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Poems, with The Ballad of Reading Gaol

By Oscar Wilde

Cover of Poems, with The Ballad of Reading Gaol

Cover: Prisoners Exercising (The Prison Courtyard) (1890), oil on canvas, after Gustave Dor� by Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) · Wikimedia Commons · Public domain (artist died 1890)

Wilde's collected poems, from the early sonnets and Italian pieces through Charmides and The Sphinx to The Ballad of Reading Gaol, his last and best-known poem. That ballad was written after his two years in prison and is a plea against the cruelty of the death penalty.

Summary written with Claude Sonnet 5.5.

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Table of contents

  1. 1: Hélas!
  2. 2: Sonnet to Liberty
  3. 3: Ave Imperatrix
  4. 4: To Milton
  5. 5: Louis Napoleon
  6. 6: On the Massacre of the Christians in Bulgaria
  7. 7: Quantum Mutata
  8. 8: Libertatis Sacra Fames
  9. 9: Theoretikos
  10. 10: The Garden of Eros
  11. 11: Requiescat
  12. 12: Sonnet on Approaching Italy
  13. 13: San Miniato
  14. 14: Ave Maria Gratia Plena
  15. 15: Italia
  16. 16: Written in Holy Week at Genoa
  17. 17: Rome Unvisited
  18. 18: Urbs Sacra æterna
  19. 19: On Hearing the Dies Iræ Sung in the Sistine Chapel
  20. 20: Easter Day
  21. 21: E Tenebris
  22. 22: Vita Nuova
  23. 23: Madonna Mia
  24. 24: The New Helen
  25. 25: The Burden of Itys
  26. 26: Impression Du Matin
  27. 27: Magdalen Walks
  28. 28: Athanasia
  29. 29: Serenade
  30. 30: Endymion
  31. 31: La Bella Donna Della Mia Mente
  32. 32: Chanson
  33. 33: Charmides
  34. 34: Impressions
  35. 35: The Grave of Keats
  36. 36: A Villanelle
  37. 37: A Harmony
  38. 38: Ballade De Marguerite
  39. 39: The Dole of the King’s Daughter
  40. 40: Amor Intellectualis
  41. 41: Santa Decca
  42. 42: A Vision
  43. 43: Impression De Voyage
  44. 44: The Grave of Shelley
  45. 45: By the Arno
  46. 46: To My Friend Henry Irving
  47. 47: To Sarah Bernhardt
  48. 48: To Ellen Terry
  49. 49: To Ellen Terry
  50. 50: To Ellen Terry
  51. 51: Panthea
  52. 52: Le Réveillon
  53. 53: At Verona
  54. 54: Apologia
  55. 55: Quia Multum Amavi
  56. 56: Silentium Amoris
  57. 57: Her Voice
  58. 58: My Voice
  59. 59: Tædium Vitæ
  60. 60: Humanitad
  61. 61: From Spring Days to Winter
  62. 62: Tristitæ
  63. 63: The True Knowledge
  64. 64: Impressions
  65. 65: Under the Balcony
  66. 66: The Harlot’s House
  67. 67: Le Jardin Des Tuileries
  68. 68: On the Sale by Auction of Keats’ Love Letters
  69. 69: The New Remorse
  70. 70: Fantaisies Décoratives
  71. 71: Canzonet
  72. 72: Symphony in Yellow
  73. 73: In the Forest
  74. 74: With a Copy of My Poems
  75. 75: Roses and Rue
  76. 76: Désespoir
  77. 77: Double Villanelle
  78. 78: The Sphinx
  79. 79: The Ballad of Reading Gaol
  80. 80: Ravenna