The Ballad of Reading Gaol and Other Poems

by Oscar Wilde

In 1895, Oscar Wilde was sentenced to two years' hard labour after being convicted for gross indecency. In 'The Ballad of Reading Gaol' he recounts the torments, both mental and physical, he endured during those trying years.

This collection includes several of his other greatest poems, such as 'The Burden of Itys', 'Ravenna', and 'The Garden of Eros'. By turns touching, optimistic, heart-breaking, and thought-provoking, the poems draw upon both Wilde's own experiences and his interpretations of Irish myths and legends.

At times satirical and witty, yet also acutely observant, Oscar Wilde's voice continues to captivate readers to this day.

Genres: Poetry, Classics, Fiction, Literature, Irish Literature, LGBT, 19th Century

237 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1896

About the author

Oscar 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.

Reviews

[david · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not too long ago, let us say recently, I thought that Wilde was a charming playwright who wrote prolific, concise, and witty dialogue, unmatched by most. And I was partly right. I totally enjoy the colloquies of the British at the turn of the twentieth century. Actually I cannot get enough of it, sort of like ‘coffee almond fudge’ ice cream. You buy a quart of it and say to yourself, “hmm…this should last for an entire week,” and before that night is out, you have consumed it all. And then you become angry with yourself for lack of discipline. That lasts oh, about one day, and you are back at the market buying another gallon. And that to me, was what Wilde was, ice-cream, albeit no calories.

Then I read that “Lady Windermere's Fan” or whatever it was called, recently, and although it was a play, it was serious and disturbing. How can a man who can make you laugh continuously through many of his works produce a slight of hand like that? “Lady” was amazing and it increased my passion for his works.

Along came yet another freebie (I am not frugal but some of the best books require no physical currency). “The Ballad of Reading Gaol,” I thought may be just another romp. It started with a poem that methought was just a prelude to an enjoyable evening at a faux-theatre (living room). I soon learned that it was rife with poesies. So I stopped, took a breath, and realigned my reading habits. This was to be savored and to do so I must read each word distinctly and in the same cadence as I believed he would like his poetry is to be read.

I impart this. Have you ever been in a ‘zone’ while reading, or jogging, or engaged in something monotonous, and your thoughts are impregnable? You are blind and deaf to anything outside your current realm, because you are fixated on whatever it is at hand? His verses are dreamy, rhapsodic, and rapturous. You want to stay with Wilde longer, but the driver pulls on the reigns and demands that the lorry stop. You have reached the destination, the end of the journey, but you would have preferred a longer ride.

He wrote it, everything, while in Jail.

Oscar W… Is there anything you cannot do with pen and paper?

[Dannii Elle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This anthology of Wilde's poems covered a variety of themes and all were penned in differing styles and lengths. I found all very accessible and solidly enjoyable, with the anthology as a whole being one I was able to fly through because every one felt so different from those surrounding it. The titular title, 'The Ballad of Reading Gaol' numbered among one of my favourites and was also one of the lengthier inclusions.

[The Nutmeg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm tempted to rate this five stars just because The Ballad of Reading Gaol is in it. And The Ballad of Reading Gaol is possibly the most beautiful thing I've ever read by Oscar?

But, well, see, The Sphynx is also in it, and The Sphynx is...creepy and macabre and decadent. And while I was reading it I didn't like it. Until I got to the end. And then I wanted to love that blasted poem. Except that, no matter how beautiful and sad the ending is, the middle of it still involves seriously creepy imagery, so...yeah four stars seems fair.

ANYWHO.

Very good poetry.

[Kobi · Rating 2 out of 5]

“For he who lives more lives than one more deaths than one must die.”

I reeeeaaaally wanted to love this, but I was so let down by the majority of these poems that I really couldn't give this over 2 stars, as much as I would have liked to have rated it higher. Going into this I had extremely high hopes, because 'The Ballad of Reading Gaol' is one of my favourite pieces of literature of all time, but everything just seemed dull in comparison. I have so much respect for Oscar Wilde as an artist, but sadly this just didn't work for my pea-sized brain!

