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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/301-h.zip b/301-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ec7ef23 --- /dev/null +++ b/301-h.zip diff --git a/301-h/301-h.htm b/301-h/301-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a07b8f9 --- /dev/null +++ b/301-h/301-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2053 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="us-ascii"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + The Ballad of Reading Gaol, by Oscar Wilde + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-family: Times New Roman;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Ballad of Reading Gaol, by Oscar Wilde + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Ballad of Reading Gaol + +Author: Oscar Wilde + +Release Date: July 10, 2008 [EBook #301] +Last Updated: October 27, 2018 + + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BALLAD OF READING GAOL *** + + + + +Produced by Faith Knowles, David Widger, and an Anonymous Volunteer + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + THE BALLAD OF READING GAOL + </h1> + <p> + <br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Oscar Wilde + </h2> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h4> + In Memoriam<br /><br /> C.T.W.<br /> Sometime Trooper of the Royal Horse + Guards.<br /> Obiit H.M. Prison, Reading, Berkshire,<br /><br /> July 7th, + 1896<br /> Presented by Project Gutenberg on the 99th Anniversary. + </h4> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + + + +<pre xml:space="preserve"> +<table summary=""> + <tr> + <td> +<h2> + VERSION ONE + </h2> + I. + + 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 fellow's 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. + + II. + + Six weeks our guardsman walked the yard, + In a suit of shabby grey: + His 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 wandering cloud that trailed + Its raveled fleeces by. + + He did not wring his hands, as do + Those witless men who dare + To try to rear the changeling Hope + In the cave of black Despair: + He only looked upon the sun, + And drank the morning air. + + He did not wring his hands nor weep, + Nor did he peek or pine, + But he drank the air as though it held + Some healthful anodyne; + With open mouth he drank the sun + As though it had been wine! + + And I and all the souls in pain, + Who tramped the other ring, + Forgot if we ourselves had done + A great or little thing, + And watched with gaze of dull amaze + The man who had to swing. + + And strange it was to see him pass + With a step so light and gay, + And strange it was to see him look + So wistfully at the day, + And strange it was to think that he + Had such a debt to pay. + + For oak and elm have pleasant leaves + That in the spring-time shoot: + But grim to see is the gallows-tree, + With its adder-bitten root, + And, green or dry, a man must die + Before it bears its fruit! + + The loftiest place is that seat of grace + For which all worldlings try: + But who would stand in hempen band + Upon a scaffold high, + And through a murderer's collar take + His last look at the sky? + + It is sweet to dance to violins + When Love and Life are fair: + To dance to flutes, to dance to lutes + Is delicate and rare: + But it is not sweet with nimble feet + To dance upon the air! + + So with curious eyes and sick surmise + We watched him day by day, + And wondered if each one of us + Would end the self-same way, + For none can tell to what red Hell + His sightless soul may stray. + + At last the dead man walked no more + Amongst the Trial Men, + And I knew that he was standing up + In the black dock's dreadful pen, + And that never would I see his face + In God's sweet world again. + + Like two doomed ships that pass in storm + We had crossed each other's way: + But we made no sign, we said no word, + We had no word to say; + For we did not meet in the holy night, + But in the shameful day. + + A prison wall was round us both, + Two outcast men were we: + The world had thrust us from its heart, + And God from out His care: + And the iron gin that waits for Sin + Had caught us in its snare. + + III + + In Debtors' Yard the stones are hard, + And the dripping wall is high, + So it was there he took the air + Beneath the leaden sky, + And by each side a Warder walked, + For fear the man might die. + + Or else he sat with those who watched + His anguish night and day; + Who watched him when he rose to weep, + And when he crouched to pray; + Who watched him lest himself should rob + Their scaffold of its prey. + + The Governor was strong upon + The Regulations Act: + The Doctor said that Death was but + A scientific fact: + And twice a day the Chaplain called + And left a little tract. + + And twice a day he smoked his pipe, + And drank his quart of beer: + His soul was resolute, and held + No hiding-place for fear; + He often said that he was glad + The hangman's hands were near. + + But why he said so strange a thing + No Warder dared to ask: + For he to whom a watcher's doom + Is given as his task, + Must set a lock upon his lips, + And make his face a mask. + + Or else he might be moved, and try + To comfort or console: + And what should Human Pity do + Pent up in Murderers' Hole? + What word of grace in such a place + Could help a brother's soul? + + With slouch and swing around the ring + We trod the Fool's Parade! + We did not care: we knew we were + The Devil's Own Brigade: + And shaven head and feet of lead + Make a merry masquerade. + + We tore the tarry rope to shreds + With blunt and bleeding nails; + We rubbed the doors, and scrubbed the floors, + And cleaned the shining rails: + And, rank by rank, we soaped the plank, + And clattered with the pails. + + We sewed the sacks, we broke the stones, + We turned the dusty drill: + We banged the tins, and bawled the hymns, + And sweated on the mill: + But in the heart of every man + Terror was lying still. + + So still it lay that every day + Crawled like a weed-clogged wave: + And we forgot the bitter lot + That waits for fool and knave, + Till once, as we tramped in from work, + We passed an open grave. + + With yawning mouth the yellow hole + Gaped for a living thing; + The very mud cried out for blood + To the thirsty asphalte ring: + And we knew that ere one dawn grew fair + Some prisoner had to swing. + + Right in we went, with soul intent + On Death and Dread and Doom: + The hangman, with his little bag, + Went shuffling through the gloom + And each man trembled as he crept + Into his numbered tomb. + + That night the empty corridors + Were full of forms of Fear, + And up and down the iron town + Stole feet we could not hear, + And through the bars that hide the stars + White faces seemed to peer. + + He lay as one who lies and dreams + In a pleasant meadow-land, + The watcher watched him as he slept, + And could not understand + How one could sleep so sweet a sleep + With a hangman close at hand? + + But there is no sleep when men must weep + Who never yet have wept: + So we—the fool, the fraud, the knave— + That endless vigil kept, + And through each brain on hands of pain + Another's terror crept. + + Alas! it is a fearful thing + To feel another's guilt! + For, right within, the sword of Sin + Pierced to its poisoned hilt, + And as molten lead were the tears we shed + For the blood we had not spilt. + + The Warders with their shoes of felt + Crept by each padlocked door, + And peeped and saw, with eyes of awe, + Grey figures on the floor, + And wondered why men knelt to pray + Who never prayed before. + + All through the night we knelt and prayed, + Mad mourners of a corpse! + The troubled plumes of midnight were + The plumes upon a hearse: + And bitter wine upon a sponge + Was the savior of Remorse. + + The cock crew, the red cock crew, + But never came the day: + And crooked shape of Terror crouched, + In the corners where we lay: + And each evil sprite that walks by night + Before us seemed to play. + + They glided past, they glided fast, + Like travelers through a mist: + They mocked the moon in a rigadoon + Of delicate turn and twist, + And with formal pace and loathsome grace + The phantoms kept their tryst. + + With mop and mow, we saw them go, + Slim shadows hand in hand: + About, about, in ghostly rout + They trod a saraband: + And the damned grotesques made arabesques, + Like the wind upon the sand! + + With the pirouettes of marionettes, + They tripped on pointed tread: + But with flutes of Fear they filled the ear, + As their grisly masque they led, + And loud they sang, and loud they sang, + For they sang to wake the dead. + + "Oho!" they cried, "The world is wide, + But fettered limbs go lame! + And once, or twice, to throw the dice + Is a gentlemanly game, + But he does not win who plays with Sin + In the secret House of Shame." + + No things of air these antics were + That frolicked with such glee: + To men whose lives were held in gyves, + And whose feet might not go free, + Ah! wounds of Christ! they were living things, + Most terrible to see. + + Around, around, they waltzed and wound; + Some wheeled in smirking pairs: + With the mincing step of demirep + Some sidled up the stairs: + And with subtle sneer, and fawning leer, + Each helped us at our prayers. + + The morning wind began to moan, + But still the night went on: + Through its giant loom the web of gloom + Crept till each thread was spun: + And, as we prayed, we grew afraid + Of the Justice of the Sun. + + The moaning wind went wandering round + The weeping prison-wall: + Till like a wheel of turning-steel + We felt the minutes crawl: + O moaning wind! what had we done + To have such a seneschal? + + At last I saw the shadowed bars + Like a lattice wrought in lead, + Move right across the whitewashed wall + That faced my three-plank bed, + And I knew that somewhere in the world + God's dreadful dawn was red. + + At six o'clock we cleaned our cells, + At seven all was still, + But the sough and swing of a mighty wing + The prison seemed to fill, + For the Lord of Death with icy breath + Had entered in to kill. + + He did not pass in purple pomp, + Nor ride a moon-white steed. + Three yards of cord and a sliding board + Are all the gallows' need: + So with rope of shame the Herald came + To do the secret deed. + + We were as men who through a fen + Of filthy darkness grope: + We did not dare to breathe a prayer, + Or give our anguish scope: + Something was dead in each of us, + And what was dead was Hope. + + For Man's grim Justice goes its way, + And will not swerve aside: + It slays the weak, it slays the strong, + It has a deadly stride: + With iron heel it slays the strong, + The monstrous parricide! + + We waited for the stroke of eight: + Each tongue was thick with thirst: + For the stroke of eight is the stroke of Fate + That makes a man accursed, + And Fate will use a running noose + For the best man and the worst. + + We had no other thing to do, + Save to wait for the sign to come: + So, like things of stone in a valley lone, + Quiet we sat and dumb: + But each man's heart beat thick and quick + Like a madman on a drum! + + With sudden shock the prison-clock + Smote on the shivering air, + And from all the gaol rose up a wail + Of impotent despair, + Like the sound that frightened marshes hear + From a leper in his lair. + + And as one sees most fearful things + In the crystal of a dream, + We saw the greasy hempen rope + Hooked to the blackened beam, + And heard the prayer the hangman's snare + Strangled into a scream. + + And all the woe that moved him so + That he gave that bitter cry, + And the wild regrets, and the bloody sweats, + None knew so well as I: + For he who live more lives than one + More deaths than one must die. + + IV. + + There is no chapel on the day + On which they hang a man: + The Chaplain's heart is far too sick, + Or his face is far to wan, + Or there is that written in his eyes + Which none should look upon. + + So they kept us close till nigh on noon, + And then they rang the bell, + And the Warders with their jingling keys + Opened each listening cell, + And down the iron stair we tramped, + Each from his separate Hell. + + Out into God's sweet air we went, + But not in wonted way, + For this man's face was white with fear, + And that man's face was grey, + And I never saw sad men who looked + So wistfully at the day. + + I never saw sad men who looked + With such a wistful eye + Upon that little tent of blue + We prisoners called the sky, + And at every careless cloud that passed + In happy freedom by. + + But there were those amongst us all + Who walked with downcast head, + And knew that, had each got his due, + They should have died instead: + He had but killed a thing that lived + Whilst they had killed the dead. + + For he who sins a second time + Wakes a dead soul to pain, + And draws it from its spotted shroud, + And makes it bleed again, + And makes it bleed great gouts of blood + And makes it bleed in vain! + + Like ape or clown, in monstrous garb + With crooked arrows starred, + Silently we went round and round + The slippery asphalte yard; + Silently we went round and round, + And no man spoke a word. + + Silently we went round and round, + And through each hollow mind + The memory of dreadful things + Rushed like a dreadful wind, + An Horror stalked before each man, + And terror crept behind. + + The Warders strutted up and down, + And kept their herd of brutes, + Their uniforms were spick and span, + And they wore their Sunday suits, + But we knew the work they had been at + By the quicklime on their boots. + + For where a grave had opened wide, + There was no grave at all: + Only a stretch of mud and sand + By the hideous prison-wall, + And a little heap of burning lime, + That the man should have his pall. + + For he has a pall, this wretched man, + Such as few men can claim: + Deep down below a prison-yard, + Naked for greater shame, + He lies, with fetters on each foot, + Wrapt in a sheet of flame! + + And all the while the burning lime + Eats flesh and bone away, + It eats the brittle bone by night, + And the soft flesh by the day, + It eats the flesh and bones by turns, + But it eats the heart alway. + + For three long years they will not sow + Or root or seedling there: + For three long years the unblessed spot + Will sterile be and bare, + And look upon the wondering sky + With unreproachful stare. + + They think a murderer's heart would taint + Each simple seed they sow. + It is not true! God's kindly earth + Is kindlier than men know, + And the red rose would but blow