On his release from prison in 1897 he lived in obscurity in Europe, and died in Paris in 1900. The poem narrates the execution of Wooldridge. Wildes ‘dramatic and picturesque effect’ in The Ballad of Reading Gaol is served by the ‘scarlet’ of the uniform, but it discards historical accuracy and may confuse by weakening the truth of his poem. Wilde spent mid-1897 with Robert Ross in Berneval-le-Grand, where he wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaol. He was convicted of cutting the throat of his wife, Laura Ellen. The charges stemmed from his affair with Lord Alfred Douglas, the son of the Marquis of Queensberry. During his imprisonment, a hanging took place.Ĭharles Thomas Wooldridge had been a trooper in the Royal Horse Guards. Wildes meditation on capital punishment, the Ballad of Reading Gaol comes after he was convicted and imprisoned under charges of gross indecency. Wilde had been incarcerated in Reading after being convicted of homosexual offences in 1895. Heres a virtual movie of Oscar Wilde reading the first 7 stanzas of his much loved poem 'The Ballad of Reading Gaol'. In 1895, Oscar Wilde was sentenced to two years of hard labor as punishment for having engaged in homosexual acts. “The Ballad of Reading Gaol is a poem by Oscar Wilde, written in exile either in Berneval-le-Grand or in Dieppe, France, after his release from Reading Gaol in 1897. Because of this, the soft sound a watch makes is brutal and agonizing. For him, what goes unnoticed by the others, namely the passing of time, is a painful reminder of the things that will eventually happen. Although I like to think of this poem as more of a story but that is just my persepective. The ticking of a wrist watch is compared to the sound a hammer blow makes for the inmate who is sentenced to death. The poem is titled “The Ballad of Reading Gaol.” And boy is it a long poem. This week I have picked number 16 from the top 100 Irish poems list.

Wilde the ballad of reading gaol