[Rizal · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love The Ballad of Reading Gaol poem so much as it felt really 'personal' when I read it. The Ballad of Reading Gaol is actually a poem that Oscar Wilde wrote when he was imprisoned, and this specific poem (thus the title) is an event of his feelings/emotions there. It was dark, honest, heartbreaking and definitely, beautifully written.

However, I can't say much about other poems in this book. I'm not feeling it when I read it. Although, there are some titles like The Garden of Eros and Le Reveillon that I am very much enjoyed.

"And all men kill the thing they love,
By all let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword!"
- Excerpt from The Ballad of Reading Gaol poem.

[Reem Ghabbany · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll probably read this again after I read Homer's epics
such eloquence and beauty
Oscar Wilde never fails me

[Noura · Rating 4 out of 5]

This haunting and beautiful poem was inspired by Wilde’s observations at Reading prison, where he served a two-year sentence in 1895. As usual, he manages to effortlessly hit the mark by being a magician with words. Thought-provoking, melancholic and devastating, but not devoid of grace.

(This collection includes other poems that are just as worthy of your time and attention but if you’re going to read one Oscar Wilde poem once in your lifetime, let it be The Ballad of Reading Gaol).

[Abbi · Rating 5 out of 5]

woah
“Sweet, I blame you not, for mine the fault was, had I
not been made of common clay
I had climbed the higher heights unclimbed yet, seen
the fuller air, the larger day.
From the wildness of my wasted passion I had struck a
better, clearer song,
Lit some lighter light of freer freedom, battled with
some Hydra-headed wrong.
Had my lips been smitten into music by the kisses that
but made them bleed,
You had walked with Bice and the angels on that ver-
dant and enamelled mead.
I had trod the road which Dante treading saw the suns
of seven circles shine,
Ay! perchance had seen the heavens opening, as they
opened to the Florentine.
And the mighty nations would have crowned me, who am crownless now and without name,

And some onent dawn had found me kneeling on the threshold of the House of Fame.
I had sat within that marble circle where the oldest bard
is as the young,
And the pipe is ever dropping honey, and the lytes
strings are ever strung.
Keats had lifted up his hymeneal curls from out the
poppy-seeded wine,
With ambrosial mouth had kissed my forehead, clasped the hand of noble love in mine.
And at springtide, when the apple-blossoms brush the
burnished bosom of the dove,
Two young lovers lying in an orchard would have read
the story of our love.
Would have read the legend of my passion, known the
bitter secret of my heart,
Kissed as we have kissed, but never parted as we two are
fated now to part.
For the crimson flower of our life is eaten by the canker-
worm of truth
And no hand can gather up the fallen petals of the
withered rose of youth.
let I am not sorry that I loved you—ah ! what else had I
a boy to do, —
For the hungry teeth of time devour, and the silent-
footed years pursue.
Rudderless, we drift athwart a tempest, and when once
the storm of youth is past,
Without lyre, without lute or chorus, Death the silent
pilot comes at last.
And within the grave there is no pleasure, for the blind-
worm battens on the root,
And Desire shudders into ashes, and the tree of Passion
bears no fruit.
Ah! what else had I to do but love you, God's own
mother was less dear to me,
And less dear the Cytheræan rising like an argent lily
trom the sea.

I have made my choice, have lived my poems, and, though youth is gone in wasted days,
I have found the lover's crown of myrtle better than the
poet's crown of bays.”

[Asun · Rating 4 out of 5]

The 4 stars are mostly for The Ballad of Reading Gaol, The Grave of Keats and the final poem with the name in Greek I cannot pronounce - these three are beautiful. The rest of poems - as much as I love Wilde - did not stand out particularly (it might also have to do with the fact that a lot of them revolve around mythology and my knowledge only goes so far). However, I still believe Wilde was a better playwright and novelist than a poet.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such mastery.. but the hold that daffodils and Greek mythology have on 19th century men.

