Quoting Oscar Wilde

I thought I should blog a bit more tonight. I don't blog as often these days, I lack the time (and talent?) to write a great post, so I thought quoting a great writer would be an acceptable compromise. As you probably know, in another lifetime I once studied in Reading, where the great Oscar Wilde was imprisoned, an experience which inspired him to write The Ballad of Reading Gaol. I had already discovered Wilde with The Picture of Dorian Gray, which has been one of my favourite novels since I was 16. When I first arrived at Reading, I knew nothing of the place, save that it had a university where I was going to study and that Oscar Wilde had been in jail there. I grew to love Reading, but I always thought the town had something vaguely sinister. I bought The Ballad of Reading Gaol at the end of my first year there. I like It is one of the greatest pieces of poetry I have ever read, something I genuinely love even though I don't like poetry much. It has been much quoted, it is difficult to do it justice by putting here just a few verses. Here is an attempt anyway:

"Yet each man kills the thing he loves
By each let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword!

Some kill their love when they are young,
And some when they are old;
Some strangle with the hands of Lust,
Some with the hands of Gold:
The kindest use a knife, because
The dead so soon grow cold.

Some love too little, some too long,
Some sell, and others buy;
Some do the deed with many tears,
And some without a sigh:
For each man kills the thing he loves,
Yet each man does not die."

You can find the complete ballad here.