The Ballad Of Reading Gaol. Version One Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

Rhyme Scheme: A BCDCEC FGCGHG HAIAJA KLMLNL OPQPKP RAGAEA STUTVW XYZYA2Y B2AC2ASA QD2E2D2F2D2 FGG2GH2G I2J2K2J2L2J2 M2N2O2P2Q2P2 R2F2SF2SF2 S2CT2CSC U2SGSV2S A W2GCGHG HAIAX2A IU2Y2U2MU2 G2Z2A3Z2Z2Z2 Z2LZ2LSL SGUGI2G SB3I2B3AB3 SAC3AD3A SU2SU2E3U2 SGSGF3G F2Z2G3Z2SZ2 H3GTGK2G I3I2J3U2Z2U2 W2AU2AK3A L3GG2GH2G Z2M3N3M3O3M3 P3Q3A3Q3R3Q3 LS3J2S3SS3 AT2IT2ST2 LT3U3T3CT3 SSSSV3S SW3SW3Z2W3 GX3Y3X3Z3X3 T2LA4LU2L JJ2B4J2C4J2 SQ3Z2S2SQ3 SC3C4C3G2C3 G2C4X3C4Z2C4 LD4Z2D4CD4 E4F2F4F2GF2 T3SU3SG4S IGH4GK2G I4J4Z2J4SJ4 NC3K4K4SK4 SK4S2K4L4K4 K4QSQZ2QU3I2SI2SI2K4 SG2SI2S Z2Z2J2Z2K4Z2 K4M4PM4Z2M4 SK4M4K4K4K4 SM4LM4N4M4 G2K4K4K4QK4 Z2G2I2G2SG2 GK4B2K4B2K4 K4K4K4K4SK4 K4O4Z2O4P4O4 Q4I2M4I2I2I2 SR4G2R4I2R4 SI2SI2Z2I2 X3 K4Z2P4Z2SZ2 Z2M4SM4K4M4 K4K4I2K4K4K4 K4I2K4I2K4I2 M4K4K4K4K4K4 S4Z2K4Z2K4Z2 T4K4K4K4K4K4 K4K4SK4Z2K4 Z2SZ2SK4S K4M4K4M4S4M4 Z2QK4QK4Q S4K4K4K4SK4 SI2K4I2I2I2 K4SU4SK4S SK4K4K4I2K4 K4I2K4I2M4I2 K4M4SM4K4M4 M4K4K4K4SK4 Z2Z2K4Z2SZ2 K4M4K4M4K4M4 SSK4SK4S K4X3SX3SX3 K4Z2V4Z2Z2Z2 X3 K4B2M4B2I2B2 M4Z2X3Z2X3Z2 I2QK4QX3Q Z2Z2M4Z2Z2Z2 SI2Z2I2K4I2 K4K4M4K4K4K4 M4Z2N4Z2K4Z2 W4S4SS4SS4 K4K4I2K4K4K4 K4M4G2M4I2M4 I2K4I2K4K4K4 Z2Z2G2Z2K4Z2 SK4X3K4SK4 D3Z2Z2Z2K4Z2 K4SUSK4S M4X3M4X3K4X3 K4M4K4M4Z2M4 I2 Z2QZ2QSQ K4I2I2I2K4I2 X3K4UK4SK4

I	A
	-
He did not wear his scarlet coat	B
For blood and wine are red	C
And blood and wine were on his hands	D
When they found him with the dead	C
The poor dead woman whom he loved	E
And murdered in her bed	C
	-
He walked amongst the Trial Men	F
In a suit of shabby grey	G
A cricket cap was on his head	C
And his step seemed light and gay	G
But I never saw a man who looked	H
So wistfully at the day	G
	-
I never saw a man who looked	H
With such a wistful eye	A
Upon that little tent of blue	I
Which prisoners call the sky	A
And at every drifting cloud that went	J
With sails of silver by	A
	-
I walked with other souls in pain	K
Within another ring	L
And was wondering if the man had done	M
A great or little thing	L
When a voice behind me whispered low	N
That fellow's got to swing	L
	-
Dear Christ the very prison walls	O
Suddenly seemed to reel	P
And the sky above my head became	Q
Like a casque of scorching steel	P
And though I was a soul in pain	K
My pain I could not feel	P
	-
I only knew what hunted thought	R
Quickened his step and why	A
He looked upon the garish day	G
With such a wistful eye	A
The man had killed the thing he loved	E
And so he had to die	A
	-
Yet each man kills the thing he loves	S
By each let this be heard	T
Some do it with a bitter look	U
Some with a flattering word	T
The coward does it with a kiss	V
The brave man with a sword	W
	-
Some kill their love when they are young	X
And some when they are old	Y
Some strangle with the hands of Lust	Z
Some with the hands of Gold	Y
The kindest use a knife because	A2
The dead so soon grow cold	Y
	-
Some love too little some too long	B2
Some sell and others buy	A
Some do the deed with many tears	C2
And some without a sigh	A
For each man kills the thing he loves	S
Yet each man does not die	A
	-
He does not die a death of shame	Q
On a day of dark disgrace	D2
Nor have a noose about his neck	E2
Nor a cloth upon his face	D2
Nor drop feet foremost through the floor	F2
Into an empty place	D2
	-
He does not sit with silent men	F
Who watch him night and day	G
Who watch him when he tries to weep	G2
And when he tries to pray	G
Who watch him lest himself should rob	H2
The prison of its prey	G
	-
He does not wake at dawn to see	I2
Dread figures throng his room	J2
The shivering Chaplain robed in white	K2
The Sheriff stern with gloom	J2
And the Governor all in shiny black	L2
With the yellow face of Doom	J2
	-
He does not rise in piteous haste	M2
To put on convict clothes	N2
