Soon, the poet learns about the fact that the inmate has been sentenced to death. Later on, the poet describes the psychological condition of the prisoner. It is completely clear by now that the crime has been done with consent. These incidents are placed close together for contrasting by the poet with his repenting attitude towards the crime he committed. In the second part, the poet describes the hardships the inmate is facing. This might have compelled him to do something he wouldn’t have committed or even think of it if he were in his senses. The “blood” obviously symbolizes the blood of his wife, but the “wine” symbolizes that he is intoxicated during the time of committing the crime. It talks about the inmate who has killed his wife, the thing he loved, and how his hand are contaminated with “blood and wine”. Later in this stanza, the complete murder scene is portrayed. It is only because the speaker wishes to humanize the act of the prisoner. Interestingly the poem repeatedly emphasizes the fact that the inmate has murdered “the thing he loved”. was actually Wilde.The ballad starts with describing the “blood and wine” incident which symbolizes murder by the inmate of Oscar Wilde. It was not commonly known, until the 7th printing in June 1899, that C.3.3. This ensured that Wilde's name – by then notorious – did not appear on the poem's front cover. The finished poem was published by Leonard Smithers in 1898 under the name C.3.3., which stood for cell block C, landing 3, cell 3. This had a profound effect on Wilde, inspiring the line 'Yet each man kills the thing he loves.' He was convicted of cutting the throat of his wife, Laura Ellen, earlier that year at Clewer, near Windsor. 1866 – 7 July 1896) had been a trooper in the Royal Horse Guards. Wilde had been incarcerated in Reading, after being convicted of homosexual offences in 1895 and sentenced to two years' hard labour in prison.ĭuring his imprisonment, on Saturday 7 July 1896, a hanging took place.

The Ballad of Reading Gaol is a poem by Oscar Wilde, written in exile either in Berneval or in Dieppe, France, after his release from Reading Gaol on or about.

The ballad of gaol