Ballad of Reading Gaol, The (version 2)

By Wilde, Oscar

Book Id: WPLBN0002952270
Format Type:
File Size: 20.62 MB
Reproduction Date: 2006

Title:	Ballad of Reading Gaol, The (version 2)
Author:	Wilde, Oscar
Volume:
Language:	English
Subject:	Poetry, Poetry
Collections:	Audio Books Collection, Ballad of Reading Gaol, The (version 2)
Historic Publication Date:	1897
Publisher:	LibriVox Audio Books


Citation APA MLA Chicago Wilde, B. O. (1897). Ballad of Reading Gaol, The (version 2). Retrieved from http://www.self.gutenberg.org/

Description
In 1895, Oscar Wilde was sentenced to 2 years of hard labor for acts of ‘gross indecency’. During his time at Reading Gaol, he witnessed a rare hanging, and in the three years between his release and his untimely death in 1900, was inspired to write the following poem, a meditation on the death penalty and the importance of forgiveness, even for (and especially for) something as heinous as murdering one’s spouse; for even the murderer, Wilde argues, is human and suffers more so for being the cause of his own pain, for ‘having killed the thing he loved’; for everyone is the cause of someone else’s suffering and suffers at the hands of another. It is this that Jesus Christ could see; he could continue to see the beauty of our humanity, despite all that we may do to each other, and encouraged us to love each other just the same. “The Ballad of Reading Gaol” was published in 1898 and would gain Wilde greater recognition as a poet (in addition to being a great playwright); although his only other volume of poetry, one of his earliest works that he’d published, was also well-received. Sadly, ‘The Ballad’ would be his last. (Summary by Linda Leu).

Summary
Electronic recorded live performance of a reading

Excerpt
Poetry