While some coarse mouthed Doctor gloats and notes	O2
Each new and nerve twitched pose	P2
Fingering a watch whose little ticks	Q2
Are like horrible hammer blows	P2
	-
He does not know that sickening thirst	R2
That sands one's throat before	F2
The hangman with his gardener's gloves	S
Slips through the padded door	F2
And binds one with three leathern thongs	S
That the throat may thirst no more	F2
	-
He does not bend his head to hear	S2
The Burial Office read	C
Nor while the terror of his soul	T2
Tells him he is not dead	C
Cross his own coffin as he moves	S
Into the hideous shed	C
	-
He does not stare upon the air	U2
Through a little roof of glass	S
He does not pray with lips of clay	G
For his agony to pass	S
Nor feel upon his shuddering cheek	V2
The kiss of Caiaphas	S
	-
	-
	-
II	A
	-
Six weeks our guardsman walked the yard	W2
In a suit of shabby grey	G
His cricket cap was on his head	C
And his step seemed light and gay	G
But I never saw a man who looked	H
So wistfully at the day	G
	-
I never saw a man who looked	H
With such a wistful eye	A
Upon that little tent of blue	I
Which prisoners call the sky	A
And at every wandering cloud that trailed	X2
Its raveled fleeces by	A
	-
He did not wring his hands as do	I
Those witless men who dare	U2
To try to rear the changeling Hope	Y2
In the cave of black Despair	U2
He only looked upon the sun	M
And drank the morning air	U2
	-
He did not wring his hands nor weep	G2
Nor did he peek or pine	Z2
But he drank the air as though it held	A3
Some healthful anodyne	Z2
With open mouth he drank the sun	Z2
As though it had been wine	Z2
	-
And I and all the souls in pain	Z2
Who tramped the other ring	L
Forgot if we ourselves had done	Z2
A great or little thing	L
And watched with gaze of dull amaze	S
The man who had to swing	L
	-
And strange it was to see him pass	S
With a step so light and gay	G
And strange it was to see him look	U
So wistfully at the day	G
And strange it was to think that he	I2
Had such a debt to pay	G
	-
For oak and elm have pleasant leaves	S
That in the spring time shoot	B3
But grim to see is the gallows tree	I2
With its adder bitten root	B3
And green or dry a man must die	A
Before it bears its fruit	B3
	-
The loftiest place is that seat of grace	S
For which all worldlings try	A
But who would stand in hempen band	C3
Upon a scaffold high	A
And through a murderer's collar take	D3
His last look at the sky	A
	-
It is sweet to dance to violins	S
When Love and Life are fair	U2
To dance to flutes to dance to lutes	S
Is delicate and rare	U2
But it is not sweet with nimble feet	E3
To dance upon the air	U2
	-
So with curious eyes and sick surmise	S
We watched him day by day	G
And wondered if each one of us	S
Would end the self same way	G
For none can tell to what red Hell	F3
His sightless soul may stray	G
	-
At last the dead man walked no more	F2
Amongst the Trial Men	Z2
And I knew that he was standing up	G3
In the black dock's dreadful pen	Z2
And that never would I see his face	S
In God's sweet world again	Z2
	-
Like two doomed ships that pass in storm	H3
We had crossed each other's way	G
But we made no sign we said no word	T
We had no word to say	G
For we did not meet in the holy night	K2
But in the shameful day	G
	-
A prison wall was round us both	I3
Two outcast men were we	I2
The world had thrust us from its heart	J3
And God from out His care	U2
And the iron gin that waits for Sin	Z2
Had caught us in its snare	U2
	-
In Debtors' Yard the stones are hard	W2
And the dripping wall is high	A
So it was there he took the air	U2
Beneath the leaden sky	A
And by each side a Warder walked	K3
For fear the man might die	A
	-
Or else he sat with those who watched	L3
His anguish night and day	G
Who watched him when he rose to weep	G2
And when he crouched to pray	G
