The Two Voices - Thoughts of a Suicide - by Alfred Lord Tennyson (read by Tom O'Bedlam)

Tennyson wrote this poem after the death of his beloved friend Arthur Henry Hallam in 1833. This isn't the whole poem - I abridged it to about half the original size. The full poem is here:
poetry.about.com/od/poemsbytit...
In 1833 there were very few atheists: Darwin's Origin of Species was not published until 1859. The only credible explanation for the wonders of nature was that they were created by God. You could drop tiny seeds into ordinary soil, and in a few weeks they would become flowers with colours that were more intense than anything made by man. This apparent miracle seemed to imply the existence of God. People still look at flowers in spring and experience the same sense of wonder.
Suicide - or self-destruction - is actually pro-survival in an evolutionary sense. Evolution works for the genes, not for the individual. Genes encode survival strategies. Survival of the Fittest implies the destruction of the unfit. Misery is negative-feedback: it signifies that your survival strategies are not working. The lethargy and ineffectuality misery induces would in a primitive environment quickly remove you from the gene pool.
The remedy is not to end your life, but to change the circumstances in which you are living. Your genes might work better in a different environment. There are many people who overcame disadvantages and, like Tennyson, came back from the brink of suicide to become happy and successful. Well, happy or not, he was successful and he lived to be 83. Not many Victorians did that.
We inherit the capacity to learn things. For example, genes can't pass on language but they can pass on the ability to learn a language. Language is one of the great advantages of humanity. The sum of human learning and experience rolls forward like a snowball gathering size and weight.
We also inherit the capacity to believe things. At one time, when mankind lived in small communities, common beliefs created bonds between members of a tribe. People who believed the same things would act together against a common threat. Now that people with different beliefs can communicate more freely, beliefs have become the cause of most of mankind's troubles.
The most obvious Belief Systems are religions and superstitions. It's less obvious that social sciences, such as Psychiatry, Politics, Medicine, are substantially Belief Systems. Whatever is currently believed is held to be true and beneficial - even though it is obvious that past beliefs were wrong and dangerous.
There is a persisting maxim that one should fight for one's beliefs. A better maxim would be that one should purge oneself of all beliefs.

[@coombegrove]

This poem was what stopped my own father from taking his life when I was a small child. He ultimately committed suicide some twenty years later. He had shared the importance of this poem with me many years before he died and so it remains important in my own life and I see the value in the second voice each day.

[@Stormgebieder]

My love ended last year her life. She loved poetry, and loved to listen My love has ended her life a few months ago. She loved poetry, and together we often listened to this channel. Art, and certainly poetry, can offer more than a quantum of solace. Thank you.

[@sparklelight]

Let me not cast in endless shade; what is so wonderfully made. Beautiful reading:)

[@lovepeacepoetry]

i, too, went through a particularly rough period. they call(ed) it chronic major depressive disorder. although i no longer attempt suicide, i still occasionally have these conversations in my head. you have a true gift for selecting emotionally stirring works. this is too difficult to stomach all at once - a hallmark of a great work. but what a joy that someone penned the irony of human insight so well. they say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger? the opposite is just as true.

[@arjunamarc]

Definitive reading. Bravo, Maestro. Your voice never gets in the way of the poet's voice but there are echoes of each in the other so that you have refined yourself out of the reading to leave us alone with the poetry itself and all its intensity of controlled and intelligent feeling. No small accomplishment. Thank you.

[@SpokenVerse]

If you mean the notes, then yes, I did. It's a lot less than I intended to write, so maybe I'll add some more notes soon.

[@desdicado999]

My father took his life primarily because he lost the sense of purpose to being here ,he did to want to be reliant on others if he became infirm, though at the time this was not the case his purpose left him. The lithium he was taking most likely didn't help matters.According to the makers of such a substance the possible side effects are to have suicidal tendencies ,nice product !

[@roberthultgren9389]

Doubt not the power of a poem.

[@Mrillustriousone]

I hadn't thought of suicide that way. Your notes are becoming more and more informative, they read well too. Have to say would love to hear some more stories from you, all the ones so far are great, although for what it's worth I have always wanted to hear you read "And the Ass saw the Angel" by Nick Cave, something by Gibson, Burroughs or Patrick White because I think your voice would suit them. And just because I like him something by Hesse, maybe a story from Strange News from Another Star.

[@santasubsify]

You've probably read this 1000 time but you are top class sir. I was wondering if you took requests? Robert Conquest - George Orwell? Thanks for all your posts

[@fiatlux8792]

Thank you

[@mikefuller6959]

GENIUS!

[@mohanvalrani]

Excellent

[@phillipssanjenbam2386]

Thank you,... Tom your pompous deep voice brings the poem alive.

[@rudrapsarkar]

Did you write the above??

[@lordlightning2339]

I really like this one, I had thoughts of suicide as a youth; sometimes, thinking can drive us mad, if we cannot think unto both good and bad. Sometimes we can "get so swept in our sorrows that we may seek a Lethe and drown in our forgetful tears". But I think that cherishing the moment we have on this earth makes all the difference, for we may contemplate the beginning, but we make due to what happens at the end. Our contributions, our dreams are what make this world happy.

[@ZechsMerquise73]

In fact, the idea of willful evolution - I would posit the most populist idea about evolution - is from Lamarck, a pre-Darwinian scientist of his own, arguably debunked, school of thought in biology.

[@jonaxfred]

THX FOR THE READING? THE COMMENTAR I APPRECIATED TOO §§

[@thallassocracy]

For years I thought Lewis Carroll's 'I have a fairy by my side' was a parody of this:- but the dates don't work. A wonderful reading: but I found more food for thought in your notes than in the poem.