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La ballata del carcere e altre poesie
«Dans la geôle de Reading, près la ville,
Est une fosse d'infamie :
C'est là que gît un homme misérable
Dévoré par des dents de flamme ;
Dans un suaire brûlant il repose,
Et sa tombe n'a pas de nom.»
Inspiré par deux années passées dans les prisons londoniennes pour «actes indécents», Oscar Wilde raconte dans ces vers bouleversants comme un long cauchemar la douleur, l'angoisse, la culpabilité.
Est une fosse d'infamie :
C'est là que gît un homme misérable
Dévoré par des dents de flamme ;
Dans un suaire brûlant il repose,
Et sa tombe n'a pas de nom.»
Inspiré par deux années passées dans les prisons londoniennes pour «actes indécents», Oscar Wilde raconte dans ces vers bouleversants comme un long cauchemar la douleur, l'angoisse, la culpabilité.
- GenresPoetry
203 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1991
2 people are currently reading
62 people want to read
About the author
Oscar Wilde
5,530 books38.9k followersOscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is best remembered for his epigrams and plays, his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, and his criminal conviction for gross indecency for homosexual acts.
Wilde's parents were Anglo-Irish intellectuals in Dublin. In his youth, Wilde learned to speak fluent French and German. At university, he read Greats; he demonstrated himself to be an exceptional classicist, first at Trinity College Dublin, then at Magdalen College, Oxford. He became associated with the emerging philosophy of aestheticism, led by two of his tutors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin. After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles.
Wilde tried his hand at various literary activities: he wrote a play, published a book of poems, lectured in the United States and Canada on "The English Renaissance" in art and interior decoration, and then returned to London where he lectured on his American travels and wrote reviews for various periodicals. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversational skill, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day. At the turn of the 1890s, he refined his ideas about the supremacy of art in a series of dialogues and essays, and incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty into what would be his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). Wilde returned to drama, writing Salome (1891) in French while in Paris, but it was refused a licence for England due to an absolute prohibition on the portrayal of Biblical subjects on the English stage. Undiscouraged, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful playwrights of late-Victorian London.
At the height of his fame and success, while An Ideal Husband (1895) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) were still being performed in London, Wilde issued a civil writ against John Sholto Douglas, the 9th Marquess of Queensberry for criminal libel. The Marquess was the father of Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. The libel hearings unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and criminal prosecution for gross indecency with other males. The jury was unable to reach a verdict and so a retrial was ordered. In the second trial Wilde was convicted and sentenced to two years' hard labour, the maximum penalty, and was jailed from 1895 to 1897. During his last year in prison he wrote De Profundis (published posthumously in abridged form in 1905), a long letter that discusses his spiritual journey through his trials and is a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure. On the day of his release, he caught the overnight steamer to France, never to return to Britain or Ireland. In France and Italy, he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), a long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life.
Wilde's parents were Anglo-Irish intellectuals in Dublin. In his youth, Wilde learned to speak fluent French and German. At university, he read Greats; he demonstrated himself to be an exceptional classicist, first at Trinity College Dublin, then at Magdalen College, Oxford. He became associated with the emerging philosophy of aestheticism, led by two of his tutors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin. After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social circles.
Wilde tried his hand at various literary activities: he wrote a play, published a book of poems, lectured in the United States and Canada on "The English Renaissance" in art and interior decoration, and then returned to London where he lectured on his American travels and wrote reviews for various periodicals. Known for his biting wit, flamboyant dress and glittering conversational skill, Wilde became one of the best-known personalities of his day. At the turn of the 1890s, he refined his ideas about the supremacy of art in a series of dialogues and essays, and incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty into what would be his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). Wilde returned to drama, writing Salome (1891) in French while in Paris, but it was refused a licence for England due to an absolute prohibition on the portrayal of Biblical subjects on the English stage. Undiscouraged, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him one of the most successful playwrights of late-Victorian London.