Who watched him lest himself should rob	H2
Their scaffold of its prey	G
	-
The Governor was strong upon	Z2
The Regulations Act	M3
The Doctor said that Death was but	N3
A scientific fact	M3
And twice a day the Chaplain called	O3
And left a little tract	M3
	-
And twice a day he smoked his pipe	P3
And drank his quart of beer	Q3
His soul was resolute and held	A3
No hiding place for fear	Q3
He often said that he was glad	R3
The hangman's hands were near	Q3
	-
But why he said so strange a thing	L
No Warder dared to ask	S3
For he to whom a watcher's doom	J2
Is given as his task	S3
Must set a lock upon his lips	S
And make his face a mask	S3
	-
Or else he might be moved and try	A
To comfort or console	T2
And what should Human Pity do	I
Pent up in Murderers' Hole	T2
What word of grace in such a place	S
Could help a brother's soul	T2
	-
With slouch and swing around the ring	L
We trod the Fool's Parade	T3
We did not care we knew we were	U3
The Devil's Own Brigade	T3
And shaven head and feet of lead	C
Make a merry masquerade	T3
	-
We tore the tarry rope to shreds	S
With blunt and bleeding nails	S
We rubbed the doors and scrubbed the floors	S
And cleaned the shining rails	S
And rank by rank we soaped the plank	V3
And clattered with the pails	S
	-
We sewed the sacks we broke the stones	S
We turned the dusty drill	W3
We banged the tins and bawled the hymns	S
And sweated on the mill	W3
But in the heart of every man	Z2
Terror was lying still	W3
	-
So still it lay that every day	G
Crawled like a weed clogged wave	X3
And we forgot the bitter lot	Y3
That waits for fool and knave	X3
Till once as we tramped in from work	Z3
We passed an open grave	X3
	-
With yawning mouth the yellow hole	T2
Gaped for a living thing	L
The very mud cried out for blood	A4
To the thirsty asphalte ring	L
And we knew that ere one dawn grew fair	U2
Some prisoner had to swing	L
	-
Right in we went with soul intent	J
On Death and Dread and Doom	J2
The hangman with his little bag	B4
Went shuffling through the gloom	J2
And each man trembled as he crept	C4
Into his numbered tomb	J2
	-
That night the empty corridors	S
Were full of forms of Fear	Q3
And up and down the iron town	Z2
Stole feet we could not hear	S2
And through the bars that hide the stars	S
White faces seemed to peer	Q3
	-
He lay as one who lies and dreams	S
In a pleasant meadow land	C3
The watcher watched him as he slept	C4
And could not understand	C3
How one could sleep so sweet a sleep	G2
With a hangman close at hand	C3
	-
But there is no sleep when men must weep	G2
Who never yet have wept	C4
So we the fool the fraud the knave	X3
That endless vigil kept	C4
And through each brain on hands of pain	Z2
Another's terror crept	C4
	-
Alas it is a fearful thing	L
To feel another's guilt	D4
For right within the sword of Sin	Z2
Pierced to its poisoned hilt	D4
And as molten lead were the tears we shed	C
For the blood we had not spilt	D4
	-
The Warders with their shoes of felt	E4
Crept by each padlocked door	F2
And peeped and saw with eyes of awe	F4
Grey figures on the floor	F2
And wondered why men knelt to pray	G
Who never prayed before	F2
	-
All through the night we knelt and prayed	T3
Mad mourners of a corpse	S
The troubled plumes of midnight were	U3
The plumes upon a hearse	S
And bitter wine upon a sponge	G4
Was the savior of Remorse	S
	-
The cock crew the red cock crew	I
But never came the day	G
And crooked shape of Terror crouched	H4
In the corners where we lay	G
And each evil sprite that walks by night	K2
Before us seemed to play	G
	-
They glided past they glided fast	I4
Like travelers through a mist	J4
They mocked the moon in a rigadoon	Z2
Of delicate turn and twist	J4
And with formal pace and loathsome grace	S
The phantoms kept their tryst	J4
	-
With mop and mow we saw them go	N
Slim shadows hand in hand	C3
