The Ballad Of Reading Gaol

He did not wear his scarlet coat,
For blood and wine are red,
And blood and wine were on his hands
When they found him with the dead,
The poor dead woman whom he loved,
And murdered in her bed.

He walked amongst the Trial Men
In a suit of shabby grey;
A cricket cap was on his head,
And his step seemed light and gay;
But I never saw a man who looked
So wistfully at the day.

I never saw a man who looked
With such a wistful eye
Upon that little tent of blue
Which prisoners call the sky,
And at every drifting cloud that went
With sails of silver by.

I walked, with other souls in pain,
Within another ring,
And was wondering if the man had done
A great or little thing,
When a voice behind me whispered low,
"That fellows got to swing."

Dear Christ! the very prison walls
Suddenly seemed to reel,
And the sky above my head became
Like a casque of scorching steel;
And, though I was a soul in pain,
My pain I could not feel.

I only knew what hunted thought
Quickened his step, and why
He looked upon the garish day
With such a wistful eye;
The man had killed the thing he loved
And so he had to die.
___
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.
___
He does not die a death of shame
On a day of dark disgrace,
Nor have a noose about his neck,
Nor a cloth upon his face,
Nor drop feet foremost through the floor
Into an empty place

He does not sit with silent men
Who watch him night and day;
Who watch him when he tries to weep,
And when he tries to pray;
Who watch him lest himself should rob
The prison of its prey.

He does not wake at dawn to see
Dread figures throng his room,
The shivering Chaplain robed in white,
The Sheriff stern with gloom,
And the Governor all in shiny black,
With the yellow face of Doom.

He does not rise in piteous haste
To put on convict-clothes,
While some coarse-mouthed Doctor gloats, and notes
Each new and nerve-twitched pose,
Fingering a watch whose little ticks
Are like horrible hammer-blows.

He does not know that sickening thirst
That sands one's throat, before
The hangman with his gardener's gloves
Slips through the padded door,
And binds one with three leathern thongs,
That the throat may thirst no more.

He does not bend his head to hear
The Burial Office read,
Nor, while the terror of his soul
Tells him he is not dead,
Cross his own coffin, as he moves
Into the hideous shed.

He does not stare upon the air
Through a little roof of glass;
He does not pray with lips of clay
For his agony to pass;
Nor feel upon his shuddering cheek
The kiss of Caiaphas.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• The
• Movies
• Oscar
• Wilde
• poetry
• tmo
• the
• ballad
• of
• reading
• gaol
• machinima
• animation
• prison
• sadness
• murder
• jail
• crime

[LionessDeWinter]

What a beautiful film. Full of dark art and savage grace. You did the poem justice. :)

[excalibunny]

@LionessDeWinter

Thank you so much :)

[brianmoran1973]

This is not a good reading, only a convict can do the poem justice

[excalibunny]

I got a German girl actually in Germany to read it, and I thought it came out pretty well. At the time I published this to youtube, the quality level youtube could handle was horrible, so that is why the quality of the vid is a little low.

Also, it's stupid to say a convict could only do this justice. Not all convicts can voice act.

[ParArdua]

a shame for me that the 'music' intrudes too forcefully on the poem.'

[excalibunny]

Yeah, I uploaded it a long time ago, back when youtube's quality was really low. So the thing it picked up on the most was the music.

[MaxKrane]

honestly the best thing on youtube

[owilde]

Fitting epitaph for the human race....

[verdew8181]

This music goes so well with both the words and video.

[brianmoran1973]

Im sorry.Im Irish .This is my favourite poem.Alot of my family faced the hangman or the firing squad.The ability to voice act is a differnt experience than sitting in gaol for years or facing the death penalty.Look deeper into this poem ,especially as you live through human injustices and predudiced thinking.Its Wildes last great work and one of the greatest poems in the english language.The words are carefully chosen through experience,

[jennylewis55]

A very profound film using Oscar Wilde's words of deep regret at the end of his life.

The ending of his poem is seldom heard.please read it.This is a small bit from it..Ah! happy they whose hearts can break And peace of pardon win!

How else may man make straight his plan And cleanse his soul from Sin?

How else but through a broken heart May Lord Christ enter in?

[BunnyTrailPro]

Still as awsome as the first time i saw it you forgot to metntion in the video the song is the final movment by milkman_dan from newgrounds

5/5 this makes me wanna make sum more machinima

[aatg8]

Is this british or american english?