more red, + The white rose whiter blow. + + Out of his mouth a red, red rose! + Out of his heart a white! + For who can say by what strange way, + Christ brings his will to light, + Since the barren staff the pilgrim bore + Bloomed in the great Pope's sight? + + But neither milk-white rose nor red + May bloom in prison air; + The shard, the pebble, and the flint, + Are what they give us there: + For flowers have been known to heal + A common man's despair. + + So never will wine-red rose or white, + Petal by petal, fall + On that stretch of mud and sand that lies + By the hideous prison-wall, + To tell the men who tramp the yard + That God's Son died for all. + + Yet though the hideous prison-wall + Still hems him round and round, + And a spirit may not walk by night + That is with fetters bound, + And a spirit may but weep that lies + In such unholy ground, + + He is at peace—this wretched man— + At peace, or will be soon: + There is no thing to make him mad, + Nor does Terror walk at noon, + For the lampless Earth in which he lies + Has neither Sun nor Moon. + + They hanged him as a beast is hanged: + They did not even toll + A requiem that might have brought + Rest to his startled soul, + But hurriedly they took him out, + And hid him in a hole. + + They stripped him of his canvas clothes, + And gave him to the flies; + They mocked the swollen purple throat + And the stark and staring eyes: + And with laughter loud they heaped the shroud + In which their convict lies. + + The Chaplain would not kneel to pray + By his dishonored grave: + Nor mark it with that blessed Cross + That Christ for sinners gave, + Because the man was one of those + Whom Christ came down to save. + + Yet all is well; he has but passed + To Life's appointed bourne: + And alien tears will fill for him + Pity's long-broken urn, + For his mourner will be outcast men, + And outcasts always mourn. + + V. + + I know not whether Laws be right, + Or whether Laws be wrong; + All that we know who lie in gaol + Is that the wall is strong; + And that each day is like a year, + A year whose days are long. + + But this I know, that every Law + That men have made for Man, + Since first Man took his brother's life, + And the sad world began, + But straws the wheat and saves the chaff + With a most evil fan. + + This too I know—and wise it were + If each could know the same— + That every prison that men build + Is built with bricks of shame, + And bound with bars lest Christ should see + How men their brothers maim. + + With bars they blur the gracious moon, + And blind the goodly sun: + And they do well to hide their Hell, + For in it things are done + That Son of God nor son of Man + Ever should look upon! + + The vilest deeds like poison weeds + Bloom well in prison-air: + It is only what is good in Man + That wastes and withers there: + Pale Anguish keeps the heavy gate, + And the Warder is Despair + + For they starve the little frightened child + Till it weeps both night and day: + And they scourge the weak, and flog the fool, + And gibe the old and grey, + And some grow mad, and all grow bad, + And none a word may say. + + Each narrow cell in which we dwell + Is a foul and dark latrine, + And the fetid breath of living Death + Chokes up each grated screen, + And all, but Lust, is turned to dust + In Humanity's machine. + + The brackish water that we drink + Creeps with a loathsome slime, + And the bitter bread they weigh in scales + Is full of chalk and lime, + And Sleep will not lie down, but walks + Wild-eyed and cries to Time. + + But though lean Hunger and green Thirst + Like asp with adder fight, + We have little care of prison fare, + For what chills and kills outright + Is that every stone one lifts by day + Becomes one's heart by night. + + With midnight always in one's heart, + And twilight in one's cell, + We turn the crank, or tear the rope, + Each in his separate Hell, + And the silence is more awful far + Than the sound of a brazen bell. + + And never a human voice comes near + To speak a gentle word: + And the eye that watches through the door + Is pitiless and hard: + And by all forgot, we rot and rot, + With soul and body marred. + + And thus we rust Life's iron chain + Degraded and alone: + And some men curse, and some men weep, + And some men make no moan: + But God's eternal Laws are kind + And break the heart of stone. + + And every human heart that breaks, + In prison-cell or yard, + Is as that broken box that gave + Its treasure to the Lord, + And filled the unclean leper's house + With the scent of costliest nard. + + Ah! happy day 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? + + And he of the swollen purple throat. + And the stark and staring eyes, + Waits for the holy hands that took + The Thief to Paradise; + And a broken and a contrite heart + The Lord will not despise. + + The man in red who reads the Law + Gave him three weeks of life, + Three little weeks in which to heal + His soul of his soul's strife, + And cleanse from every blot of blood + The hand that held the knife. + + And with tears of blood he cleansed the hand, + The hand that held the steel: + For only blood can wipe out blood, + And only tears can heal: + And the crimson stain that was of Cain + Became Christ's snow-white seal. + + VI. + + In Reading gaol by Reading town + There is a pit of shame, + And in it lies a wretched man + Eaten by teeth of flame, + In burning winding-sheet he lies, + And his grave has got no name. + + And there, till Christ call forth the dead, + In silence let him lie: + No need to waste the foolish tear, + Or heave the windy sigh: + The man had killed the thing he loved, + And so he had to die. + + And all men kill the thing they love, + By all 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! + + + + + + + +</td> +<td> +<h2>VERSION TWO</h2> + + + I + + 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 gray; + 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 fellow's 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 haunted 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 space. + + 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 feel that sickening thirst + That sands one's throat, before + The hangman with his gardener's gloves + Comes 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 anguish 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. + + II + + Six weeks the guardsman walked the yard, + In the suit of shabby gray: + His cricket cap was on his head, + And his step was 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 wandering cloud that trailed + Its ravelled fleeces by. + + He did not wring his hands, as do + Those witless men who dare + To try to rear the changeling Hope + In the cave of black Despair: + He only looked upon the sun, + And drank the morning air. + + He did not wring his hands nor weep, + Nor did he peek or pine, + But he drank the air as though it held + Some healthful anodyne; + With open mouth he drank the sun + As though it had been wine! + + And I and all the souls in pain, + Who tramped the other ring, + Forgot if we ourselves had done + A great or little thing, + And watched with gaze of dull amaze + The man who had to swing. + + For strange it was to see him pass + With a step so light and gay, + And strange it was to see him look + So wistfully at the day, + And strange it was to think that he + Had such a debt to pay. + + The oak and elm have pleasant leaves + That in the spring-time shoot: + But grim to see is the gallows-tree, + With its alder-bitten root, + And, green or dry, a man must die + Before it bears its fruit! + + The loftiest place is the seat of grace + For which all worldlings try: + But who would stand in hempen band + Upon a scaffold high, + And through a murderer's collar take + His last look at the sky? + + It is sweet to dance to violins + When Love and Life are fair: + To dance to flutes, to dance to lutes + Is delicate and rare: + But it is not sweet with nimble feet + To dance upon the air! + + So with curious eyes and sick surmise + We watched him day by day, + And wondered if each one of us + Would end the self-same way, + For none can tell to what red Hell + His sightless soul may stray. + + At last the dead man walked no more + Amongst the Trial Men, + And I knew that he was standing up + In the black dock's dreadful pen, + And that never would I see his face + For weal or woe again. + + Like two doomed ships that pass in storm + We had crossed each other's way: + But we made no sign, we said no word, + We had no word to say; + For we did not meet in the holy night, + But in the shameful day. + + A prison wall was round us both, + Two outcast men we were: + The world had thrust us from its heart, + And God from out His care: + And the iron gin that waits for Sin + Had caught us in its snare. + + III + + In Debtors' Yard the stones are hard, + And the dripping wall is high, + So it was there he took the air + Beneath the leaden sky, + And by each side a warder walked, + For fear the man might die. + + Or else he sat with those who watched + His anguish night and day; + Who watched him when he rose to weep, + And when he crouched to pray; + Who watched him lest himself should rob + Their scaffold of its prey. + + The Governor was strong upon + The Regulations Act: + The Doctor said that Death was but + A scientific fact: + And twice a day the Chaplain called, + And left a little tract. + + And twice a day he smoked his pipe, + And drank his quart of beer: + His soul was resolute, and held + No hiding-place for fear; + He often said that he was glad + The hangman's day was near. + + But why he said so strange a thing + No warder dared to ask: + For he to whom a watcher's doom + Is given as his task, + Must set a lock upon his lips, + And make his face a mask. + + Or else he might be moved, and try + To comfort or console: + And what should Human Pity do + Pent up in Murderers' Hole? + What word of grace in such a place + Could help a brother's soul? + + With slouch and swing around the ring + We trod the Fools' Parade! + We did not care: we knew we were + The Devils' Own Brigade: + And shaven head and feet of lead + Make a merry masquerade. + + We tore the tarry rope to shreds + With blunt and bleeding nails; + We rubbed the doors, and scrubbed the floors, + And cleaned the shining rails: + And, rank by rank, we soaped the plank, + And clattered with the pails. + + We sewed the sacks, we broke the stones, + We turned the dusty drill: + We banged the tins, and bawled the hymns, + And sweated on the mill: + But in the heart of every man + Terror was lying still. + + So still it lay that every day + Crawled like a weed-clogged wave: + And we forgot the bitter lot + That waits for fool and knave, + Till once, as we tramped in from work, + We passed an open grave. + + With yawning mouth the horrid hole + Gaped for a living thing; + The very mud cried out for blood + To the thirsty asphalte ring: + And we knew that ere one dawn grew fair + The fellow had to swing. + + Right in we went, with soul intent + On Death and Dread and Doom: + The hangman, with his little bag, + Went shuffling through the gloom: + And I trembled as I groped my way + Into my numbered tomb. + + That night the empty corridors + Were full of forms of Fear, + And up and down the iron town + Stole feet we could not hear, + And through the bars that hide the stars + White faces seemed to peer. + + He lay as one who lies and dreams + In a pleasant meadow-land, + The watchers watched him as he slept, + And could not understand + How one could sleep so sweet a sleep + With a hangman close at hand. + + But there is no sleep when men must weep + Who never yet have wept: + So we- the fool, the fraud, the knave- + That endless vigil kept, + And through each brain on hands of pain + Another's terror crept. + + Alas! it is a fearful thing + To feel another's guilt! + For, right within, the sword of Sin + Pierced to its poisoned hilt, + And as molten lead were the tears we shed + For the blood we had not spilt. + + The warders with their shoes of felt + Crept by each padlocked door, + And peeped and saw, with eyes of awe, + Gray figures on the floor, + And wondered why men knelt to pray + Who never prayed before. + + All through the night we knelt and prayed, + Mad mourners of a corse! + The troubled plumes of midnight shook + Like the plumes upon a hearse: + And as bitter wine upon a sponge + Was the savour of Remorse. + + The gray cock crew, the red cock crew, + But never came the day: + And crooked shapes of Terror crouched, + In the corners where we lay: + And each evil sprite that walks by night + Before us seemed to play. + + They glided past, the glided fast, + Like travellers through a mist: + They mocked the moon in a rigadoon + Of delicate turn and twist, + And with formal pace and loathsome grace + The phantoms kept their tryst. + + With mop and mow, we saw them go, + Slim shadows hand in hand: + About, about, in ghostly rout + They trod a saraband: + And the damned grotesques made arabesques, + Like the wind upon the sand! + + With the pirouettes of marionettes, + They tripped on pointed tread: + But with flutes of Fear they filled the ear, + As their grisly masque they led, + And loud they sang, and long they sang, + For they sang to wake the dead. + + "Oho!" they cried, "the world is wide, + But fettered limbs go lame! + And once, or twice, to throw the dice + Is a gentlemanly game, + But he does not win who plays with Sin + In the secret House of Shame." + + No things of air these antics were, + That frolicked with such glee: + To men whose lives were held in gyves, + And whose feet might not go free, + Ah! wounds of Christ! they were living things, + Most terrible to see. + + Around, around, they waltzed and wound; + Some wheeled in smirking pairs; + With the mincing step of a demirep + Some sidled up the stairs: + And with subtle sneer, and fawning leer, + Each helped us at our prayers. + + The morning wind began to moan, + But still the night went on: + Through its giant loom the web of gloom + Crept till each thread was spun: + And, as we prayed, we grew afraid + Of the Justice of the Sun. + + The moaning wind went wandering round + The weeping prison wall: + Till like a wheel of turning steel + We felt the minutes crawl: + O moaning wind! what had we done + To have such a seneschal? + + At last I saw the shadowed bars, + Like a lattice wrought in lead, + Move right across the whitewashed wall + That faced my three-plank bed, + And I knew that somewhere in the world + God's dreadful dawn was red. + + At six o'clock we cleaned our cells, + At seven all was still, + But