About about in ghostly rout	K4
They trod a saraband	K4
And the damned grotesques made arabesques	S
Like the wind upon the sand	K4
	-
With the pirouettes of marionettes	S
They tripped on pointed tread	K4
But with flutes of Fear they filled the ear	S2
As their grisly masque they led	K4
And loud they sang and loud they sang	L4
For they sang to wake the dead	K4
	-
Oho they cried The world is wide	K4
But fettered limbs go lame	Q
And once or twice to throw the dice	S
Is a gentlemanly game	Q
But he does not win who plays with Sin	Z2
In the secret House of Shame	Q
No things of air these antics were	U3
That frolicked with such glee	I2
To men whose lives were held in gyves	S
And whose feet might not go free	I2
Ah wounds of Christ they were living things	S
Most terrible to see	I2
Around around they waltzed and wound	K4
Some wheeled in smirking pairs	S
With the mincing step of demirep	G2
Some sidled up the stairs	S
And with subtle sneer and fawning leer	I2
Each helped us at our prayers	S
	-
The morning wind began to moan	Z2
But still the night went on	Z2
Through its giant loom the web of gloom	J2
Crept till each thread was spun	Z2
And as we prayed we grew afraid	K4
Of the Justice of the Sun	Z2
	-
The moaning wind went wandering round	K4
The weeping prison wall	M4
Till like a wheel of turning steel	P
We felt the minutes crawl	M4
O moaning wind what had we done	Z2
To have such a seneschal	M4
	-
At last I saw the shadowed bars	S
Like a lattice wrought in lead	K4
Move right across the whitewashed wall	M4
That faced my three plank bed	K4
And I knew that somewhere in the world	K4
God's dreadful dawn was red	K4
	-
At six o'clock we cleaned our cells	S
At seven all was still	M4
But the sough and swing of a mighty wing	L
The prison seemed to fill	M4
For the Lord of Death with icy breath	N4
Had entered in to kill	M4
	-
He did not pass in purple pomp	G2
Nor ride a moon white steed	K4
Three yards of cord and a sliding board	K4
Are all the gallows' need	K4
So with rope of shame the Herald came	Q
To do the secret deed	K4
	-
We were as men who through a fen	Z2
Of filthy darkness grope	G2
We did not dare to breathe a prayer	I2
Or give our anguish scope	G2
Something was dead in each of us	S
And what was dead was Hope	G2
	-
For Man's grim Justice goes its way	G
And will not swerve aside	K4
It slays the weak it slays the strong	B2
It has a deadly stride	K4
With iron heel it slays the strong	B2
The monstrous parricide	K4
	-
We waited for the stroke of eight	K4
Each tongue was thick with thirst	K4
For the stroke of eight is the stroke of Fate	K4
That makes a man accursed	K4
And Fate will use a running noose	S
For the best man and the worst	K4
	-
We had no other thing to do	K4
Save to wait for the sign to come	O4
So like things of stone in a valley lone	Z2
Quiet we sat and dumb	O4
But each man's heart beat thick and quick	P4
Like a madman on a drum	O4
	-
With sudden shock the prison clock	Q4
Smote on the shivering air	I2
And from all the gaol rose up a wail	M4
Of impotent despair	I2
Like the sound that frightened marshes hear	I2
From a leper in his lair	I2
	-
And as one sees most fearful things	S
In the crystal of a dream	R4
We saw the greasy hempen rope	G2
Hooked to the blackened beam	R4
And heard the prayer the hangman's snare	I2
Strangled into a scream	R4
	-
And all the woe that moved him so	S
That he gave that bitter cry	I2
And the wild regrets and the bloody sweats	S
None knew so well as I	I2
For he who live more lives than one	Z2
More deaths than one must die	I2
	-
	-
	-
IV	X3
	-
There is no chapel on the day	K4
On which they hang a man	Z2
The Chaplain's heart is far too sick	P4
Or his face is far to wan	Z2
Or there is that written in his eyes	S
Which none should look upon	Z2
	-
So they kept us close till nigh on noon	Z2
