[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-428305-105":59,"doc-detail-428305-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","the-ballad-of-reading-gaol-version-one-poem","The Ballad of Reading Gaol - Version One - Poem","","Oscar Wilde’s “The Ballad of Reading Gaol” is a poem written during his exile, set after his release from Reading Gaol on 19 May 1897. It recounts the 7 July 1896 execution of Charles Thomas Wooldridge, convicted for murdering his wife. Through “Version One,” the poem explores love turned deadly, the psychology of a condemned man, and the contrast between prison life and the blue sky prisoners imagine as freedom.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":15,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/literature/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/the-ballad-of-reading-gaol-version-one-poem/428305/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/the-ballad-of-reading-gaol-version-one-poem/428305.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Indoniesian Boy","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-31","2026-09-29",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":52},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"When was Reading Gaol released and where was Wilde during the poem’s composition?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"Wilde was released from Reading Gaol on 19 May 1897 and wrote the poem while in exile, either in Berneval-le-Grand or Dieppe, France.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"Who was executed in the poem’s background event?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"The execution described took place on Tuesday, 7 July 1896: Charles Thomas Wooldridge, convicted of cutting the throat of his wife, Laura Ellen, near Windsor.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"What idea does the poem emphasize about love and consequences?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"The poem argues that each man kills the thing he loves, yet not each man dies, contrasting private ways of wrongdoing with the public execution that follows.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},428305,1790716398,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":14,"category_name":15,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":52,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145},962090760608,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_276721f389ce27ea32af1340a28f341c","OSCAR WI LDE  \nThe Ballad of Reading GaolOscar Wilde  \n\"The Ballad of Reading Gaol\"is a poem by Oscar Wilde,written in exileeither in Berneval-le-Grand or in Dieppe,France,after his release fromReading Gaol (pronounced \"redding jail\")on 19 May 1897.Wilde had beenincarcerated in Reading after being convicted of homosexual offences in1895 and sentenced to two years'hard labour in prison.  \nDuring his imprisonment,on Tuesday,7 July 1896,a hanging took place.Charles Thomas Wooldridge had been a trooper in the Royal Horse Guards.He was convicted of cutting the throat of his wife,Laura Ellen,earlier thatyear at Clewer,near Windsor.He was aged 30 when executed.  \nContents  \nVersion One  \nI.  \nII.  \nIⅢ.  \nIV.  \nV.  \nVersion Two  \nI.  \nII.  \nⅢ.  \nIV.  \nV.  \n3  \n3  \n8  \n22  \n29  \n34  \n35  \n35  \n40  \n44  \n55  \n62  \nVersion One  \nHe did not wear his scarlet coat,  \nFor blood and wine are red,  \nAnd blood and wine were on his hands  \nWhen they found him with the dead,  \nThe poor dead woman whom he loved,  \nAnd murdered in her bed.  \nHe walked amongst the Trial Men  \nIn a suit of shabby grey;  \nA cricket cap was on his head,  \nAnd his step seemed light and gay;  \nBut I never saw a man who looked  \nSo wistfully at the day.  \nInever saw a man who looked  \nWith such a wistful eye  \nUpon that little tent of blue  \nWhich prisoners call the sky,  \nAnd at every drifting cloud that went  \nWith sails of silver by.  \n3  \nI walked,with other souls in pain,  \nWithin another ring,  \nAnd was wondering if the man had done  \nA great or little thing,  \nWhen a voice behind me whispered low,\"That fellow's got to swing.\"  \nDear Christ!the very prison walls  \nSuddenly seemed to reel,  \nAnd the sky above my head became  \nLike a casque of scorching steel;  \nAnd,though I was a soul in pain,  \nMy pain I could not feel.  \nlonly knew what hunted thought  \nQuickened his step,and why  \nHe looked upon the garish day  \nWith such awistful eye;  \nThe man had killed the thing he loved  \nAnd so he had to die.  \nYet each man kills the thing he loves  \nBy each let this be heard,  \nSome do it with a bitter look,  \nSome with a flattering word,  \nThe coward does it with a kiss,The brave man with a sword!  \nSome kill their love when they are young,  \nAnd some when they are old;  \nSome strangle with the hands of Lust,  \nSome with the hands of Gold:  \nThe kindest use a knife,because  \nThe dead so soon grow cold.  \nSome love too little,some too long,  \nSome sell,and others buy;  \nSome do the deed with many tears  \nAnd some without a sigh:  \nFor each man kills the thing he loves,  \nYet each man does not die.  \nHe does not die a death of shame  \nOn a day of dark disgrace,  \nNor have a noose about his neck,  \nNor a cloth upon his face,  \nNor drop feet foremost through the floor  \nInto an empty place  \nHe does not sit with silent men  \nWho watch him night and day;  \nWho watch him when he tries to weep,  \nAnd when he tries to pray;  \nWho watch him lest himself should robThe prison of its prey.  \nHe does not wake at dawn to see  \nDread figures throng his room,  \nThe shivering Chaplain robed in white,  \nThe Sheriff stern with gloom,  \nAnd the Governor all in shiny black,  \nWith the yellow face of Doom.  \nHe does not rise in piteous haste  \nTo put on convict-clothes,  \nWhile some coarse-mouthed Doctor gloats,and notes  \nEach new and nerve-twitched pose  \nFingering a watch whose littleticks  \nAre like horrible hammer-blows.  \nHe does not know that sickening thirst  \nThat sands one's throat,before  \nThe hangman with his gardener's gloves  \nSlips through the padded door,  \nAnd binds one with three leathern thongs,  \nThat the throat may thirst no more.  \nHe does not bend his head to hear  \nThe Burial Office read,  \nNor,while the terror of his soul  \nTells him he is not dead,  \nCross his own coffin,as he moves  \nInto the hideous shed.  \nHe does not stare upon the air  \nThrough a little roof of glass  \nHe does not,pray with lips of clay  \nFor his agony to pass;  \nNor feel upon his shuddering cheek","cbCaismkCS4VNMnY","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaismkCS4VNMnY","pdf",2003740,72,"English","# Version One\n## I\n## II\n## III\n## IV\n## V\n# Version Two\n## I\n## II\n## III\n## IV\n## V","[{\"question\":\"When was Reading Gaol released and where was Wilde during the poem’s composition?\",\"answer\":\"Wilde was released from Reading Gaol on 19 May 1897 and wrote the poem while in exile, either in Berneval-le-Grand or Dieppe, France.\"},{\"question\":\"Who was executed in the poem’s background event?\",\"answer\":\"The execution described took place on Tuesday, 7 July 1896: Charles Thomas Wooldridge, convicted of cutting the throat of his wife, Laura Ellen, near Windsor.\"},{\"question\":\"What idea does the poem emphasize about love and consequences?\",\"answer\":\"The poem argues that each man kills the thing he loves, yet not each man dies, contrasting private ways of wrongdoing with the public execution that follows.\"}]","The Ballad of Reading Gaol - Version One - Poem | PDF",1790646364,111]