The Ballad of Reading Gaol
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The Ballad of Reading Gaol is a poem by Oscar Wilde, written in exile either in Berneval or Dieppe, France, after his release from Reading Gaol on or about 19 May 1897. Its main theme is the caprice of justice as juxtaposed between that of emotional and physical damage, expressed through its moral and legal execution.[citation needed]
Wilde was incarcerated in HMP Reading, in Reading, Berkshire, after being convicted of homosexual offences in 1895 and sentenced to two years' hard labour in prison.
During his imprisonment, on Saturday 7 July 1896, a hanging took place. This had a profound effect on Wilde. Trooper Charles Thomas Wooldridge had been found guilty of slitting his wife’s throat with a razor and was someone whom Wilde had seen many times during his imprisonment.
The finished poem was published by Leonard Smithers in 1898 under the name C.3.3., which stood for cell block C, landing 3, cell 3. This ensured that Wilde's name - by then notorious - did not appear on the poem's front cover. It was not commonly known, until the seventh printing in June 1899, that C.3.3. was actually Oscar Wilde.[1]
Wilde knew the town of Reading from less troubled times in his life when boating on the Thames and also from visits to the Palmer family, including a tour of the famous Huntley & Palmers biscuit factory quite close to the prison.[citation needed]
Recordings
The noted British actor Sir Donald Sinden CBE (believed to be the last person alive to have known Wilde's lover Bosie, Lord Alfred Douglas), recorded the full version of The Ballad of Reading Gaol, taken from the printed, signed 1st edition that is in his possession. Recorded at Stratosphere Studios, London on 5 March 1987, it was released as a CD.[1][2]
Excerpts
Several quotes from the poem have become famous in their own right:
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!
The following passage has been pointed to as evidence of Wilde's latent Christian sentiment even before his deathbed conversion to Roman Catholicism.[3]
Ah! Happy they whose hearts can break
And peace of pardon win!
How else may man make straight his plan
And cleanse his soul from Sin?
How else but through a broken heart
May Lord Christ enter in?
See also
References
- ^ a b "The Ballad of Reading Gaol". Marc Sinden Productions. Retrieved 2009-08-20.
- ^ Debrett's People of Today. Debrett's Ltd. 2009. ISBN 1870520513.
- ^ The Long Conversion of Oscar Wilde