the sough and swing of a mighty wing + The prison seemed to fill, + For the Lord of Death with icy breath + Had entered in to kill. + + He did not pass in purple pomp, + Nor ride a moon-white steed. + Three yards of cord and a sliding board + Are all the gallows' need: + So with rope of shame the Herald came + To do the secret deed. + + We were as men who through a fen + Of filthy darkness grope: + We did not dare to breathe a prayer, + Or to give our anguish scope: + Something was dead in each of us, + And what was dead was Hope. + + For Man's grim Justice goes its way + And will not swerve aside: + It slays the weak, it slays the strong, + It has a deadly stride: + With iron heel it slays the strong + The monstrous parricide! + + We waited for the stroke of eight: + Each tongue was thick with thirst: + For the stroke of eight is the stroke of Fate + That makes a man accursed, + And Fate will use a running noose + For the best man and the worst. + + We had no other thing to do, + Save to wait for the sign to come: + So, like things of stone in a valley lone, + Quiet we sat and dumb: + But each man's heart beat thick and quick, + Like a madman on a drum! + + With sudden shock the prison-clock + Smote on the shivering air, + And from all the gaol rose up a wail + Of impotent despair, + Like the sound the frightened marshes hear + From some leper in his lair. + + And as one sees most fearful things + In the crystal of a dream, + We saw the greasy hempen rope + Hooked to the blackened beam, + And heard the prayer the hangman's snare + Strangled into a scream. + + And all the woe that moved him so + That he gave that bitter cry, + And the wild regrets, and the bloody sweats, + None knew so well as I: + For he who lives more lives than one + More deaths that one must die. + + IV + + There is no chapel on the day + On which they hang a man: + The Chaplain's heart is far too sick, + Or his face is far too wan, + Or there is that written in his eyes + Which none should look upon. + + So they kept us close till nigh on noon, + And then they rang the bell, + And the warders with their jingling keys + Opened each listening cell, + And down the iron stair we tramped, + Each from his separate Hell. + + Out into God's sweet air we went, + But not in wonted way, + For this man's face was white with fear, + And that man's face was gray, + And I never saw sad men who looked + So wistfully at the day. + + I never saw sad men who looked + With such a wistful eye + Upon that little tent of blue + We prisoners called the sky, + And at every happy cloud that passed + In such strange freedom by. + + But there were those amongst us all + Who walked with downcast head, + And knew that, had each got his due, + They should have died instead: + He had but killed a thing that lived, + Whilst they had killed the dead. + + For he who sins a second time + Wakes a dead soul to pain, + And draws it from its spotted shroud + And makes it bleed again, + And makes it bleed great gouts of blood, + And makes it bleed in vain! + + Like ape or clown, in monstrous garb + With crooked arrows starred, + Silently we went round and round + The slippery asphalte yard; + Silently we went round and round, + And no man spoke a word. + + Silently we went round and round, + And through each hollow mind + The Memory of dreadful things + Rushed like a dreadful wind, + And Horror stalked before each man, + And Terror crept behind. + + The warders strutted up and down, + And watched their herd of brutes, + Their uniforms were spick and span, + And they wore their Sunday suits, + But we knew the work they had been at, + By the quicklime on their boots. + + For where a grave had opened wide, + There was no grave at all: + Only a stretch of mud and sand + By the hideous prison-wall, + And a little heap of burning lime, + That the man should have his pall. + + For he has a pall, this wretched man, + Such as few men can claim: + Deep down below a prison-yard, + Naked, for greater shame, + He lies, with fetters on each foot, + Wrapt in a sheet of flame! + + And all the while the burning lime + Eats flesh and bone away, + It eats the brittle bones by night, + And the soft flesh by day, + It eats the flesh and bone by turns, + But it eats the heart alway. + + For three long years they will not sow + Or root or seedling there: + For three long years the unblessed spot + Will sterile be and bare, + And look upon the wondering sky + With unreproachful stare. + + They think a murderer's heart would taint + Each simple seed they sow. + It is not true! God's kindly earth + Is kindlier than men know, + And the red rose would but glow more red, + The white rose whiter blow. + + Out of his mouth a red, red rose! + Out of his heart a white! + For who can say by what strange way, + Christ brings His will to light, + Since the barren staff the pilgrim bore + Bloomed in the great Pope's sight? + + But neither milk-white rose nor red + May bloom in prison air; + The shard, the pebble, and the flint, + Are what they give us there: + For flowers have been known to heal + A common man's despair. + + So never will wine-red rose or white, + Petal by petal, fall + On that stretch of mud and sand that lies + By the hideous prison-wall, + To tell the men who tramp the yard + That God's Son died for all. + + Yet though the hideous prison-wall + Still hems him round and round, + And a spirit may not walk by night + That is with fetters bound, + And a spirit may but weep that lies + In such unholy ground, + + He is at peace- this wretched man- + At peace, or will be soon: + There is no thing to make him mad, + Nor does Terror walk at noon, + For the lampless Earth in which he lies + Has neither Sun nor Moon. + + They hanged him as a beast is hanged: + They did not even toll + A requiem that might have brought + Rest to his startled soul, + But hurriedly they took him out, + And hid him in a hole. + + The warders stripped him of his clothes, + And gave him to the flies: + They mocked the swollen purple throat, + And the stark and staring eyes: + And with laughter loud they heaped the shroud + In which the convict lies. + + The Chaplain would not kneel to pray + By his dishonoured grave: + Nor mark it with that blessed Cross + That Christ for sinners gave, + Because the man was one of those + Whom Christ came down to save. + + Yet all is well; he has but passed + To Life's appointed bourne: + And alien tears will fill for him + Pity's long-broken urn, + For his mourners be outcast men, + And outcasts always mourn. + + V + + I know not whether Laws be right, + Or whether Laws be wrong; + All that we know who lie in gaol + Is that the wall is strong; + And that each day is like a year, + A year whose days are long. + + But this I know, that every Law + That men have made for Man, + Since first Man took His brother's life, + And the sad world began, + But straws the wheat and saves the chaff + With a most evil fan. + + This too I know- and wise it were + If each could know the same- + That every prison that men build + Is built with bricks of shame, + And bound with bars lest Christ should see + How men their brothers maim. + + With bars they blur the gracious moon, + And blind the goodly sun: + And they do well to hide their Hell, + For in it things are done + That Son of God nor son of Man + Ever should look upon! + + The vilest deeds like poison weeds + Bloom well in prison-air: + It is only what is good in Man + That wastes and withers there: + Pale Anguish keeps the heavy gate, + And the warder is Despair. + + For they starve the little frightened child + Till it weeps both night and day: + And they scourge the weak, and flog the fool, + And gibe the old and gray, + And some grow mad, and all grow bad, + And none a word may say. + + Each narrow cell in which we dwell + Is a foul and dark latrine, + And the fetid breath of living Death + Chokes up each grated screen, + And all, but Lust, is turned to dust + In Humanity's machine. + + The brackish water that we drink + Creeps with a loathsome slime, + And the bitter bread they weigh in scales + Is full of chalk and lime, + And Sleep will not lie down, but walks + Wild-eyed, and cries to Time. + + But though lean Hunger and green Thirst + Like asp with adder fight, + We have little care of prison fare, + For what chills and kills outright + Is that every stone one lifts by day + Becomes one's heart by night. + + With midnight always in one's heart, + And twilight in one's cell, + We turn the crank, or tear the rope, + Each in his separate Hell, + And the silence is more awful far + Than the sound of a brazen bell. + + And never a human voice comes near + To speak a gentle word: + And the eye that watches through the door + Is pitiless and hard: + And by all forgot, we rot and rot, + With soul and body marred. + + And thus we rust Life's iron chain + Degraded and alone: + And some men curse, and some men weep, + And some men make no moan: + But God's eternal Laws are kind + And break the heart of stone. + + And every human heart that breaks, + In prison-cell or yard, + Is as that broken box that gave + Its treasure to the Lord, + And filled the unclean leper's house + With the scent of costliest nard. + + 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? + + And he of the swollen purple throat, + And the stark and staring eyes, + Waits for the holy hands that took + The Thief to Paradise; + And a broken and a contrite heart + The Lord will not despise. + + The man in red who reads the Law + Gave him three weeks of life, + Three little weeks in which to heal + His soul of his soul's strife, + And cleanse from every blot of blood + The hand that held the knife. + + And with tears of blood he cleansed the hand, + The hand that held the steel: + For only blood can wipe out blood, + And only tears can heal: + And the crimson stain that was of Cain + Became Christ's snow-white seal. + + VI + + In Reading gaol by Reading town + There is a pit of shame, + And in it lies a wretched man + Eaten by teeth of flame, + In a burning winding-sheet he lies, + And his grave has got no name. + + And there, till Christ call forth the dead, + In silence let him lie: + No need to waste the foolish tear, + Or heave the windy sigh: + The man had killed the thing he loved, + And so he had to die. + + And all men kill the thing they love, + By all 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! +</pre> + + + + + </td> + </tr> + </table> + + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + + + +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Ballad of Reading Gaol, by Oscar Wilde + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BALLAD OF READING GAOL *** + +***** This file should be named 301-h.htm or 301-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/301/ + +Produced by Faith Knowles, David Widger, and an Anonymous Volunteer + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Ballad of Reading Gaol + +Author: Oscar Wilde + +Posting Date: July 10, 2008 [EBook #301] +Release Date: July, 1995 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BALLAD OF READING GAOL *** + + + + +Produced by Faith Knowles and an Anonymous Volunteer + + + + + +THE BALLAD OF READING GAOL + +By Oscar Wilde + + + + + In Memoriam + C.T.W. + Sometime Trooper of the Royal Horse Guards. + Obiit H.M. Prison, Reading, Berkshire, + July 7th, 1896 + Presented by Project Gutenberg on the 99th Anniversary. + + + +Contents: + +Version One + +Version Two + + + + + +Version One + + + + I. + + 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 fellow's 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. + + + + II. + + Six weeks our guardsman walked the yard, + In a suit of shabby grey: + His 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 wandering cloud that trailed + Its raveled fleeces by. + + He did not wring his hands, as do + Those witless men who dare + To try to rear the changeling Hope + In the cave of black Despair: + He only looked upon the sun, + And drank the morning air. + + He did not wring his hands nor weep, + Nor did he peek or pine, + But he drank the air as though it held + Some healthful anodyne; + With open mouth he drank the sun + As though it had been wine! + + And I and all the souls in pain, + Who tramped the other ring, + Forgot if we ourselves had done + A great or little thing, + And watched with gaze of dull amaze + The man who had to swing. + + And strange it was to see him pass + With a step so light and gay, + And strange it was to see him look + So wistfully at the day, + And strange it was to think that he + Had such a debt to pay. + + For oak and elm have pleasant leaves + That in the spring-time shoot: + But grim to see is the gallows-tree, + With its adder-bitten root, + And, green or dry, a man must die + Before it bears its fruit! + + The loftiest place is that seat of grace + For which all worldlings try: + But who would stand in hempen band + Upon a scaffold high, + And through a murderer's collar take + His last look at the sky? + + It is sweet to dance to violins + When Love and Life are fair: + To dance to flutes, to dance to lutes + Is delicate and rare: + But it is not sweet with nimble feet + To dance upon the air! + + So with curious eyes and sick surmise + We watched him day by day, + And wondered if each one of us + Would end the self-same way, + For none can tell to what red Hell + His sightless soul may stray. + + At last the dead man walked no more + Amongst the Trial Men, + And I knew that he was standing up + In the black dock's dreadful pen, + And that never would I see his face + In God's sweet world again. + + Like two doomed ships that pass in storm + We had crossed each other's way: + But we made no sign, we said no word, + We had no word to say; + For we did not meet in the holy night, + But in the shameful day. + + A prison wall was round us both, + Two outcast men were we: + The world had thrust us from its heart, + And God from out His care: + And the iron gin that waits for Sin + Had caught us in its snare. + + In Debtors' Yard the stones are hard, + And the dripping wall is high, + So it was there he took the air + Beneath the leaden sky, + And by each side a Warder walked, + For fear the man might die. + + Or else he sat with those who watched + His anguish night and day; + Who watched him when he rose to weep, + And when he crouched to pray; + Who watched him lest himself should rob + Their scaffold of its prey. + + The Governor was strong upon + The Regulations Act: + The Doctor said that Death was but + A scientific fact: + And twice a day the Chaplain called + And left a little tract. + + And twice a day he smoked his pipe, + And drank his quart of beer: + His soul was resolute, and held + No hiding-place for fear; + He often said that he was glad + The hangman's hands were near. + + But why he said so strange a thing + No Warder dared to ask: + For he to whom a watcher's doom + Is given as his task, + Must set a lock upon his lips, + And make his face a mask. + + Or else he might be moved, and try + To comfort or console: + And what should Human Pity do + Pent up in Murderers' Hole? + What word of grace in such a place + Could help a brother's soul? + + With slouch and swing around the ring + We trod the Fool's Parade! + We did not care: we knew we were + The Devil's Own Brigade: + And shaven head and feet of lead + Make a merry masquerade. + + We tore the tarry rope to shreds + With blunt and bleeding nails; + We rubbed the doors, and scrubbed the floors, + And cleaned the shining rails: + And, rank by rank, we soaped the plank, + And clattered with the pails. + + We sewed the sacks, we broke the stones, + We turned the dusty drill: + We banged the tins, and bawled the hymns, + And sweated on the mill: + But in the heart of every man + Terror was lying still. + + So still it lay that every day + Crawled like a weed-clogged wave: + And we forgot the bitter lot + That waits for fool and knave, + Till once, as we tramped in from work, + We passed an open grave. + + With yawning mouth the yellow hole + Gaped for a living thing; + The very mud cried out for blood + To the thirsty asphalte ring: + And we knew that ere one dawn grew fair + Some prisoner had to swing. + + Right in we went, with soul intent + On Death and Dread and Doom: + The hangman, with his little bag, + Went shuffling through the gloom + And each man trembled as he crept + Into his numbered tomb. + + That night the empty corridors + Were full of forms of Fear, + And up and down the iron town + Stole feet we could not hear, + And through the bars that hide the stars + White faces seemed to peer. + + He lay as one who lies and dreams + In a pleasant meadow-land, + The watcher watched him as he slept, + And could not understand + How one could sleep so sweet a sleep + With a hangman close at hand? + + But there is no sleep when men must weep + Who never yet have wept: + So we--the fool, the fraud, the knave-- + That endless vigil kept, + And through each brain on hands of pain + Another's terror crept. + + Alas! it is a fearful thing + To feel another's guilt! + For, right within, the sword of Sin + Pierced to its poisoned hilt, + And as molten lead were the tears we shed + For the blood we had not spilt. + + The Warders with their shoes of felt + Crept by each padlocked door, + And peeped and saw, with eyes of awe, + Grey figures on the floor, + And wondered why men knelt to pray + Who never prayed before. + + All through the night we knelt and prayed, + Mad mourners of a corpse! + The troubled plumes of midnight were + The plumes upon a hearse: + And bitter wine upon a sponge + Was the savior of Remorse. + + The cock crew, the red cock crew, + But never came the day: + And crooked shape of Terror crouched, + In the corners where we lay: + And each evil sprite that walks by night + Before us seemed to play. + + They glided past, they glided fast, + Like travelers through a mist: + They mocked the moon in a rigadoon + Of delicate turn and twist, + And with formal pace and loathsome grace + The phantoms kept their tryst. + + With mop and mow, we saw them go, + Slim shadows hand in hand: + About, about, in ghostly rout + They trod a saraband: + And the damned grotesques made arabesques, + Like the wind upon the sand! + + With the pirouettes of marionettes, + They tripped on pointed tread: + But with flutes of Fear they filled the ear, + As their grisly masque they led, + And loud they sang, and loud they sang, + For they sang to wake the dead. + + "Oho!" they cried, "The world is wide, + But fettered limbs go lame! + And once, or twice, to throw the dice + Is a gentlemanly game, + But he does not win who plays with Sin + In the secret House of Shame." + No things of air these antics were + That frolicked with such glee: + To men whose lives were held in gyves, + And whose feet might not go free, + Ah! wounds of Christ! they were living things, + Most terrible to see. + Around, around, they waltzed and wound; + Some wheeled in smirking pairs: + With the mincing step of demirep + Some sidled up the stairs: + And with subtle sneer, and fawning leer, + Each helped us at our prayers. + + The morning wind began to moan, + But still the night went on: + Through its giant loom the web of gloom + Crept till each thread was spun: + And, as we prayed, we grew afraid + Of the Justice of the Sun. + + The moaning wind went wandering round + The weeping prison-wall: + Till like a wheel of turning-steel + We felt the minutes crawl: + O moaning wind! what had we done + To have such a seneschal? + + At last I saw the shadowed bars + Like a lattice wrought in lead, + Move right across the whitewashed wall + That faced my three-plank bed, + And I knew that somewhere in the world + God's dreadful dawn was red. + + At six o'clock we cleaned our cells, + At seven all was still, + But the sough and swing of a mighty wing + The prison seemed to fill, + For the Lord of Death with icy breath + Had entered in to kill. + + He did not pass in purple pomp, + Nor ride a moon-white steed. + Three yards of cord and a sliding board + Are all the gallows' need: + So with rope of shame the Herald came + To do the secret deed. + + We were as men who through a fen + Of filthy darkness grope: + We did not dare to breathe a prayer, + Or give our anguish scope: + Something was dead in each of us, + And what was dead was Hope. + + For Man's grim Justice goes its way, + And will not swerve aside: + It slays the weak, it slays the strong, + It has a deadly stride: + With iron heel it slays the strong, + The monstrous parricide! + + We waited for the stroke of eight: + Each tongue was thick with thirst: + For the stroke of eight is the stroke of Fate + That makes a man accursed, + And Fate will use a running noose + For the best man and the worst. + + We had no other thing to do, + Save to wait for the sign to come: + So, like things of stone in a valley lone, + Quiet we sat and dumb: + But each man's heart beat thick and quick + Like a madman on a drum! + + With sudden shock the prison-clock + Smote on the shivering air, + And from all the gaol rose up a wail + Of impotent despair, + Like the sound that frightened marshes hear + From a leper in his lair. + + And as one sees most fearful things + In the crystal of a dream, + We saw the greasy hempen rope + Hooked to the blackened beam, + And heard the prayer the hangman's snare + Strangled into a scream. + + And all the woe that moved him so + That he gave that bitter cry, + And the wild regrets, and the bloody sweats, + None knew so well as I: + For he who live more lives than one + More deaths than one must die. + + + + IV. + + There is no chapel on the day + On which they hang a man: + The Chaplain's heart is far too sick, + Or his face is far to wan, + Or there is that written in his eyes + Which none should look upon. + + So they kept us close till nigh on noon, + And then they rang the bell, + And the Warders with their jingling keys + Opened each listening cell, + And down the iron stair we tramped, + Each from his separate Hell. + + Out into God's sweet air we went, + But not in wonted way, + For this man's face was white with fear, + And that man's face was grey, + And I never saw sad men who looked + So wistfully at the day. + + I never saw sad men who looked + With such a wistful eye + Upon that little tent of blue + We prisoners called the sky, + And at every careless cloud that passed + In happy freedom by. + + But there were those amongst us all + Who walked with downcast head, + And knew that, had each got his due, + They should have died instead: + He had but killed a thing that lived + Whilst they had killed the dead. + + For he who sins a second time + Wakes a dead soul to pain, + And draws it from its spotted shroud, + And makes it bleed again, + And makes it bleed great gouts of blood + And makes it bleed in vain! + + Like ape or clown, in monstrous garb + With crooked arrows starred, + Silently we went round and round + The slippery asphalte yard; + Silently we went round and round, + And no man spoke a word. + + Silently we went round and round, + And through each hollow mind + The memory of dreadful things + Rushed like a dreadful wind, + An Horror stalked before each man, + And terror crept behind. + + The Warders strutted up and down, + And kept their herd of brutes, + Their uniforms were spick and span, + And they wore their Sunday suits, + But we knew the work they had been at + By the quicklime on their boots. + + For where a grave had opened wide, + There was no grave at all: + Only a stretch of mud and sand + By the hideous prison-wall, + And a little heap of burning lime, + That the man should have his pall. + + For he has a pall, this wretched man, + Such as few men can claim: + Deep down below a prison-yard, + Naked for greater shame, + He lies, with fetters on each foot, + Wrapt in a sheet of flame! + + And all the while the burning lime + Eats flesh and bone away, + It eats the brittle bone by night, + And the soft flesh by the day, + It eats the flesh and bones by turns, + But it eats the heart alway. + + For three long years they will not sow + Or root or seedling there: + For three long years the unblessed spot + Will sterile be and bare, + And look upon the wondering sky + With unreproachful stare. + + They think a murderer's heart would taint + Each simple seed they sow. + It is not true! God's kindly earth + Is kindlier than men know, + And the red rose would but blow more red, + The white rose whiter blow. + + Out of his mouth a red, red rose! + Out of his heart a white! + For who can say by what strange way, + Christ brings his will to light, + Since the barren staff the pilgrim bore + Bloomed in the great Pope's sight? + + But neither milk-white rose nor red + May bloom in prison air; + The shard, the pebble, and the flint, + Are what they give us there: + For flowers have been known to heal + A common man's despair. + + So never will wine-red rose or white, + Petal by petal, fall + On that stretch of mud and sand that lies + By the hideous prison-wall, + To tell the men who tramp the yard + That God's Son died for all. + + Yet though the hideous prison-wall + Still hems him round and round, + And a spirit may not walk by night + That is with fetters bound, + And a spirit may but weep that lies + In such unholy ground, + + He is at peace--this wretched man-- + At peace, or will be soon: + There is no thing to make him mad, + Nor does Terror walk at noon, + For the lampless Earth in which he lies + Has neither Sun nor Moon. + + They hanged him as a beast is hanged: + They did not even toll + A requiem that might have brought + Rest to his startled soul, + But hurriedly they took him out, + And hid him in a hole. + + They stripped him of his canvas clothes, + And gave him to the flies; + They mocked the swollen purple throat + And the stark and staring eyes: + And with laughter loud they heaped the shroud + In which their convict lies. + + The Chaplain would not kneel to pray + By his dishonored grave: + Nor mark it with that blessed Cross + That Christ for sinners gave, + Because the man was one of those + Whom Christ came down to save. + + Yet all is well; he has but passed + To Life's appointed bourne: + And alien tears will fill for him + Pity's long-broken urn, + For his mourner will be outcast men, + And outcasts always mourn. + + + + V. + + I know not whether Laws be right, + Or whether Laws be wrong; + All that we know who lie in gaol + Is that the wall is strong; + And that each day is like a year, + A year whose days are long. + + But this I know, that every Law + That men have made for Man, + Since first Man took his brother's life, + And the sad world began, + But straws the wheat and saves the chaff + With a most evil fan. + + This too I know--and wise it were + If each could know the same-- + That every prison that men build + Is built with bricks of shame, + And bound with bars lest Christ should see + How men their brothers maim. + + With bars they blur the gracious moon, + And blind the goodly sun: + And they do well to hide their Hell, + For in it things are done + That Son of God nor son of Man + Ever should look upon! + + The vilest deeds like poison weeds + Bloom well in prison-air: + It is only what is good in Man + That wastes and withers there: + Pale Anguish keeps the heavy gate, + And the Warder is Despair + + For they starve the little frightened child + Till it weeps both night and day: + And they scourge the weak, and flog the fool, + And gibe the old and grey, + And some grow mad, and all grow bad, + And none a word may say. + + Each narrow cell in which we dwell + Is a foul and dark latrine, + And the fetid breath of living Death + Chokes up each grated screen, + And all, but Lust, is turned to dust + In Humanity's machine. + + The brackish water that we drink + Creeps with a loathsome slime, + And the bitter bread they weigh in scales + Is full of chalk and lime, + And Sleep will not lie down, but walks + Wild-eyed and cries to Time. + + But though lean Hunger and green Thirst + Like asp with adder fight, + We have little care of prison fare, + For what chills and kills outright + Is that every stone one lifts by day + Becomes one's heart by night. + + With midnight always in one's heart, + And twilight in one's cell, + We turn the crank, or tear the rope, + Each in his separate Hell, + And the silence is more awful far + Than the sound of a brazen bell. + + And never a human voice comes near + To speak a gentle word: + And the eye that watches through the door + Is pitiless and hard: + And by all forgot, we rot and rot, + With soul and body marred. + + And thus we rust Life's iron chain + Degraded and alone: + And some men curse, and some men weep, + And some men make no moan: + But God's eternal Laws are kind + And break the heart of stone. + + And every human heart that breaks, + In prison-cell or yard, + Is as that broken box that gave + Its treasure to the Lord, + And filled the unclean leper's house + With the scent of costliest nard. + + Ah! happy day 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? + + And he of the swollen purple throat. + And the stark and staring eyes, + Waits for the holy hands that took + The Thief to Paradise; + And a broken and a contrite heart + The Lord