At the height of his fame and success, while An Ideal Husband (1895) and The Importance of Being Earnest (1895) were still being performed in London, Wilde issued a civil writ against John Sholto Douglas, the 9th Marquess of Queensberry for criminal libel. The Marquess was the father of Wilde's lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. The libel hearings unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and criminal prosecution for gross indecency with other males. The jury was unable to reach a verdict and so a retrial was ordered. In the second trial Wilde was convicted and sentenced to two years' hard labour, the maximum penalty, and was jailed from 1895 to 1897. During his last year in prison he wrote De Profundis (published posthumously in abridged form in 1905), a long letter that discusses his spiritual journey through his trials and is a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure. On the day of his release, he caught the overnight steamer to France, never to return to Britain or Ireland. In France and Italy, he wrote his last work, The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), a long poem commemorating the harsh rhythms of prison life.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
July 13, 2015
Avant d'être plongé dans le long poème d'Oscar Wilde, un tas de petits poèmes viennent se blottirent dans nos yeux. Les critiques de l'époque de la première édition de Poèmes jugent le recueil trop peu original. Oscar Wilde, n'égalant pas, selon ces critiques, des poètes tel Milton, Swinburne ou encore Wordsworth, nous délivre ici intimement son soucis d'une forme parfaite, selon des dires, inspiré du poète français Théophile Gautier. Les thèmes sont variés : on parle de christianisme, de paganisme, de grandes capitales, on rend des hommages à de grands artistes. Cependant, tous ont en commun une chose, qui ne peut paraître étonnante chez Wilde, la Beauté.
Arrive ensuite La Ballade de la geôle de Reading. Ce long poème en sept parties écrit par Oscar Wilde lors de son exil en France, après avoir été libéré de la prison de Reading (mai, 1897) où il avait été enfermé 23 heures par jour dans un cachot crasseux et non-éclairé, où il lui était impossible de s'adonner à la lecture ou à l'écriture.
Arrive ensuite La Ballade de la geôle de Reading. Ce long poème en sept parties écrit par Oscar Wilde lors de son exil en France, après avoir été libéré de la prison de Reading (mai, 1897) où il avait été enfermé 23 heures par jour dans un cachot crasseux et non-éclairé, où il lui était impossible de s'adonner à la lecture ou à l'écriture.
August 2, 2021
'Like two doomed ships that pass in storm
We had crossed each other's way:
But we made no sign, we said no word,
We had no word to say;
For we did not meet in the holy night,
But in the shameful day.'
We had crossed each other's way:
But we made no sign, we said no word,
We had no word to say;
For we did not meet in the holy night,
But in the shameful day.'
June 25, 2023
« Pourtant chaque homme tue l'être qu'il aime,
— Que tous entendent ces paroles !
Certains le font avec un regard dur,
D'autres avec un mot flatteur;
Le lâche, lui, tue avec un baiser,
Et le brave avec une épée ! »
— Que tous entendent ces paroles !
Certains le font avec un regard dur,
D'autres avec un mot flatteur;
Le lâche, lui, tue avec un baiser,
Et le brave avec une épée ! »
August 19, 2020
So sad, among the best book I read this year 2020.
January 25, 2023
Le dernier chant d'Oscar Wilde : poignant.
April 15, 2024
C’è qualcosa che quest’uomo non sappia scrivere??
December 7, 2024
Mais ça !!! C’est excellent.
February 19, 2025
agréable lecture, poignante
August 27, 2025
Très belle écriture (lu en traduction) un poème qui serre le cœur et fait ressentir l'angoisse des condamnés à mort.
May 9, 2023
La ballata del carcere è stata capace di emozionarmi quasi a ogni verso.
Le immagini create sono potenti, passionali.
Fa riflettere su quello che è un crimine e quale sia la vita del peccatore ora vittima.
Le immagini create sono potenti, passionali.
Fa riflettere su quello che è un crimine e quale sia la vita del peccatore ora vittima.
October 25, 2014
Le style de Wilde est incomparable. Un vrai bonheur.
May 22, 2024
« Le lâche tue d’un baiser
Et le brave d’un coup d’épée ! ».
Et le brave d’un coup d’épée ! ».
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews