The Ballad of Reading Gaol

• But I never saw a man who looked / So wistfully at the day.'


  Despite the death sentence, Wilde represents him as cheerful. Humanises him: contrasts stereotypical representation
• Upon that little tent of blue / Which prisoners call the sky'

  Synecdoche, represents outside and the lack of freedom.
• When a voice behind me whispered low, / 'That fellows got to swing' '


  Hints at the Guardsman's eventual death/execution. Human need for justice.
• The man had killed the thing he loved / And so he had to die'


  Repeated throughout. We are all sinful but not everyone is punished the same way.
• each man kills the thing he loves'

  Biblical reference to Judas.
• The coward does it with a kiss / The brave man with a sword'


  Reference to Judas but Peter cuts a guards ear off. Contrasting pairs.
• The man who had to swing'

  Justice and death.
• With a step so light and gay'


  Shows him as joyful and carefree. Untroubled.
• And strange was it to think that he / Had such a debt to pay'


  Convention of crime, starts criticising the punishment
• But grim to see the gallows-tree / With it's adder-bitten root'


  References Genesis, prophecies Jesus. He gets bitten in the ankle. The tree is where the prisoners get hung = redemption.
• But it is not sweet with nimble feet / To dance upon the air!'


  References the hanging, has a horrible comedic effect.
• No hiding place for fear / He often said he was glad / The hangman's hands were near'

  Irony, at peace with death
• Till once, as we tramped in from work / We passed an open grave'


  Imminent danger and death. Psychological effect of execution.
• But there was no sleep when men must weep / Who never yet have wept'


  Representing his strangeness and calmness with his fate, disturbs the prisoners. Shows vulnerability as they cry for him.
• It is a fearful thing to feel another's guilt'


  Only the other prisoners who feel sorry for him
• But he does not win who plays with Sin / In the secret House of Shame'


  Jail, justice system impenetrable
• For the Lord of Death with icy breath / Had entered in to kill'


  Adds shock, personification of a supernatural creature. Builds tension. More effective on Victorian audiences.
• So with rope of shame the Herald came / To do the secret deed'


  Euphemism, shameful.
• Something was dead in each of us / And what was dead was hope'


  Destruction of human emotions, killed what makes them humans.
• Man's grim Justice'


  Corrupt nature of man-made justice
• For he who lives more lives than one / More deaths than one must die'


  Price of being multitalented and multitasking.
• Out into God's sweet air we went'


  Contrast, God's creation is not the same as man's creation.
• they wore their Sunday suits / But we knew the work they have been at / By the quicklime on their boots'


  Sacrilegious, dissolving human bodies. They are also sinful, just part of a hypocritical society.
• Repetition of 'flesh'


  Disgusts readers. Horror and shocking imagery.
• To tell the men who tramp the yard / That God's Son died for all'


  Denying them connection with God. God's forgiveness against human justice.
• They hanged him as a beast is hanged'

  Dehumanising, animal imagery
• The Chaplain would not kneel to pray / By his dishonoured grave'


  Hypocrisy, rejection of worldly Christianity and goes against God's will.
• I know not whether Laws be right / Or whether Laws be wrong'


  Questioning the nature of the punishment, acknowledges his misunderstanding of the Laws
• For only blood can wipe out blood / And only tears can heal'


  Only sacrifice and cruxifiction can heal us
• Eaten by teeth of flame'

  No honour in death. Personification of prison/hell
• And his grave has got no name'

  Dehumanisation, no honour/respect
• With blunt and bleeding nails'


  Overworked and punished daily.
• rubbed', 'scrubbed', 'cleaned'


  Continually used for manual labour, undeserving of the punishment. Monotony.