will not despise. + + The man in red who reads the Law + Gave him three weeks of life, + Three little weeks in which to heal + His soul of his soul's strife, + And cleanse from every blot of blood + The hand that held the knife. + + And with tears of blood he cleansed the hand, + The hand that held the steel: + For only blood can wipe out blood, + And only tears can heal: + And the crimson stain that was of Cain + Became Christ's snow-white seal. + + + + VI. + + In Reading gaol by Reading town + There is a pit of shame, + And in it lies a wretched man + Eaten by teeth of flame, + In burning winding-sheet he lies, + And his grave has got no name. + + And there, till Christ call forth the dead, + In silence let him lie: + No need to waste the foolish tear, + Or heave the windy sigh: + The man had killed the thing he loved, + And so he had to die. + + And all men kill the thing they love, + By all 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! + + + + + +Version Two + + + I + + 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 gray; + 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 fellow's 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 haunted 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 space. + + 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 feel that sickening thirst + That sands one's throat, before + The hangman with his gardener's gloves + Comes 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 anguish 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. + + + + II + + Six weeks the guardsman walked the yard, + In the suit of shabby gray: + His cricket cap was on his head, + And his step was 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 wandering cloud that trailed + Its ravelled fleeces by. + + He did not wring his hands, as do + Those witless men who dare + To try to rear the changeling Hope + In the cave of black Despair: + He only looked upon the sun, + And drank the morning air. + + He did not wring his hands nor weep, + Nor did he peek or pine, + But he drank the air as though it held + Some healthful anodyne; + With open mouth he drank the sun + As though it had been wine! + + And I and all the souls in pain, + Who tramped the other ring, + Forgot if we ourselves had done + A great or little thing, + And watched with gaze of dull amaze + The man who had to swing. + + For strange it was to see him pass + With a step so light and gay, + And strange it was to see him look + So wistfully at the day, + And strange it was to think that he + Had such a debt to pay. + + The oak and elm have pleasant leaves + That in the spring-time shoot: + But grim to see is the gallows-tree, + With its alder-bitten root, + And, green or dry, a man must die + Before it bears its fruit! + + The loftiest place is the seat of grace + For which all worldlings try: + But who would stand in hempen band + Upon a scaffold high, + And through a murderer's collar take + His last look at the sky? + + It is sweet to dance to violins + When Love and Life are fair: + To dance to flutes, to dance to lutes + Is delicate and rare: + But it is not sweet with nimble feet + To dance upon the air! + + So with curious eyes and sick surmise + We watched him day by day, + And wondered if each one of us + Would end the self-same way, + For none can tell to what red Hell + His sightless soul may stray. + + At last the dead man walked no more + Amongst the Trial Men, + And I knew that he was standing up + In the black dock's dreadful pen, + And that never would I see his face + For weal or woe again. + + Like two doomed ships that pass in storm + We had crossed each other's way: + But we made no sign, we said no word, + We had no word to say; + For we did not meet in the holy night, + But in the shameful day. + + A prison wall was round us both, + Two outcast men we were: + The world had thrust us from its heart, + And God from out His care: + And the iron gin that waits for Sin + Had caught us in its snare. + III + + In Debtors' Yard the stones are hard, + And the dripping wall is high, + So it was there he took the air + Beneath the leaden sky, + And by each side a warder walked, + For fear the man might die. + + Or else he sat with those who watched + His anguish night and day; + Who watched him when he rose to weep, + And when he crouched to pray; + Who watched him lest himself should rob + Their scaffold of its prey. + + The Governor was strong upon + The Regulations Act: + The Doctor said that Death was but + A scientific fact: + And twice a day the Chaplain called, + And left a little tract. + + And twice a day he smoked his pipe, + And drank his quart of beer: + His soul was resolute, and held + No hiding-place for fear; + He often said that he was glad + The hangman's day was near. + + But why he said so strange a thing + No warder dared to ask: + For he to whom a watcher's doom + Is given as his task, + Must set a lock upon his lips, + And make his face a mask. + + Or else he might be moved, and try + To comfort or console: + And what should Human Pity do + Pent up in Murderers' Hole? + What word of grace in such a place + Could help a brother's soul? + + With slouch and swing around the ring + We trod the Fools' Parade! + We did not care: we knew we were + The Devils' Own Brigade: + And shaven head and feet of lead + Make a merry masquerade. + + We tore the tarry rope to shreds + With blunt and bleeding nails; + We rubbed the doors, and scrubbed the floors, + And cleaned the shining rails: + And, rank by rank, we soaped the plank, + And clattered with the pails. + + We sewed the sacks, we broke the stones, + We turned the dusty drill: + We banged the tins, and bawled the hymns, + And sweated on the mill: + But in the heart of every man + Terror was lying still. + + So still it lay that every day + Crawled like a weed-clogged wave: + And we forgot the bitter lot + That waits for fool and knave, + Till once, as we tramped in from work, + We passed an open grave. + + With yawning mouth the horrid hole + Gaped for a living thing; + The very mud cried out for blood + To the thirsty asphalte ring: + And we knew that ere one dawn grew fair + The fellow had to swing. + + Right in we went, with soul intent + On Death and Dread and Doom: + The hangman, with his little bag, + Went shuffling through the gloom: + And I trembled as I groped my way + Into my numbered tomb. + + That night the empty corridors + Were full of forms of Fear, + And up and down the iron town + Stole feet we could not hear, + And through the bars that hide the stars + White faces seemed to peer. + + He lay as one who lies and dreams + In a pleasant meadow-land, + The watchers watched him as he slept, + And could not understand + How one could sleep so sweet a sleep + With a hangman close at hand. + + But there is no sleep when men must weep + Who never yet have wept: + So we- the fool, the fraud, the knave- + That endless vigil kept, + And through each brain on hands of pain + Another's terror crept. + + Alas! it is a fearful thing + To feel another's guilt! + For, right within, the sword of Sin + Pierced to its poisoned hilt, + And as molten lead were the tears we shed + For the blood we had not spilt. + + The warders with their shoes of felt + Crept by each padlocked door, + And peeped and saw, with eyes of awe, + Gray figures on the floor, + And wondered why men knelt to pray + Who never prayed before. + + All through the night we knelt and prayed, + Mad mourners of a corse! + The troubled plumes of midnight shook + Like the plumes upon a hearse: + And as bitter wine upon a sponge + Was the savour of Remorse. + + The gray cock crew, the red cock crew, + But never came the day: + And crooked shapes of Terror crouched, + In the corners where we lay: + And each evil sprite that walks by night + Before us seemed to play. + + They glided past, the glided fast, + Like travellers through a mist: + They mocked the moon in a rigadoon + Of delicate turn and twist, + And with formal pace and loathsome grace + The phantoms kept their tryst. + + With mop and mow, we saw them go, + Slim shadows hand in hand: + About, about, in ghostly rout + They trod a saraband: + And the damned grotesques made arabesques, + Like the wind upon the sand! + + With the pirouettes of marionettes, + They tripped on pointed tread: + But with flutes of Fear they filled the ear, + As their grisly masque they led, + And loud they sang, and long they sang, + For they sang to wake the dead. + + "Oho!" they cried, "the world is wide, + But fettered limbs go lame! + And once, or twice, to throw the dice + Is a gentlemanly game, + But he does not win who plays with Sin + In the secret House of Shame." + + No things of air these antics were, + That frolicked with such glee: + To men whose lives were held in gyves, + And whose feet might not go free, + Ah! wounds of Christ! they were living things, + Most terrible to see. + + Around, around, they waltzed and wound; + Some wheeled in smirking pairs; + With the mincing step of a demirep + Some sidled up the stairs: + And with subtle sneer, and fawning leer, + Each helped us at our prayers. + + The morning wind began to moan, + But still the night went on: + Through its giant loom the web of gloom + Crept till each thread was spun: + And, as we prayed, we grew afraid + Of the Justice of the Sun. + + The moaning wind went wandering round + The weeping prison wall: + Till like a wheel of turning steel + We felt the minutes crawl: + O moaning wind! what had we done + To have such a seneschal? + + At last I saw the shadowed bars, + Like a lattice wrought in lead, + Move right across the whitewashed wall + That faced my three-plank bed, + And I knew that somewhere in the world + God's dreadful dawn was red. + + At six o'clock we cleaned our cells, + At seven all was still, + But the sough and swing of a mighty wing + The prison seemed to fill, + For the Lord of Death with icy breath + Had entered in to kill. + + He did not pass in purple pomp, + Nor ride a moon-white steed. + Three yards of cord and a sliding board + Are all the gallows' need: + So with rope of shame the Herald came + To do the secret deed. + + We were as men who through a fen + Of filthy darkness grope: + We did not dare to breathe a prayer, + Or to give our anguish scope: + Something was dead in each of us, + And what was dead was Hope. + + For Man's grim Justice goes its way + And will not swerve aside: + It slays the weak, it slays the strong, + It has a deadly stride: + With iron heel it slays the strong + The monstrous parricide! + + We waited for the stroke of eight: + Each tongue was thick with thirst: + For the stroke of eight is the stroke of Fate + That makes a man accursed, + And Fate will use a running noose + For the best man and the worst. + + We had no other thing to do, + Save to wait for the sign to come: + So, like things of stone in a valley lone, + Quiet we sat and dumb: + But each man's heart beat thick and quick, + Like a madman on a drum! + + With sudden shock the prison-clock + Smote on the shivering air, + And from all the gaol rose up a wail + Of impotent despair, + Like the sound the frightened marshes hear + From some leper in his lair. + + And as one sees most fearful things + In the crystal of a dream, + We saw the greasy hempen rope + Hooked to the blackened beam, + And heard the prayer the hangman's snare + Strangled into a scream. + + And all the woe that moved him so + That he gave that bitter cry, + And the wild regrets, and the bloody sweats, + None knew so well as I: + For he who lives more lives than one + More deaths that one must die. + IV + + There is no chapel on the day + On which they hang a man: + The Chaplain's heart is far too sick, + Or his face is far too wan, + Or there is that written in his eyes + Which none should look upon. + + So they kept us close till nigh on noon, + And then they rang the bell, + And the warders with their jingling keys + Opened each listening cell, + And down the iron stair we tramped, + Each from his separate Hell. + + Out into God's sweet air we went, + But not in wonted way, + For this man's face was white with fear, + And that man's face was gray, + And I never saw sad men who looked + So wistfully at the day. + + I never saw sad men who looked + With such a wistful eye + Upon that little tent of blue + We prisoners called the sky, + And at every happy cloud that passed + In such strange freedom by. + + But there were those amongst us all + Who walked with downcast head, + And knew that, had each got his due, + They should have died instead: + He had but killed a thing that lived, + Whilst they had killed the dead. + + For he who sins a second time + Wakes a dead soul to pain, + And draws it from its spotted shroud + And makes it bleed again, + And makes it bleed great gouts of blood, + And makes it bleed in vain! + + Like ape or clown, in monstrous garb + With crooked arrows starred, + Silently we went round and round + The slippery asphalte yard; + Silently we went round and round, + And no man spoke a word. + + Silently we went round and round, + And through each hollow mind + The Memory of dreadful things + Rushed like a dreadful wind, + And Horror stalked before each man, + And Terror crept behind. + + The warders strutted up and down, + And watched their herd of brutes, + Their uniforms were spick and span, + And they wore their Sunday suits, + But we knew the work they had been at, + By the quicklime on their boots. + + For where a grave had opened wide, + There was no grave at all: + Only a stretch of mud and sand + By the hideous prison-wall, + And a little heap of burning lime, + That the man should have his pall. + + For he has a pall, this wretched man, + Such as few men can claim: + Deep down below a prison-yard, + Naked, for greater shame, + He lies, with fetters on each foot, + Wrapt in a sheet of flame! + + And all the while the burning lime + Eats flesh and bone away, + It eats the brittle bones by night, + And the soft flesh by day, + It eats the flesh and bone by turns, + But it eats the heart alway. + + For three long years they will not sow + Or root or seedling there: + For three long years the unblessed spot + Will sterile be and bare, + And look upon the wondering sky + With unreproachful stare. + + They think a murderer's heart would taint + Each simple seed they sow. + It is not true! God's kindly earth + Is kindlier than men know, + And the red rose would but glow more red, + The white rose whiter blow. + + Out of his mouth a red, red rose! + Out of his heart a white! + For who can say by what strange way, + Christ brings His will to light, + Since the barren staff the