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Poems, with The Ballad of Reading Gaol
English BooksWhale Edition by Oscar Wilde
A public-domain Oscar Wilde poetry collection including The Ballad of Reading Gaol and earlier poems on beauty, desire, liberty, art, faith, and suffering.
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Poems, with The Ballad of Reading Gaol
Poems, with The Ballad of Reading Gaol gathers Oscar Wilde’s lyrical poetry together with his powerful late prison poem. The collection presents Wilde’s musical language, classical imagery, aesthetic imagination, political feeling, and moral intensity in a fuller English poetry edition suitable for readers seeking more than the short standalone ballad.
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This edition is based on a public domain text and has been prepared for digital reading by BooksWhale.
Public domain basis
Why this edition can be shared
Oscar Wilde died in 1900, and this English public-domain collection was published from early Wilde poems together with The Ballad of Reading Gaol before 1929. These dates support the public-domain basis for the original English text used in this edition.
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Poems, with The Ballad of Reading Gaol
Oscar Wilde
Preview chapterPOEMSPreview
POEMS
Preview chapterHÉLAS!Preview
TO _drift with every passion till my soul_
_Is a stringed lute on which all winds can play_,
_Is it for this that I have given away_
_Mine ancient wisdom, and austere control_?
_Methinks my life is a twice-written scroll_
_Scrawled over on some boyish holiday_
_With idle songs for pipe and virelay_,
_Which do but mar the secret of the whole_.
_Surely there was a time I might have trod_
_The sunlit heights, and from life’s dissonance_
_Struck one clear chord to reach the ears of God_:
_Is that time dead_? _lo_! _with a little rod_
_I did but touch the honey of romance_—
_And must I lose a soul’s inheritance_?
Table of contents
Inside this edition
- 01Full text
- 02POEMS
- 03HÉLAS!
- 04ELEUTHERIA
- 05SONNET TO LIBERTY
- 06AVE IMPERATRIX
- 07TO MILTON
- 08LOUIS NAPOLEON
- 09SONNET
- 10ON THE MASSACRE OF THE CHRISTIANS IN BULGARIA
- 11QUANTUM MUTATA
- 12LIBERTATIS SACRA FAMES
- 13THEORETIKOS
- 14THE GARDEN OF EROS
- 15ROSA MYSTICA
- 16REQUIESCAT
- 17AVIGNON.
- 18SONNET ON APPROACHING ITALY
- 19TURIN.
- 20SAN MINIATO
- 21AVE MARIA GRATIA PLENA
- 22FLORENCE.
- 23ITALIA
- 24VENICE.
- 25SONNET
- 26WRITTEN IN HOLY WEEK AT GENOA
- 27ROME UNVISITED
- 28I.
- 29II.
- 30III.
- 31IV.
- 32ARONA.
- 33URBS SACRA ÆTERNA
- 34MONTRE MARIO.
- 35SONNET
- 36EASTER DAY
- 37E TENEBRIS
- 38VITA NUOVA
- 39MADONNA MIA
- 40THE NEW HELEN
- 41THE BURDEN OF ITYS
- 42WIND FLOWERS
- 43IMPRESSION DU MATIN
- 44MAGDALEN WALKS
- 45ATHANASIA
- 46SERENADE
- 47(FOR MUSIC)
- 48ENDYMION
- 49(FOR MUSIC)
- 50LA BELLA DONNA DELLA MIA MENTE
- 51CHANSON
- 52CHARMIDES
- 53I.
- 54II.
- 55III
- 56FLOWERS OF GOLD
- 57IMPRESSIONS
- 58I
- 59LES SILHOUETTES
- 60II
- 61LA FUITE DE LA LUNE
- 62THE GRAVE OF KEATS
- 63ROME.
- 64THEOCRITUS
- 65A VILLANELLE
- 66IN THE GOLD ROOM
- 67A HARMONY
- 68BALLADE DE MARGUERITE
- 69(NORMANDE)
- 70THE DOLE OF THE KING’S DAUGHTER
- 71(BRETON)
- 72AMOR INTELLECTUALIS
- 73SANTA DECCA
- 74CORFU.
- 75A VISION
- 76IMPRESSION DE VOYAGE
- 77KATAKOLO.
- 78THE GRAVE OF SHELLEY
- 79ROME.
- 80BY THE ARNO
- 81IMPRESSIONS DE THÉÂTRE
- 82FABIEN DEI FRANCHI
- 83TO MY FRIEND HENRY IRVING
- 84PHÈDRE
- 85TO SARAH BERNHARDT
- 86WRITTEN AT THE LYCEUM THEATRE
- 87I
- 88PORTIA
- 89TO ELLEN TERRY
- 90II
- 91QUEEN HENRIETTA MARIA
- 92TO ELLEN TERRY
- 93III
- 94CAMMA
- 95TO ELLEN TERRY
- 96PANTHEA
- 97Part of the mighty universal whole,
- 98THE FOURTH MOVEMENT
- 99IMPRESSION
- 100LE RÉVEILLON
- 101AT VERONA
- 102APOLOGIA
- 103QUIA MULTUM AMAVI
- 104SILENTIUM AMORIS
- 105HER VOICE
- 106MY VOICE
- 107TÆDIUM VITÆ
- 108HUMANITAD
- 109FLOWER OF LOVE
- 110UNCOLLECTED POEMS
- 111FROM SPRING DAYS TO WINTER
- 112(FOR MUSIC)
- 113TRISTITÆ
- 114THE TRUE KNOWLEDGE
- 115IMPRESSIONS
- 116I
- 117LE JARDIN
- 118II
- 119LA MER
- 120UNDER THE BALCONY
- 121THE HARLOT’S HOUSE
- 122LE JARDIN DES TUILERIES
- 123THE NEW REMORSE
- 124FANTAISIES DÉCORATIVES
- 125I
- 126LE PANNEAU
- 127II
- 128LES BALLONS
- 129CANZONET
- 130SYMPHONY IN YELLOW
- 131IN THE FOREST
- 132TO MY WIFE
- 133WITH A COPY OF MY POEMS
- 134WITH A COPY OF ‘A HOUSE OF POMEGRANATES’
- 135ROSES AND RUE
- 136DÉSESPOIR
- 137PAN
- 138DOUBLE VILLANELLE
- 139I
- 140II
- 141THE SPHINX
- 142TO
- 143MARCEL SCHWOB
- 144IN FRIENDSHIP
- 145AND
- 146IN ADMIRATION
- 147THE SPHINX
- 148THE BALLAD OF READING GAOL
- 149IN MEMORIAM
- 150C. T. W.
- 151SOMETIME TROOPER OF THE ROYAL HORSE GUARDS
- 152OBIIT H.M. PRISON, READING, BERKSHIRE
- 153JULY 7, 1896
- 154THE BALLAD OF READING GAOL
- 155I
- 156II
- 157III
- 158IV
- 159V
- 160VI
- 161RAVENNA
- 162TO MY FRIEND
- 163GEORGE FLEMING
- 164AUTHOR OF
- 165‘THE NILE NOVEL’ AND ‘MIRAGE’
- 166RAVENNA
- 167I.
- 168II.
- 169III.
- 170IV.
- 171V.
- 172VI.
- 173VII.
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