Jenny

“That each prison that men build
Is built with bricks of shame,
And bound with bars lest Christ should see
How men their brothers maim.

With bars that blur the gracious moon,
And blind the goodly sun:
And they do well to hide their Hell,
For in it things are done
That Son of God nor son of Man
Ever should look upon!”
― Oscar Wilde, The Ballad of Reading Gaol and Other Poems

“But neither milk-white rose nor red
May bloom in prison-air:
The shard, the pebble, and the flint,
Are what they give us there:
For flowers have been known to heal
A common man's despair.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Ballad of Reading Gaol and Other Poems

“The vilest deeds like poison weeds
Bloom well in prison-air:
It is only what is good in Man
That wastes and withers there:
Pale Anguish keeps the heavy gate,
And the Warder is Despair.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Ballad of Reading Gaol and Other Poems

“And never a human voice comes near
To speak a gentle word:
And the eye that watches through the door
Is pitiless and hard:
And by all forgot, we rot and rot,
With soul and body marred.”
― Oscar Wilde, The Ballad of Reading Gaol and Other Poems