pilgrim bore + Bloomed in the great Pope's sight? + + But neither milk-white rose nor red + May bloom in prison air; + The shard, the pebble, and the flint, + Are what they give us there: + For flowers have been known to heal + A common man's despair. + + So never will wine-red rose or white, + Petal by petal, fall + On that stretch of mud and sand that lies + By the hideous prison-wall, + To tell the men who tramp the yard + That God's Son died for all. + + Yet though the hideous prison-wall + Still hems him round and round, + And a spirit may not walk by night + That is with fetters bound, + And a spirit may but weep that lies + In such unholy ground, + + He is at peace- this wretched man- + At peace, or will be soon: + There is no thing to make him mad, + Nor does Terror walk at noon, + For the lampless Earth in which he lies + Has neither Sun nor Moon. + + They hanged him as a beast is hanged: + They did not even toll + A requiem that might have brought + Rest to his startled soul, + But hurriedly they took him out, + And hid him in a hole. + + The warders stripped him of his clothes, + And gave him to the flies: + They mocked the swollen purple throat, + And the stark and staring eyes: + And with laughter loud they heaped the shroud + In which the convict lies. + + The Chaplain would not kneel to pray + By his dishonoured grave: + Nor mark it with that blessed Cross + That Christ for sinners gave, + Because the man was one of those + Whom Christ came down to save. + + Yet all is well; he has but passed + To Life's appointed bourne: + And alien tears will fill for him + Pity's long-broken urn, + For his mourners be outcast men, + And outcasts always mourn. + V + + I know not whether Laws be right, + Or whether Laws be wrong; + All that we know who lie in gaol + Is that the wall is strong; + And that each day is like a year, + A year whose days are long. + + But this I know, that every Law + That men have made for Man, + Since first Man took His brother's life, + And the sad world began, + But straws the wheat and saves the chaff + With a most evil fan. + + This too I know- and wise it were + If each could know the same- + That every prison that men build + Is built with bricks of shame, + And bound with bars lest Christ should see + How men their brothers maim. + + With bars they blur the gracious moon, + And blind the goodly sun: + And they do well to hide their Hell, + For in it things are done + That Son of God nor son of Man + Ever should look upon! + + The vilest deeds like poison weeds + Bloom well in prison-air: + It is only what is good in Man + That wastes and withers there: + Pale Anguish keeps the heavy gate, + And the warder is Despair. + + For they starve the little frightened child + Till it weeps both night and day: + And they scourge the weak, and flog the fool, + And gibe the old and gray, + And some grow mad, and all grow bad, + And none a word may say. + + Each narrow cell in which we dwell + Is a foul and dark latrine, + And the fetid breath of living Death + Chokes up each grated screen, + And all, but Lust, is turned to dust + In Humanity's machine. + + The brackish water that we drink + Creeps with a loathsome slime, + And the bitter bread they weigh in scales + Is full of chalk and lime, + And Sleep will not lie down, but walks + Wild-eyed, and cries to Time. + + But though lean Hunger and green Thirst + Like asp with adder fight, + We have little care of prison fare, + For what chills and kills outright + Is that every stone one lifts by day + Becomes one's heart by night. + + With midnight always in one's heart, + And twilight in one's cell, + We turn the crank, or tear the rope, + Each in his separate Hell, + And the silence is more awful far + Than the sound of a brazen bell. + + And never a human voice comes near + To speak a gentle word: + And the eye that watches through the door + Is pitiless and hard: + And by all forgot, we rot and rot, + With soul and body marred. + + And thus we rust Life's iron chain + Degraded and alone: + And some men curse, and some men weep, + And some men make no moan: + But God's eternal Laws are kind + And break the heart of stone. + + And every human heart that breaks, + In prison-cell or yard, + Is as that broken box that gave + Its treasure to the Lord, + And filled the unclean leper's house + With the scent of costliest nard. + + 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? + + And he of the swollen purple throat, + And the stark and staring eyes, + Waits for the holy hands that took + The Thief to Paradise; + And a broken and a contrite heart + The Lord will not despise. + + The man in red who reads the Law + Gave him three weeks of life, + Three little weeks in which to heal + His soul of his soul's strife, + And cleanse from every blot of blood + The hand that held the knife. + + And with tears of blood he cleansed the hand, + The hand that held the steel: + For only blood can wipe out blood, + And only tears can heal: + And the crimson stain that was of Cain + Became Christ's snow-white seal. + VI + + In Reading gaol by Reading town + There is a pit of shame, + And in it lies a wretched man + Eaten by teeth of flame, + In a burning winding-sheet he lies, + And his grave has got no name. + + And there, till Christ call forth the dead, + In silence let him lie: + No need to waste the foolish tear, + Or heave the windy sigh: + The man had killed the thing he loved, + And so he had to die. + + And all men kill the thing they love, + By all 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! + + + THE END + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Ballad of Reading Gaol, by Oscar Wilde + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BALLAD OF READING GAOL *** + +***** This file should be named 301.txt or 301.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/301/ + +Produced by Faith Knowles and an Anonymous Volunteer + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Prison, Reading, Berkshire, +July 7th, 1896 +Presented by Project Gutenberg on the 99th Anniversary. + + + + +First version prepared by: + +Faith Knowles +faith@wile.thetech.org + + + + + +The Ballad of Reading Gaol + + +I. + +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. + + + +II. + +Six weeks our guardsman walked the yard, + In a suit of shabby grey: +His 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 wandering cloud that trailed + Its raveled fleeces by. + +He did not wring his hands, as do + Those witless men who dare +To try to rear the changeling Hope + In the cave of black Despair: +He only looked upon the sun, + And drank the morning air. + +He did not wring his hands nor weep, + Nor did he peek or pine, +But he drank the air as though it held + Some healthful anodyne; +With open mouth he drank the sun + As though it had been wine! + +And I and all the souls in pain, + Who tramped the other ring, +Forgot if we ourselves had done + A great or little thing, +And watched with gaze of dull amaze + The man who had to swing. + +And strange it was to see him pass + With a step so light and gay, +And strange it was to see him look + So wistfully at the day, +And strange it was to think that he + Had such a debt to pay. +___ +For oak and elm have pleasant leaves + That in the spring-time shoot: +But grim to see is the gallows-tree, + With its adder-bitten root, +And, green or dry, a man must die + Before it bears its fruit! + +The loftiest place is that seat of grace + For which all worldlings try: +But who would stand in hempen band + Upon a scaffold high, +And through a murderer's collar take + His last look at the sky? + +It is sweet to dance to violins + When Love and Life are fair: +To dance to flutes, to dance to lutes + Is delicate and rare: +But it is not sweet with nimble feet + To dance upon the air! + +So with curious eyes and sick surmise + We watched him day by day, +And wondered if each one of us + Would end the self-same way, +For none can tell to what red Hell + His sightless soul may stray. + +At last the dead man walked no more + Amongst the Trial Men, +And I knew that he was standing up + In the black dock's dreadful pen, +And that never would I see his face + In God's sweet world again. + +Like two doomed ships that pass in storm + We had crossed each other's way: +But we made no sign, we said no word, + We had no word to say; +For we did not meet in the holy night, + But in the shameful day. + +A prison wall was round us both, + Two outcast men were we: +The world had thrust us from its heart, + And God from out His care: +And the iron gin that waits for Sin + Had caught us in its snare. + +In Debtors' Yard the stones are hard, + And the dripping wall is high, +So it was there he took the air + Beneath the leaden sky, +And by each side a Warder walked, + For fear the man might die. + +Or else he sat with those who watched + His anguish night and day; +Who watched him when he rose to weep, + And when he crouched to pray; +Who watched him lest himself should rob + Their scaffold of its prey. + +The Governor was strong upon + The Regulations Act: +The Doctor said that Death was but + A scientific fact: +And twice a day the Chaplain called + And left a little tract. + +And twice a day he smoked his pipe, + And drank his quart of beer: +His soul was resolute, and held + No hiding-place for fear; +He often said that he was glad + The hangman's hands were near. + +But why he said so strange a thing + No Warder dared to ask: +For he to whom a watcher's doom + Is given as his task, +Must set a lock upon his lips, + And make his face a mask. + +Or else he might be moved, and try + To comfort or console: +And what should Human Pity do + Pent up in Murderers' Hole? +What word of grace in such a place + Could help a brother's soul? + +With slouch and swing around the ring + We trod the Fool's Parade! +We did not care: we knew we were + The Devil's Own Brigade: +And shaven head and feet of lead + Make a merry masquerade. + +We tore the tarry rope to shreds + With blunt and bleeding nails; +We rubbed the doors, and scrubbed the floors, + And cleaned the shining rails: +And, rank by rank, we soaped the plank, + And clattered with the pails. + +We sewed the sacks, we broke the stones, + We turned the dusty drill: +We banged the tins, and bawled the hymns, + And sweated on the mill: +But in the heart of every man + Terror was lying still. + +So still it lay that every day + Crawled like a weed-clogged wave: +And we forgot the bitter lot + That waits for fool and knave, +Till once, as we tramped in from work, + We passed an open grave. + +With yawning mouth the yellow hole + Gaped for a living thing; +The very mud cried out for blood + To the thirsty asphalte ring: +And we knew that ere one dawn grew fair + Some prisoner had to swing. + +Right in we went, with soul intent + On Death and Dread and Doom: +The hangman, with his little bag, + Went shuffling through the gloom +And each man trembled as he crept + Into his numbered tomb. +____ +That night the empty corridors + Were full of forms of Fear, +And up and down the iron town + Stole feet we could not hear, +And through the bars that hide the stars + White faces seemed to peer. + +He lay as one who lies and dreams + In a pleasant meadow-land, +The watcher watched him as he slept, + And could not understand +How one could sleep so sweet a sleep + With a hangman close at hand? + +But there is no sleep when men must weep + Who never yet have wept: +So we--the fool, the fraud, the knave-- + That endless vigil kept, +And through each brain on hands of pain + Another's terror crept. +___ +Alas! it is a fearful thing + To feel another's guilt! +For, right within, the sword of Sin + Pierced to its poisoned hilt, +And as molten lead were the tears we shed + For the blood we had not spilt. + +The Warders with their shoes of felt + Crept by each padlocked door, +And peeped and saw, with eyes of awe, + Grey figures on the floor, +And wondered why men knelt to pray + Who never prayed before. + +All through the night we knelt and prayed, + Mad mourners of a corpse! +The troubled plumes of midnight were + The plumes upon a hearse: +And bitter wine upon a sponge + Was the savior of Remorse. +___ +The cock crew, the red cock crew, + But never came the day: +And crooked shape of Terror crouched, + In the corners where we lay: +And each evil sprite that walks by night + Before us seemed to play. + +They glided past, they glided fast, + Like travelers through a mist: +They mocked the moon in a rigadoon + Of delicate turn and twist, +And with formal pace and loathsome grace + The phantoms kept their tryst. + +With mop and mow, we saw them go, + Slim shadows hand in hand: +About, about, in ghostly rout + They trod a saraband: +And the damned grotesques made arabesques, + Like the wind upon the sand! + +With the pirouettes of marionettes, + They tripped on pointed tread: +But with flutes of Fear they filled the ear, + As their grisly masque they led, +And loud they sang, and loud they sang, + For they sang to wake the dead. + +"Oho!" they cried, "The world is wide, + But fettered limbs go lame! +And once, or twice, to throw the dice + Is a gentlemanly game, +But he does not win who plays with Sin + In the secret House of Shame." +No things of air these antics were + That frolicked with such glee: +To men whose lives were held in gyves, + And whose feet might not go free, +Ah! wounds of Christ! they were living things, + Most terrible to see. +Around, around, they waltzed and wound; + Some wheeled in smirking pairs: +With the mincing step of demirep + Some sidled up the stairs: +And with subtle sneer, and fawning leer, + Each helped us at our prayers. +___ +The morning wind began to moan, + But still the night went on: +Through its giant loom the web of gloom + Crept till each thread was spun: +And, as we prayed, we grew afraid + Of the Justice of the Sun. + +The moaning wind went wandering round + The weeping prison-wall: +Till like a wheel of turning-steel + We felt the minutes crawl: +O moaning wind! what had we done + To have such a seneschal? + +At last I saw the shadowed bars + Like a lattice wrought in lead, +Move right across the whitewashed wall + That faced my three-plank bed, +And I knew that somewhere in the world + God's dreadful dawn was red. +___ +At six o'clock we cleaned our cells, + At seven all was still, +But the sough and swing of a mighty wing + The prison seemed to fill, +For the Lord of Death with icy breath + Had entered in to kill. + +He did not pass in purple pomp, + Nor ride a moon-white steed. +Three yards of cord and a sliding board + Are all the gallows' need: +So with rope of shame the