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...
Reproduction of the original: The Ballad of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde
The Ballad of Reading Gaol is a poem by Oscar Wilde, written in exile in Berneval-le-Grand, after his release from Reading Gaol (/rɛ.dɪŋ.dʒeɪl/) on 19 May 1897.
The Ballad of Reading Gaol tells the story of an execution he witnessed while there of a man who killed his wife. It is powerful and haunting, and Wilde’s pain seeps through with every word.
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From the corner of the divan of Persian saddle-bags on which he was lying, smoking, as was his custom, innumerable cigarettes, Lord Henry Wotton could just catch the gleam of the honey-sweet and honey-coloured blossoms of a laburnum, whose ...
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations.
The Ballad of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde