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The Ballad of Reading Gaol Oscar Wilde Sebastian :{D (he has a moustache). From The Ballad of Reading Gaol.
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The Ballad of Reading GaolOscar WildeSebastian :{D (he has a moustache)
From The Ballad of Reading Gaol He did not wear his scarlet coat, For blood and wine are red, And blood and wine were on his hands When they found him with the dead, The poor dead woman whom he loved, And murdered in her bed. He walked amongst the Trial Men In a suit of shabby grey; A cricket cap was on his head, And his step seemed light and gay; But I never saw a man who looked So wistfully at the day. I never saw a man who looked With such a wistful eye Upon that little tent of blue Which prisoners call the sky, And at every drifting cloud that went With sails of silver by. I walked, with other souls in pain, Within another ring, And was wondering if the man had done A great or little thing, When a voice behind me whispered low, "That fellows got to swing." Dear Christ! the very prison walls Suddenly seemed to reel, And the sky above my head became Like a casque of scorching steel; And, though I was a soul in pain, My pain I could not feel. I only knew what hunted thought Quickened his step, and why He looked upon the garish day With such a wistful eye; The man had killed the thing he loved And so he had to die. 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. He does not die a death of shame On a day of dark disgrace, Nor have a noose about his neck, Nor a cloth upon his face, Nor drop feet foremost through the floor Into an empty space
Wilde’s Background Birth name: Oscar FingalO'Flahertie Wills Wilde Birth date: October 16, 1854 Birth place: Dublin, Ireland Nationality: Irish Died: November 30, 1900 (aged 46) in Paris, France Oscar Wilde was imprisoned for homosexuality and sentenced to 2 years of hard labor. When he was released in 1897 he wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaol, to show the public what prison conditions were really like.
Theme and ideas • This poem conveys many themes and ideas to different people. Personally I think its about death, love and loss, mostly. This poem is not just about his experience in jail, there’s so much more in there. After having been released from jail Wilde was a broken man, he had lived through embarrassment, humiliation and many other hardships that had not so much inspired, but influenced him to write The Ballad of Reading Gaol.
Rhythm/Rhyme • The rhyming scheme in this poem is rather strange. It follows a ‘xaxaxa’ pattern and therefore has a rather slow rhythm. The spacing of the lines also puts emphasis on each line and forces the reader to look at it intently rather than just skim over it.
Point of View • The first two and last stanzas of the extract are from the point of view of a narrator, the events are being retold to us in past tense. However the middle part of the extract is written in first person form. I believe this person is the poet, its from Wilde’s point of view as he goes through prison, and in some ways reflects a hard journey that we all have to make through life.
Analysis • “For each man kills the thing he loves” -To me this says that love is not as pure and innocent as it is commonly conceived to be. Love corrupts people and is not ever-lasting. This reflects back to Wilde’s personal life and him living a double life, his love for his gay lover corrupted his marriage and eventually his life.
Analysis • “Some do it with a bitter look” -I believe this is saying that one does not always kill in the literal sense. This could refer to not acknowledging the thing you love, looking the other way. Something as simple as a bitter look can kill.
Analysis • “Some with a flattering word” -In my opinion this refers to womanizers and liars, the kind of people that trick others into love with flattering words and then turn their backs on them.
Analysis • “The coward does it with a kiss” -This could easily refer to killing the thing you love by loving something else. Another possible meaning for this is killing something you love by showing affection too early. But why mention cowardice? Perhaps the coward loves something else but doesn’t show it. Perhaps he is too afraid to and therefore continues to live a lie.
Analysis • “The brave man with a sword!” -This could mean that its better to end it quickly rather than let your loved one suffer, that its better to do it this way rather than the aforementioned methods. I believe that this has some truth to it but do not agree with it entirely. Perhaps Wilde is referring to himself and wishes that he had ended things quickly rather than suffering, lying, deceiving for many years.