Herald came + To do the secret deed. + +We were as men who through a fen + Of filthy darkness grope: +We did not dare to breathe a prayer, + Or give our anguish scope: +Something was dead in each of us, + And what was dead was Hope. + +For Man's grim Justice goes its way, + And will not swerve aside: +It slays the weak, it slays the strong, + It has a deadly stride: +With iron heel it slays the strong, + The monstrous parricide! + +We waited for the stroke of eight: + Each tongue was thick with thirst: +For the stroke of eight is the stroke of Fate + That makes a man accursed, +And Fate will use a running noose + For the best man and the worst. + +We had no other thing to do, + Save to wait for the sign to come: +So, like things of stone in a valley lone, + Quiet we sat and dumb: +But each man's heart beat thick and quick + Like a madman on a drum! + +With sudden shock the prison-clock + Smote on the shivering air, +And from all the gaol rose up a wail + Of impotent despair, +Like the sound that frightened marshes hear + From a leper in his lair. + +And as one sees most fearful things + In the crystal of a dream, +We saw the greasy hempen rope + Hooked to the blackened beam, +And heard the prayer the hangman's snare + Strangled into a scream. + +And all the woe that moved him so + That he gave that bitter cry, +And the wild regrets, and the bloody sweats, + None knew so well as I: +For he who live more lives than one + More deaths than one must die. + + + +IV. + +There is no chapel on the day + On which they hang a man: +The Chaplain's heart is far too sick, + Or his face is far to wan, +Or there is that written in his eyes + Which none should look upon. + +So they kept us close till nigh on noon, + And then they rang the bell, +And the Warders with their jingling keys + Opened each listening cell, +And down the iron stair we tramped, + Each from his separate Hell. + +Out into God's sweet air we went, + But not in wonted way, +For this man's face was white with fear, + And that man's face was grey, +And I never saw sad men who looked + So wistfully at the day. + +I never saw sad men who looked + With such a wistful eye +Upon that little tent of blue + We prisoners called the sky, +And at every careless cloud that passed + In happy freedom by. + +But their were those amongst us all + Who walked with downcast head, +And knew that, had each go his due, + They should have died instead: +He had but killed a thing that lived + Whilst they had killed the dead. + +For he who sins a second time + Wakes a dead soul to pain, +And draws it from its spotted shroud, + And makes it bleed again, +And makes it bleed great gouts of blood + And makes it bleed in vain! + +Like ape or clown, in monstrous garb + With crooked arrows starred, +Silently we went round and round + The slippery asphalte yard; +Silently we went round and round, + And no man spoke a word. + +Silently we went round and round, + And through each hollow mind +The memory of dreadful things + Rushed like a dreadful wind, +An Horror stalked before each man, + And terror crept behind. +___ +The Warders strutted up and down, + And kept their herd of brutes, +Their uniforms were spick and span, + And they wore their Sunday suits, +But we knew the work they had been at + By the quicklime on their boots. + +For where a grave had opened wide, + There was no grave at all: +Only a stretch of mud and sand + By the hideous prison-wall, +And a little heap of burning lime, + That the man should have his pall. + +For he has a pall, this wretched man, + Such as few men can claim: +Deep down below a prison-yard, + Naked for greater shame, +He lies, with fetters on each foot, + Wrapt in a sheet of flame! + +And all the while the burning lime + Eats flesh and bone away, +It eats the brittle bone by night, + And the soft flesh by the day, +It eats the flesh and bones by turns, + But it eats the heart alway. +___ +For three long years they will not sow + Or root or seedling there: +For three long years the unblessed spot + Will sterile be and bare, +And look upon the wondering sky + With unreproachful stare. + +They think a murderer's heart would taint + Each simple seed they sow. +It is not true! God's kindly earth + Is kindlier than men know, +And the red rose would but blow more red, + The white rose whiter blow. + +Out of his mouth a red, red rose! + Out of his heart a white! +For who can say by what strange way, + Christ brings his will to light, +Since the barren staff the pilgrim bore + Bloomed in the great Pope's sight? + +But neither milk-white rose nor red + May bloom in prison air; +The shard, the pebble, and the flint, + Are what they give us there: +For flowers have been known to heal + A common man's despair. + +So never will wine-red rose or white, + Petal by petal, fall +On that stretch of mud and sand that lies + By the hideous prison-wall, +To tell the men who tramp the yard + That God's Son died for all. + +Yet though the hideous prison-wall + Still hems him round and round, +And a spirit man not walk by night + That is with fetters bound, +And a spirit may not weep that lies + In such unholy ground, + +He is at peace--this wretched man-- + At peace, or will be soon: +There is no thing to make him mad, + Nor does Terror walk at noon, +For the lampless Earth in which he lies + Has neither Sun nor Moon. +___ +They hanged him as a beast is hanged: + They did not even toll +A reguiem that might have brought + Rest to his startled soul, +But hurriedly they took him out, + And hid him in a hole. + +They stripped him of his canvas clothes, + And gave him to the flies; +They mocked the swollen purple throat + And the stark and staring eyes: +And with laughter loud they heaped the shroud + In which their convict lies. + +The Chaplain would not kneel to pray + By his dishonored grave: +Nor mark it with that blessed Cross + That Christ for sinners gave, +Because the man was one of those + Whom Christ came down to save. + +Yet all is well; he has but passed + To Life's appointed bourne: +And alien tears will fill for him + Pity's long-broken urn, +For his mourner will be outcast men, + And outcasts always mourn. + + + +V. + +I know not whether Laws be right, + Or whether Laws be wrong; +All that we know who lie in goal + Is that the wall is strong; +And that each day is like a year, + A year whose days are long. + +But this I know, that every Law + That men have made for Man, +Since first Man took his brother's life, + And the sad world began, +But straws the wheat and saves the chaff + With a most evil fan. + +This too I know--and wise it were + If each could know the same-- +That every prison that men build + Is built with bricks of shame, +And bound with bars lest Christ should see + How men their brothers maim. + +With bars they blur the gracious moon, + And blind the goodly sun: +And they do well to hide their Hell, + For in it things are done +That Son of God nor son of Man + Ever should look upon! +___ +The vilest deeds like poison weeds + Bloom well in prison-air: +It is only what is good in Man + That wastes and withers there: +Pale Anguish keeps the heavy gate, + And the Warder is Despair + +For they starve the little frightened child + Till it weeps both night and day: +And they scourge the weak, and flog the fool, + And gibe the old and grey, +And some grow mad, and all grow bad, +And none a word may say. + +Each narrow cell in which we dwell + Is foul and dark latrine, +And the fetid breath of living Death + Chokes up each grated screen, +And all, but Lust, is turned to dust + In Humanity's machine. + +The brackish water that we drink + Creeps with a loathsome slime, +And the bitter bread they weigh in scales + Is full of chalk and lime, +And Sleep will not lie down, but walks + Wild-eyed and cries to Time. +___ +But though lean Hunger and green Thirst + Like asp with adder fight, +We have little care of prison fare, + For what chills and kills outright +Is that every stone one lifts by day + Becomes one's heart by night. + +With midnight always in one's heart, + And twilight in one's cell, +We turn the crank, or tear the rope, + Each in his separate Hell, +And the silence is more awful far + Than the sound of a brazen bell. + +And never a human voice comes near + To speak a gentle word: +And the eye that watches through the door + Is pitiless and hard: +And by all forgot, we rot and rot, + With soul and body marred. + +And thus we rust Life's iron chain + Degraded and alone: +And some men curse, and some men weep, + And some men make no moan: +But God's eternal Laws are kind + And break the heart of stone. +___ +And every human heart that breaks, + In prison-cell or yard, +Is as that broken box that gave + Its treasure to the Lord, +And filled the unclean leper's house + With the scent of costliest nard. + +Ah! happy day 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? +___ +And he of the swollen purple throat. + And the stark and staring eyes, +Waits for the holy hands that took + The Thief to Paradise; +And a broken and a contrite heart + The Lord will not despise. + +The man in red who reads the Law + Gave him three weeks of life, +Three little weeks in which to heal + His soul of his soul's strife, +And cleanse from every blot of blood + The hand that held the knife. + +And with tears of blood he cleansed the hand, + The hand that held the steel: +For only blood can wipe out blood, + And only tears can heal: +And the crimson stain that was of Cain + Became Christ's snow-white seal. + + + +VI. + +In Reading gaol by Reading town + There is a pit of shame, +And in it lies a wretched man + Eaten by teeth of flame, +In burning winding-sheet he lies, + And his grave has got no name. + +And there, till Christ call forth the dead, + In silence let him lie: +No need to waste the foolish tear, + Or heave the windy sigh: +The man had killed the thing he loved, + And so he had to die. + +And all men kill the thing they love, + By all 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! + + + + +End of the first Project Gutenberg Etext of + +The Ballad of Reading Gaol. + + +*** + + +Second Version + + + I + +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 gray; +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 fellow's 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 haunted 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 space. + +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 feel that sickening thirst + That sands one's throat, before +The hangman with his gardener's gloves + Comes 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 anguish 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. + + + + II + +Six weeks the guardsman walked the yard, + In the suit of shabby gray: +His cricket cap was on his head, + And his step was 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 wandering cloud that trailed + Its ravelled fleeces by. + +He did not wring his hands, as do + Those witless men who dare +To try to rear the changeling Hope + In the cave of black Despair: +He only looked upon the sun, + And drank the morning air. + +He did not wring his hands nor weep, + Nor did he peek or pine, +But he drank the air as though it held + Some healthful anodyne; +With open mouth he drank the sun + As though it had been wine! + +And I and all the souls in pain, + Who tramped the other ring, +Forgot if we ourselves had done + A great or little thing, +And watched with gaze of dull amaze + The man who had to swing. + +For strange it was to see him pass + With a step so light and gay, +And strange it was to see him look + So wistfully at the day, +And strange it was to think that he + Had such a debt to pay. + +The oak and elm have pleasant leaves + That in the spring-time shoot: +But grim to see is the gallows-tree, + With its alder-bitten root, +And, green or dry, a man must die + Before it bears its fruit! + +The loftiest place is the seat of grace + For which all worldlings try: +But who would stand in hempen band + Upon a scaffold high, +And through a murderer's collar take + His last look at the sky? + +It is sweet to dance to violins + When Love and Life are fair: +To dance to flutes, to dance to lutes + Is delicate and rare: +But it is not sweet with nimble feet + To dance upon the air! + +So with curious eyes and sick surmise + We watched him day by day, +And wondered if each one of us + Would end the self-same way, +For none can tell to what red Hell + His sightless soul may stray. + +At last the dead man walked no more + Amongst the Trial Men, +And I knew that he was standing up + In the black dock's dreadful pen, +And that never would I see his face + For weal or woe again. + +Like two doomed ships that pass in storm + We had crossed each other's way: +But we made no sign, we said no word, + We had no word to say; +For we did not meet in the holy night, + But in the shameful day. + +A prison wall was round us both, + Two outcast men we were: +The world had thrust us from its heart, + And God from out His care: +And the iron gin that waits for Sin + Had caught us in its snare. + III + +In Debtors' Yard the stones are hard, + And the dripping wall is high, +So it was there he took the air + Beneath the leaden sky, +And by each side a warder walked, + For fear the man might die. + +Or else he sat with those who watched + His anguish night and day; +Who watched him when he rose to weep, + And when he crouched to pray; +Who watched him lest himself should rob + Their scaffold of its prey. + +The Governor was strong upon + The Regulations Act: +The Doctor said that Death was but + A scientific fact: +And twice a day the Chaplain called, + And left a little tract. + +And twice a day he smoked his pipe, + And drank his quart of beer: +His soul was resolute, and held + No hiding-place for fear; +He often said that he was glad + The hangman's day was near. + +But why he said so strange a thing + No warder dared to ask: +For he to whom a watcher's doom + Is given as his task, +Must set a lock upon his lips, + And make his face a mask. + +Or else he might be moved, and try + To comfort or console: +And what should Human Pity do + Pent up in Murderers' Hole? +What word of grace in such a place + Could help a brother's soul? + +With slouch and swing around the ring + We trod the Fools' Parade! +We did not care: we knew we were + The Devils' Own Brigade: +And shaven head and feet of lead + Make a merry masquerade. + +We tore the tarry rope to shreds + With blunt and bleeding nails; +We rubbed the doors, and scrubbed the floors, + And cleaned the shining rails: +And, rank by rank, we soaped the plank, + And clattered with the pails. + +We sewed the sacks, we