one of the greatest in the English language." This praise is assuredly not too generous.

Yet even this was due to a revulsion of feeling in regard to Oscar himself rather than to any understanding of the greatness of his work.

The best public felt that he had been dreadfully over-punished, and made a scapegoat for worse offenders and was glad to have the opportunity of repairing its own fault by over-emphasising Oscar's repentance and over-praising, as it imagined, the first fruits of the converted sinner.
"The Ballad of Reading Gaol" is far and away the best poem Oscar Wilde ever wrote; we should try to appreciate it as the future will appreciate it.

We need not be afraid to trace it to its source and note what is borrowed in it and what is original.

After all necessary qualifications are made, it will stand as a great and splendid achievement.
Shortly before "The Ballad" was written, a little book of poetry called "A Shropshire Lad" was published by A.E.Housman, now I believe professor of Latin at Cambridge.