This might have pushed him to do something he wouldn’t have done if he were in his senses.

The blood part is obvious, but perhaps “wine” indicates that the inmate was intoxicated when he committed the crime. It speaks of the man who killed the thing he loved, and how his hands were tainted with “blood and wine”. In this stanza, the essence of the actual murder is captured. It clearly seems to be because the speaker yearns to humanize the act of the inmate. One of the most interesting things about this poem is the way there is a reiteration of the fact that the man killed “the thing he loved”. The first stanza begins with the description of the “blood and wine” incident, or the murder by the inmate of the thing he loved. The poem consists of 109 stanzas that are categorized into 6 parts. While the title says Ballad, the poem almost seems to be an elegy to lament and question the death of his inmate. This poem was essentially written about Oscar Wilde’s experiences in the prison, or rather, one very specific incident that shocked him profoundly, the execution of his inmate. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own. © 2020 Ragged Hand (Ebook): 9781528791274These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. Ragged Hand is proudly republishing this classic poem now complete with a specially-commissioned new biography of the author.

Other notable works by this author include: “Picture of Dorian Gray” (1890), “Salome” (1891), and “The Importance of Being Earnest” (1895). He was famously imprisoned for homosexual acts from 1895 to 1897 and died at the age of 46, just three years after his release. Well-known for his sharp wit and extravagant attire, Wilde was a proponent of aestheticism and wrote in a variety of forms including poetry, fiction, and drama. Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (1854–1900) was an Irish poet and playwright who became one of the most popular in London during the 1880s and 1890s. Within the poem, Wilde narrates the execution in full and explores the brutal nature of the punishment that all inmates must endure. Composed after his release from the titular prison whilst he was in exile in Berneval-le-Grand, the poem deals with the hanging at Reading Goal of Charles Thomas Wooldridge, a 30-year-old man who was imprisoned for cutting his wife's throat. Originally published in 1898, “The Ballad of Reading Gaol” is a poem written by Oscar Wilde.

The reading gaol