[Oscar Wilde, Volume 2 (of 2) by Frank Harris]@TWC D-Link book
Oscar Wilde, Volume 2 (of 2)

CHAPTER XIX
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There are only a hundred odd pages in the booklet; but it is full of high poetry--sincere and passionate feeling set to varied music.

His friend, Reginald Turner, sent Oscar a copy of the book and one poem in particular made a deep impression on him.

It is said that "his actual model for 'The Ballad of Reading Gaol' was 'The Dream of Eugene Aram' with 'The Ancient Mariner' thrown in on technical grounds"; but I believe that Wilde owed most of his inspiration to "A Shropshire Lad." Here are some verses from Housman's poem and some verses from "The Ballad": On moonlit heath and lonesome bank The sheep beside me graze; And yon the gallows used to clank Fast by the four cross ways.
A careless shepherd once would keep The flocks by moonlight there,[21] And high amongst the glimmering sheep The dead men stood on air.
They hang us now in Shrewsbury jail: The whistles blow forlorn, And trains all night groan on the rail To men that die at morn.
There sleeps in Shrewsbury jail to-night, Or wakes, as may betide, A better lad, if things went right, Than most that sleep outside.
And naked to the hangman's noose The morning clocks will ring A neck God made for other use Than strangling in a string.
And sharp the link of life will snap, And dead on air will stand Heels that held up as straight a chap As treads upon the land.
So here I'll watch the night and wait To see the morning shine When he will hear the stroke of eight And not the stroke of nine; And wish my friend as sound a sleep As lads I did not know, That shepherded the moonlit sheep A hundred years ago.
THE BALLAD OF READING GAOL It is sweet to dance to violins When Love and Life are fair: To dance to flutes, to dance to lutes, Is delicate and rare: But it is not sweet with nimble feet To dance upon the air! And as one sees most fearful things In the crystal of a dream, We saw the greasy hempen rope Hooked to the blackened beam And heard the prayer the hangman's snare Strangled into a scream.
And all the woe that moved him so That he gave that bitter cry, And the wild regrets, and the bloody sweats, None knew so well as I: For he who lives more lives than one More deaths than one must die.
There are better things in "The Ballad of Reading Gaol" than those inspired by Housman.

In the last of the three verses I quote there is a distinction of thought which Housman hardly reached.
"For he who lives more lives than one More deaths than one must die." There are verses, too, wrung from the heart which have a diviner influence than any product of the intellect: The Chaplain would not kneel to pray By his dishonoured grave: Nor mark it with that blessed Cross That Christ for sinners gave, Because the man was one of those Whom Christ came down to save.
* * * * * This too I know--and wise were it If each could know the same-- That every prison that men build Is built with bricks of shame, And bound with bars lest Christ should see How men their brothers maim.
With bars they blur the gracious moon, And blind the goodly sun: And they do well to hide their Hell, For in it things are done That Son of God nor son of man Ever should look upon! The vilest deeds like poison weeds Bloom well in prison-air: It is only what is good in Man That wastes and withers there: Pale Anguish keeps the heavy gate, And the Warder is Despair.
* * * * * And he of the swollen purple throat, And the stark and staring eyes, Waits for the holy hands that took The Thief to Paradise; And a broken and a contrite heart The Lord will not despise.
"The Ballad of Reading Gaol" is beyond all comparison the greatest ballad in English: one of the noblest poems in the language.

This is what prison did for Oscar Wilde.
When speaking to him later about this poem I remember assuming that his prison experiences must have helped him to realise the suffering of the condemned soldier and certainly lent passion to his verse.


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