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CRIME POETRY - Coggle Diagram
CRIME POETRY
The Ballad of Reading Gaol
Overview
Wilde is exposing the harsh reality of prison life in Victorian England as well highlighting the hypocrisy of so called Christians and their ability to preach redemption yet use capital punishment
The text is about the hanging of Charles Wooldridge and the contrast between the peace he is now at compared to the suffering of the prisoners
Context
Oscar Wilde was imprisoned for homosexual acts- he does not mention this in the poem.
The poem was published under the name ‘C.3.3’
‘Because it circulates widely among the criminal classes, to which I now belong - for once I will be read by my peers’
Quotes
‘ for each man kills the thing he loves’
‘The very mud cried out for blood’
‘Numbered tomb’
‘ how one could sleep so sweet a sleep with a hangman close at hand’
‘Alas it is a fearful thing to feel another’s guilt’
‘They glided past they glided fast’
‘Something was dead in each of us’
‘Seperate hell’
‘There is no chapel’
‘Dishonoured grave’
‘Or whether laws be wrong’
‘All but lust is turned to dust’
1 more item...
Genre
The crime isn’t shown- only the punishment
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