broke the stones, + We turned the dusty drill: +We banged the tins, and bawled the hymns, + And sweated on the mill: +But in the heart of every man + Terror was lying still. + +So still it lay that every day + Crawled like a weed-clogged wave: +And we forgot the bitter lot + That waits for fool and knave, +Till once, as we tramped in from work, + We passed an open grave. + +With yawning mouth the horrid hole + Gaped for a living thing; +The very mud cried out for blood + To the thirsty asphalte ring: +And we knew that ere one dawn grew fair + The fellow had to swing. + +Right in we went, with soul intent + On Death and Dread and Doom: +The hangman, with his little bag, + Went shuffling through the gloom: +And I trembled as I groped my way + Into my numbered tomb. + +That night the empty corridors + Were full of forms of Fear, +And up and down the iron town + Stole feet we could not hear, +And through the bars that hide the stars + White faces seemed to peer. + +He lay as one who lies and dreams + In a pleasant meadow-land, +The watchers watched him as he slept, + And could not understand +How one could sleep so sweet a sleep + With a hangman close at hand. + +But there is no sleep when men must weep + Who never yet have wept: +So we- the fool, the fraud, the knave- + That endless vigil kept, +And through each brain on hands of pain + Another's terror crept. + +Alas! it is a fearful thing + To feel another's guilt! +For, right within, the sword of Sin + Pierced to its poisoned hilt, +And as molten lead were the tears we shed + For the blood we had not spilt. + +The warders with their shoes of felt + Crept by each padlocked door, +And peeped and saw, with eyes of awe, + Gray figures on the floor, +And wondered why men knelt to pray + Who never prayed before. + +All through the night we knelt and prayed, + Mad mourners of a corse! +The troubled plumes of midnight shook + Like the plumes upon a hearse: +And as bitter wine upon a sponge + Was the savour of Remorse. + +The gray cock crew, the red cock crew, + But never came the day: +And crooked shapes of Terror crouched, + In the corners where we lay: +And each evil sprite that walks by night + Before us seemed to play. + +They glided past, the glided fast, + Like travellers through a mist: +They mocked the moon in a rigadoon + Of delicate turn and twist, +And with formal pace and loathsome grace + The phantoms kept their tryst. + +With mop and mow, we saw them go, + Slim shadows hand in hand: +About, about, in ghostly rout + They trod a saraband: +And the damned grotesques made arabesques, + Like the wind upon the sand! + +With the pirouettes of marionettes, + They tripped on pointed tread: +But with flutes of Fear they filled the ear, + As their grisly masque they led, +And loud they sang, and long they sang, + For they sang to wake the dead. + +"Oho!" they cried, "the world is wide, + But fettered limbs go lame! +And once, or twice, to throw the dice + Is a gentlemanly game, +But he does not win who plays with Sin + In the secret House of Shame." + +No things of air these antics were, + That frolicked with such glee: +To men whose lives were held in gyves, + And whose feet might not go free, +Ah! wounds of Christ! they were living things, + Most terrible to see. + +Around, around, they waltzed and wound; + Some wheeled in smirking pairs; +With the mincing step of a demirep + Some sidled up the stairs: +And with subtle sneer, and fawning leer, + Each helped us at our prayers. + +The morning wind began to moan, + But still the night went on: +Through its giant loom the web of gloom + Crept till each thread was spun: +And, as we prayed, we grew afraid + Of the Justice of the Sun. + +The moaning wind went wandering round + The weeping prison wall: +Till like a wheel of turning steel + We felt the minutes crawl: +O moaning wind! what had we done + To have such a seneschal? + +At last I saw the shadowed bars, + Like a lattice wrought in lead, +Move right across the whitewashed wall + That faced my three-plank bed, +And I knew that somewhere in the world + God's dreadful dawn was red. + +At six o'clock we cleaned our cells, + At seven all was still, +But the sough and swing of a mighty wing + The prison seemed to fill, +For the Lord of Death with icy breath + Had entered in to kill. + +He did not pass in purple pomp, + Nor ride a moon-white steed. +Three yards of cord and a sliding board + Are all the gallows' need: +So with rope of shame the Herald came + To do the secret deed. + +We were as men who through a fen + Of filthy darkness grope: +We did not dare to breathe a prayer, + Or to give our anguish scope: +Something was dead in each of us, + And what was dead was Hope. + +For Man's grim Justice goes its way + And will not swerve aside: +It slays the weak, it slays the strong, + It has a deadly stride: +With iron heel it slays the strong + The monstrous parricide! + +We waited for the stroke of eight: + Each tongue was thick with thirst: +For the stroke of eight is the stroke of Fate + That makes a man accursed, +And Fate will use a running noose + For the best man and the worst. + +We had no other thing to do, + Save to wait for the sign to come: +So, like things of stone in a valley lone, + Quiet we sat and dumb: +But each man's heart beat thick and quick, + Like a madman on a drum! + +With sudden shock the prison-clock + Smote on the shivering air, +And from all the gaol rose up a wail + Of impotent despair, +Like the sound the frightened marshes hear + From some leper in his lair. + +And as one sees most fearful things + In the crystal of a dream, +We saw the greasy hempen rope + Hooked to the blackened beam, +And heard the prayer the hangman's snare + Strangled into a scream. + +And all the woe that moved him so + That he gave that bitter cry, +And the wild regrets, and the bloody sweats, + None knew so well as I: +For he who lives more lives than one + More deaths that one must die. + IV + +There is no chapel on the day + On which they hang a man: +The Chaplain's heart is far too sick, + Or his face is far too wan, +Or there is that written in his eyes + Which none should look upon. + +So they kept us close till nigh on noon, + And then they rang the bell, +And the warders with their jingling keys + Opened each listening cell, +And down the iron stair we tramped, + Each from his separate Hell. + +Out into God's sweet air we went, + But not in wonted way, +For this man's face was white with fear, + And that man's face was gray, +And I never saw sad men who looked + So wistfully at the day. + +I never saw sad men who looked + With such a wistful eye +Upon that little tent of blue + We prisoners called the sky, +And at every happy cloud that passed + In such strange freedom by. + +But there were those amongst us all + Who walked with downcast head, +And knew that, had each got his due, + They should have died instead: +He had but killed a thing that lived, + Whilst they had killed the dead. + +For he who sins a second time + Wakes a dead soul to pain, +And draws it from its spotted shroud + And makes it bleed again, +And makes it bleed great gouts of blood, + And makes it bleed in vain! + +Like ape or clown, in monstrous garb + With crooked arrows starred, +Silently we went round and round + The slippery asphalte yard; +Silently we went round and round, + And no man spoke a word. + +Silently we went round and round, + And through each hollow mind +The Memory of dreadful things + Rushed like a dreadful wind, +And Horror stalked before each man, + And Terror crept behind. + +The warders strutted up and down, + And watched their herd of brutes, +Their uniforms were spick and span, + And they wore their Sunday suits, +But we knew the work they had been at, + By the quicklime on their boots. + +For where a grave had opened wide, + There was no grave at all: +Only a stretch of mud and sand + By the hideous prison-wall, +And a little heap of burning lime, + That the man should have his pall. + +For he has a pall, this wretched man, + Such as few men can claim: +Deep down below a prison-yard, + Naked, for greater shame, +He lies, with fetters on each foot, + Wrapt in a sheet of flame! + +And all the while the burning lime + Eats flesh and bone away, +It eats the brittle bones by night, + And the soft flesh by day, +It eats the flesh and bone by turns, + But it eats the heart alway. + +For three long years they will not sow + Or root or seedling there: +For three long years the unblessed spot + Will sterile be and bare, +And look upon the wondering sky + With unreproachful stare. + +They think a murderer's heart would taint + Each simple seed they sow. +It is not true! God's kindly earth + Is kindlier than men know, +And the red rose would but glow more red, + The white rose whiter blow. + +Out of his mouth a red, red rose! + Out of his heart a white! +For who can say by what strange way, + Christ brings His will to light, +Since the barren staff the pilgrim bore + Bloomed in the great Pope's sight? + +But neither milk-white rose nor red + May bloom in prison air; +The shard, the pebble, and the flint, + Are what they give us there: +For flowers have been known to heal + A common man's despair. + +So never will wine-red rose or white, + Petal by petal, fall +On that stretch of mud and sand that lies + By the hideous prison-wall, +To tell the men who tramp the yard + That God's Son died for all. + +Yet though the hideous prison-wall + Still hems him round and round, +And a spirit may not walk by night + That is with fetters bound, +And a spirit may but weep that lies + In such unholy ground, + +He is at peace- this wretched man- + At peace, or will be soon: +There is no thing to make him mad, + Nor does Terror walk at noon, +For the lampless Earth in which he lies + Has neither Sun nor Moon. + +They hanged him as a beast is hanged: + They did not even toll +A requiem that might have brought + Rest to his startled soul, +But hurriedly they took him out, + And hid him in a hole. + +The warders stripped him of his clothes, + And gave him to the flies: +They mocked the swollen purple throat, + And the stark and staring eyes: +And with laughter loud they heaped the shroud + In which the convict lies. + +The Chaplain would not kneel to pray + By his dishonoured grave: +Nor mark it with that blessed Cross + That Christ for sinners gave, +Because the man was one of those + Whom Christ came down to save. + +Yet all is well; he has but passed + To Life's appointed bourne: +And alien tears will fill for him + Pity's long-broken urn, +For his mourners be outcast men, + And outcasts always mourn. + V + +I know not whether Laws be right, + Or whether Laws be wrong; +All that we know who lie in gaol + Is that the wall is strong; +And that each day is like a year, + A year whose days are long. + +But this I know, that every Law + That men have made for Man, +Since first Man took His brother's life, + And the sad world began, +But straws the wheat and saves the chaff + With a most evil fan. + +This too I know- and wise it were + If each could know the same- +That every prison that men build + Is built with bricks of shame, +And bound with bars lest Christ should see + How men their brothers maim. + +With bars they blur the gracious moon, + And blind the goodly sun: +And the do well to hide their Hell, + For in it things are done +That Son of things nor son of Man + Ever should look upon! + +The vilest deeds like poison weeds + Bloom well in prison-air: +It is only what is good in Man + That wastes and withers there: +Pale Anguish keeps the heavy gate, + And the warder is Despair. + +For they starve the little frightened child + Till it weeps both night and day: +And they scourge the weak, and flog the fool, + And gibe the old and gray, +And some grow mad, and all grow bad, + And none a word may say. + +Each narrow cell in which we dwell + Is a foul and dark latrine, +And the fetid breath of living Death + Chokes up each grated screen, +And all, but Lust, is turned to dust + In Humanity's machine. + +The brackish water that we drink + Creeps with a loathsome slime, +And the bitter bread they weigh in scales + Is full of chalk and lime, +And Sleep will not lie down, but walks + Wild-eyed, and cries to Time. + +But though lean Hunger and green Thirst + Like asp with adder fight, +We have little care of prison fare, + For what chills and kills outright +Is that every stone one lifts by day + Becomes one's heart by night. + +With midnight always in one's heart, + And twilight in one's cell, +We turn the crank, or tear the rope, + Each in his separate Hell, +And the silence is more awful far + Than the sound of a brazen bell. + +And never a human voice comes near + To speak a gentle word: +And the eye that watches through the door + Is pitiless and hard: +And by all forgot, we rot and rot, + With soul and body marred. + +And thus we rust Life's iron chain + Degraded and alone: +And some men curse, and some men weep, + And some men make no moan: +But God's eternal Laws are kind + And break the heart of stone. + +And every human heart that breaks, + In prison-cell or yard, +Is as that broken box that gave + Its treasure to the Lord, +And filled the unclean leper's house + With the scent of costliest nard. + +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? + +And he of the swollen purple throat, + And the stark and staring eyes, +Waits for the holy hands that took + The Thief to Paradise; +And a broken and a contrite heart + The Lord will not despise. + +The man in red who reads the Law + Gave him three weeks of life, +Three little weeks in which to heal + His soul of his soul's strife, +And cleanse from every blot of blood + The hand that held the knife. + +And with tears of blood he cleansed the hand, + The hand that held the steel: +For only blood can wipe out blood, + And only tears can heal: +And the crimson stain that was of Cain + Became Christ's snow-white seal. + VI + +In Reading gaol by Reading town + There is a pit of shame, +And in it lies a wretched man + Eaten by teeth of flame, +In a burning winding-sheet he lies, + And his grave has got no name. + +And there, till Christ call forth the dead, + In silence let him lie: +No need to waste the foolish tear, + Or heave the windy sigh: +The man had killed the thing he loved, + And so he had to die. + +And all men kill the thing they love, + By all 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! + + C. 3. 3. + + + THE END + + +End of the second Project Gutenberg Etext of +The Ballad of Reading Gaol. + + diff --git a/old/rgaol10.zip b/old/rgaol10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..884c56a --- /dev/null +++ b/old/rgaol10.zip |