And then they rang the bell	M4
And the Warders with their jingling keys	S
Opened each listening cell	M4
And down the iron stair we tramped	K4
Each from his separate Hell	M4
	-
Out into God's sweet air we went	K4
But not in wonted way	K4
For this man's face was white with fear	I2
And that man's face was grey	K4
And I never saw sad men who looked	K4
So wistfully at the day	K4
	-
I never saw sad men who looked	K4
With such a wistful eye	I2
Upon that little tent of blue	K4
We prisoners called the sky	I2
And at every careless cloud that passed	K4
In happy freedom by	I2
	-
But there were those amongst us all	M4
Who walked with downcast head	K4
And knew that had each got his due	K4
They should have died instead	K4
He had but killed a thing that lived	K4
Whilst they had killed the dead	K4
	-
For he who sins a second time	S4
Wakes a dead soul to pain	Z2
And draws it from its spotted shroud	K4
And makes it bleed again	Z2
And makes it bleed great gouts of blood	K4
And makes it bleed in vain	Z2
	-
Like ape or clown in monstrous garb	T4
With crooked arrows starred	K4
Silently we went round and round	K4
The slippery asphalte yard	K4
Silently we went round and round	K4
And no man spoke a word	K4
	-
Silently we went round and round	K4
And through each hollow mind	K4
The memory of dreadful things	S
Rushed like a dreadful wind	K4
An Horror stalked before each man	Z2
And terror crept behind	K4
	-
The Warders strutted up and down	Z2
And kept their herd of brutes	S
Their uniforms were spick and span	Z2
And they wore their Sunday suits	S
But we knew the work they had been at	K4
By the quicklime on their boots	S
	-
For where a grave had opened wide	K4
There was no grave at all	M4
Only a stretch of mud and sand	K4
By the hideous prison wall	M4
And a little heap of burning lime	S4
That the man should have his pall	M4
	-
For he has a pall this wretched man	Z2
Such as few men can claim	Q
Deep down below a prison yard	K4
Naked for greater shame	Q
He lies with fetters on each foot	K4
Wrapt in a sheet of flame	Q
	-
And all the while the burning lime	S4
Eats flesh and bone away	K4
It eats the brittle bone by night	K4
And the soft flesh by the day	K4
It eats the flesh and bones by turns	S
But it eats the heart alway	K4
	-
For three long years they will not sow	S
Or root or seedling there	I2
For three long years the unblessed spot	K4
Will sterile be and bare	I2
And look upon the wondering sky	I2
With unreproachful stare	I2
	-
They think a murderer's heart would taint	K4
Each simple seed they sow	S
It is not true God's kindly earth	U4
Is kindlier than men know	S
And the red rose would but blow more red	K4
The white rose whiter blow	S
	-
Out of his mouth a red red rose	S
Out of his heart a white	K4
For who can say by what strange way	K4
Christ brings his will to light	K4
Since the barren staff the pilgrim bore	I2
Bloomed in the great Pope's sight	K4
	-
But neither milk white rose nor red	K4
May bloom in prison air	I2
The shard the pebble and the flint	K4
Are what they give us there	I2
For flowers have been known to heal	M4
A common man's despair	I2
	-
So never will wine red rose or white	K4
Petal by petal fall	M4
On that stretch of mud and sand that lies	S
By the hideous prison wall	M4
To tell the men who tramp the yard	K4
That God's Son died for all	M4
	-
Yet though the hideous prison wall	M4
Still hems him round and round	K4
And a spirit may not walk by night	K4
That is with fetters bound	K4
And a spirit may but weep that lies	S
In such unholy ground	K4
	-
He is at peace this wretched man	Z2
At peace or will be soon	Z2
There is no thing to make him mad	K4
Nor does Terror walk at noon	Z2
For the lampless Earth in which he lies	S
Has neither Sun nor Moon	Z2
	-
They hanged him as a beast is hanged	K4
They did not even toll	M4