[Noy · Rating 2 out of 5]

a lil sophisticated. but still hitting on some poems ngl

[Stephan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oscar Wildes sufferings really enrages the reader against the system of society in this book. I really loved Wilde’s style in poetry. There was so much pain and disappointment at the loss of humanity’s morals, felt through his letters. His emphasis on beauty of art is felt particularly in The Ballad of Reading Gaol, which he wrote in prison. But the entire book evokes sentiments and human compassion. Heart-breaking, subversive of bias and injustice, poetical.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 star rating purely on the basis of The Ballad of Reading Gaol - clearly in a different league to the rest of the poems included here. Whilst I greatly enjoyed the music and imagery of many of the poems, with a few notable exceptions - I found many of the poems somewhat impenetrable, overly whimsical and relying very heavily on a knowledge of various archaic legends and mythologies. I absolutely loved The Ballad of Reading Gaol though - very powerful and greatly engaging, truly a classic.

[Sandra (folded.between.pages.of.books) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately this was not really my cup of tea... though I did like the main poem!

[✨ vanessa | effiereads ✨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

"And all men kill the thing they love,
By all let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword!"

If you are an Oscar Wilde fan, you cannot forget to read one of his most harrowing and insightful poems, 'The Ballad of Reading Gaol'. In this collection it also included some other faves like 'My Voice' and 'Santa Decca' and 'The Grave of Keats'.

[Montse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tan dolorosamente hermoso.

[christine ♡ · Rating 5 out of 5]

the best ❤

[cherry · Rating 4 out of 5]

"All the live world's throbbing heart shall be one with our heart, the stealthy creeping years have lost their terrors now, we shall not die, the universe itself shall be our immortality!"

[Anna Elissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've long been intrigued by Oscar Wilde since I read The Picture of Dorian Gray. Moreover, there are some Catholic articles out there that referenced him as one of the best Catholic writers one must look out for. Yes yes, I know Wilde wasn't Catholic in the holiest sense of the word, but Wilde—the person and the work—represents the chronic battle between faith and sin, between noble aspirations and sensuous inclinations, between true love and worldly lies. This is reflected in Dorian Gray of course, and apparently also in many of his poems.

A good poetry book is actually more demanding than a fiction. You can't just read a bulk number of poems then go do other activities. No! You need to read one or two in one sitting, ponder them, annotate them with notes of metrics, rhymes, ideas, new vocabs... ponder them again, maybe even re-read them once more, and then you do other activities. And I thought my reading comprehension had suddenly dropped, LOL.

I enjoyed this anthology IMMENSELY. The title piece, "The Ballad of Reading Gaol", IS the star of the dish. My other favourites are "Sonnet to Liberty" (a short one that makes you think twice about the concept of freedom) and "The Garden of Eros" (gorgeous descriptions of the simple nature). References to the Holy Eucharist, Our Lord, and Our Lady are scattered here and there, mostly subtle and slight, but still devotional and will certainly tug at your heartstrings.

I feel somewhat guilty even now that there are a few pieces that I skipped or skimmed, mostly the Greek-y ones. It's simply because I didn't "get" them. Wilde seems to be particularly resourceful in Greek mythology and history; I like those but not THAT much. I even researched whether my experience was normal (answer: it was!). I might go back to these unread ones anyways, but for now I consider that the book is finished! Yay!

[g ✰ · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great pocket read! And a treat to read out loud, as always with Oscar Wilde. Very interesting rhyming devices. The main poem is amazing, and is darker and more apathetic than Wilde's usual work.

[Vanda Dien · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Ballad of Reading Gaol is my fave poem!!! i really really love it! Wilde was a genius

excerpt: The Ballad of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde

Yet each man kills the thing he loves
By each let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword!

