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612-822-4611
The Ballad of Reading Gaol

The Ballad of Reading Gaol

Paperback

General PoetryGeneral Sociology

ISBN10: 1646793196
ISBN13: 9781646793198
Publisher: Cosimo Classics
Published: Nov 18 2020
Pages: 64
Weight: 0.17
Height: 0.15 Width: 5.00 Depth: 8.00
Language: English

Like two doomed ships that pass in storm

We had crossed each other's way:

But we made no sign, we said no word,

We had no word to say

-Oscar Wilde, The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898)


The poem The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898) by Oscar Wilde, was inspired by the two years he spent in the jail of Reading Gaol, England. There he experienced the hanging of Royal Horse Guards trooper Charles Thomas Wooldridge, convicted for the murder of his wife. This poem, dedicated to Wooldridge, describes not only his execution, but is also an indictment of the Victorian penal system and a plea for reform of prison conditions.

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