared in various journals & pamphlets. Learn more about him here.

Thomas Lovell Beddoes, "Song in the Air"

The moon doth mock and make me crazy,
And midnight tolls her horrid claim
On ghostly homage. Fie, for shame!
Deaths, to stand painted there so lazy.
There's nothing but the stars about us,
And they're no tell-tales, but shine quiet:
Come out, and hold a midnight riot,
Where no mortal fool dare flout us:
And, as we rattle in the moonlight pale;
Wanderers shall think 'tis the nightingale.