Some kill their love when they are young,
And some when they are old;
Some strangle with the hands of Lust,
Some with the hands of Gold:
The kindest use a knife, because
The dead so soon grow cold.

Some love too little, some too long,
Some sell, and others buy;
Some do the deed with many tears,
And some without a sigh:
For each man kills the thing he loves,
Yet each man does not die.

[Tracey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a poem but also a story. I understand that Oscar Wilde was imprisoned when he wrote this and you can tell. The whole poem is beautiful, dark, and just breathtaking. Anyone who has never read this poem, it is a must. It is a very powerful poem and will haunt you for years. I still read it and it moves me just as much each time. I think Oscar Wilde is my favorite writer and this is absolutely my fav.

[Bettie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Powerful poem about hanging - as inspired by a fellow inmate in prison. Introduced by Roger McGough and read by Sam West.

[Snufkin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wilde is a real enchanter, and his poetry is full of beauty. Even the most painful sensations are expressed so melodiously, he manages to create wonder in every line...

[Erica · Rating 5 out of 5]

I reccomend reading it out loud, with a group of friends, outside in a grassy area.

[Senita Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the poems inc the title poem were great but the collection was quite uneven and a few of the longer poems were quite dull.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

NB It wasn't actually the Penguin Kindle edition that I read, but I can't remember where I got my freebie edition of this collection from: it was either Amazon or Project Gutenberg...

As Australia trudges through the sordid process of conducting a government sponsored poll of popular opinion on gay marriage, I read a collection of Oscar Wilde’s poems in a collection titled after his most famous poem, ‘The Ballad of Reading Gaol’. The circumstances of Wilde’s imprisonment are well known, but they are a salutary reminder that homosexual law reform in Australia has been slow in coming and that living among us there are people who have been convicted and punished under archaic laws inherited from Britain. (It is only recently that the Andrews government in Victoria has passed legislation to expunge these old convictions). Wilde’s poem also reminds us that there are still too many places around the world where it is perilous to have same-sex relationships.

The collection contains many gems showing us a different side of Wilde. These are not the arch, witty, satirical words of the man who wrote The Importance of Being Earnest. These poems show Wilde in a reflective mood, and often religious in tone: it’s a pity that none of them are dated in the freebie Kindle edition I read. I can quote them here because they are well out of copyright.

Sonnet On Hearing The Dies Irae Sung In The Sistine Chapel

[The Dies Irae has been set to exquisite music by Verdi and Mozart, and having gazed awestruck at the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel while surrounded shoulder-to-shoulder by other tourists, I can only dream about listening to the Dies Irae or any other hymn in the chapel as it was intended to be used. But Wilde in this poem is foreshadowing the doubt about the overemphasis on judgement, fear and despair at the expense of faith and hope in the Dies Irae which led to it being expunged from the Roman Catholic liturgy as part of the Vatican II reforms, more than half a century later.]

Sonnet On Hearing The Dies Irae Sung In The Sistine Chapel

Nay, Lord, not thus! white lilies in the spring,
Sad olive-groves, or silver-breasted dove,
Teach me more clearly of Thy life and love
Than terrors of red flame and thundering.
The hillside vines dear memories of Thee bring:
A bird at evening flying to its nest
Tells me of One who had no place of rest:
I think it is of Thee the sparrows sing.
Come rather on some autumn afternoon,
When red and brown are burnished on the leaves,
And the fields echo to the gleaner’s song,
Come when the splendid fulness of the moon
Looks down upon the rows of golden sheaves,
And reap Thy harvest: we have waited long.

To see the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2017/10/01/t...

