When Did Oscar Wilde Write “The Ballad Of Reading Gaol”?

This long poem was published in 1898, less than a year after the author was released from prison. Although Wilde is now better known as a playwright, in his own time he published quantities of verse. Of all his poems, only "Reading Gaol" is much read today. Its style is completely different from that of his earlier poetry, which was usually very ornate and full of classical allusions. This poem is written as simply as possible, and in it Wilde identifies fully with the mostly poor and disadvantaged people he knew in prison: there are frequent references to "we prisoners."

A ballad must tell a story, and Wilde's poem focuses on the execution of a former soldier who had murdered his wife; "The poor dead woman whom he loved/ And murdered in her bed." It ends with a claim that we are all guilty and all in need of mercy; "For each man kills the thing he loves…The coward does it with a kiss/ The brave man with a sword."

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