[John M · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 1895 Oscar Wilde was convicted of “gross indecency,” that is, sex with other men, and sentenced to two years of hard labor. While in prison a former Royal House Guard, Charles Thomas Wooldridge, was incarcerated in the same jail for slitting his cheating wife’s throat and later brutally hanged. Wilde was so moved by that knowledge and the fact that the two men shared the same daily routine of walking around the jail yard that he wrote this emotional, dramatic and unforgettable poem. The hard labor broke Wilde’s health and not long after his release in 1897 he died. He must have been mentally writing the poem while still in Reading as he rapidly wrote it down a first draft after his release, first published under a pseudonym, C.3.3, his prison cell number and official identification designation.

The ballad roughly follows the prisoner through the three-week waiting period from sentencing to execution and the feelings of Wilde, the condemned man and presumably the other prisoners during that period and the day of the hanging. It very much reminds me of a day when I was a college student at Penn State. The university is very close to the state prison where executions were performed. One morning, a morning when an electrocution was performed all of a sudden the lights dimmed in our house, giving us the feeling that we were part of the execution. We knew exactly when they applied the electricity for the execution. It was an awful, a terrible feeling to think we were part of a man’s death. Wilde does the same for trooper Wooldridge’s death in poetry form. The horror of a fellow prisoner dying horribly and dumped in an anonymous hole within the prison confines.

I won’t go into the academic description of the ballad but just note that as you read it aloud or simply read it silently, the words hammer their way into your brain like a blacksmith’s hammer crashing down on a red-hot slab of iron. Every word emits a measure of the pain Wilde felt while incarcerated and for Wooldridge as Wilde watched the condemned guard walk, each step a step closer to the hangman’s noose. It is a monument to Wilde’s sense of empathy.

Do not read this in Winter or on a cloudy day.

[Lourdes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciate The Ballad of Reading Gaol poem because it seemed so 'close' to me when I first read it. It is a poem written by Oscar Wilde when he was imprisoned, and this particular poem is an event of his emotions from that period. It was bleak, frank, tragic, and unquestionably well-written.

Aside from that, the rest of the poems whizzed by without leaving an impression on me. It could be my inability to understand the depth of some poems, or it could be the difference in eras when the book was written and when I read it.

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘥
𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘰 𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘪𝘦.
𝘠𝘦𝘵 𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘬��𝘭𝘭𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘴
𝘉𝘺 𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘭𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘣𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘥,
𝘚𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘥𝘰 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘣𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬,
𝘚𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘧𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥,
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘬𝘪𝘴𝘴,
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘴𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘥!
𝘚𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘨,
𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘭𝘥;
𝘚𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘭𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘓𝘶𝘴𝘵,
𝘚𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘎𝘰𝘭𝘥:
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘢 𝘬𝘯𝘪𝘧𝘦, 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦
𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘴𝘰 𝘴𝘰𝘰𝘯 𝘨𝘳𝘰𝘸 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘥.
𝘚𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦, 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨,
𝘚𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘴𝘦𝘭𝘭, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘣𝘶𝘺;
𝘚𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘥𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴,
𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘢 𝘴𝘪𝘨𝘩:
𝘍𝘰𝘳 𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘴,
𝘠𝘦𝘵 𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘥𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘥𝘪𝘦.
- except from The Ballad of Reading Gaol

[actuallymercutio · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve always enjoyed Oscar Wilde’s writings, he was the first classic writer I’ve ever loved. His words are always so thought provoking and so philosophical to a great level. Oscar was always described as a charming and fun person and looking at any of his plays or his life you can definitely see that he truly was an extraordinarily amusing person to be around. However, give him a pen and a paper and leave him alone with his thinking and he will leave you at shatters with what his mind is capable of. The way he saw the world and people was a most extraordinary one and the way he can bring you into it with a novel or a poem is just amazing. This collection of his poetry completely left me speechless and not just because of how brilliant it was with rhymes and themes, but because as a queer person I felt like I was sharing his pain. Obviously, he had it harder as he was literally imprisoned for it but still, I felt represented in his work. It’s always so sad to think, how he died without being actually appreciated, how most people hated him and judged his work. I wish he could be around now and see how loved he is, how everyone who had the luck to come across his words cannot help but love him