A requiem that might have brought	K4
Rest to his startled soul	M4
But hurriedly they took him out	K4
And hid him in a hole	M4
	-
They stripped him of his canvas clothes	S
And gave him to the flies	S
They mocked the swollen purple throat	K4
And the stark and staring eyes	S
And with laughter loud they heaped the shroud	K4
In which their convict lies	S
	-
The Chaplain would not kneel to pray	K4
By his dishonored grave	X3
Nor mark it with that blessed Cross	S
That Christ for sinners gave	X3
Because the man was one of those	S
Whom Christ came down to save	X3
	-
Yet all is well he has but passed	K4
To Life's appointed bourne	Z2
And alien tears will fill for him	V4
Pity's long broken urn	Z2
For his mourner will be outcast men	Z2
And outcasts always mourn	Z2
	-
	-
	-
V	X3
	-
I know not whether Laws be right	K4
Or whether Laws be wrong	B2
All that we know who lie in gaol	M4
Is that the wall is strong	B2
And that each day is like a year	I2
A year whose days are long	B2
	-
But this I know that every Law	M4
That men have made for Man	Z2
Since first Man took his brother's life	X3
And the sad world began	Z2
But straws the wheat and saves the chaff	X3
With a most evil fan	Z2
	-
This too I know and wise it were	I2
If each could know the same	Q
That every prison that men build	K4
Is built with bricks of shame	Q
And bound with bars lest Christ should see	X3
How men their brothers maim	Q
	-
With bars they blur the gracious moon	Z2
And blind the goodly sun	Z2
And they do well to hide their Hell	M4
For in it things are done	Z2
That Son of God nor son of Man	Z2
Ever should look upon	Z2
	-
The vilest deeds like poison weeds	S
Bloom well in prison air	I2
It is only what is good in Man	Z2
That wastes and withers there	I2
Pale Anguish keeps the heavy gate	K4
And the Warder is Despair	I2
	-
For they starve the little frightened child	K4
Till it weeps both night and day	K4
And they scourge the weak and flog the fool	M4
And gibe the old and grey	K4
And some grow mad and all grow bad	K4
And none a word may say	K4
	-
Each narrow cell in which we dwell	M4
Is a foul and dark latrine	Z2
And the fetid breath of living Death	N4
Chokes up each grated screen	Z2
And all but Lust is turned to dust	K4
In Humanity's machine	Z2
	-
The brackish water that we drink	W4
Creeps with a loathsome slime	S4
And the bitter bread they weigh in scales	S
Is full of chalk and lime	S4
And Sleep will not lie down but walks	S
Wild eyed and cries to Time	S4
	-
But though lean Hunger and green Thirst	K4
Like asp with adder fight	K4
We have little care of prison fare	I2
For what chills and kills outright	K4
Is that every stone one lifts by day	K4
Becomes one's heart by night	K4
	-
With midnight always in one's heart	K4
And twilight in one's cell	M4
We turn the crank or tear the rope	G2
Each in his separate Hell	M4
And the silence is more awful far	I2
Than the sound of a brazen bell	M4
	-
And never a human voice comes near	I2
To speak a gentle word	K4
And the eye that watches through the door	I2
Is pitiless and hard	K4
And by all forgot we rot and rot	K4
With soul and body marred	K4
	-
And thus we rust Life's iron chain	Z2
Degraded and alone	Z2
And some men curse and some men weep	G2
And some men make no moan	Z2
But God's eternal Laws are kind	K4
And break the heart of stone	Z2
	-
And every human heart that breaks	S
In prison cell or yard	K4
Is as that broken box that gave	X3
Its treasure to the Lord	K4
And filled the unclean leper's house	S
With the scent of costliest nard	K4
	-
Ah happy day they whose hearts can break	D3
And peace of pardon win	Z2
How else may man make straight his plan	Z2
And cleanse his soul from Sin	Z2
How else but through a broken heart	K4
May Lord Christ enter in	Z2
	-
And he of the swollen purple throat	K4
And the stark and staring eyes	S
Waits for the holy hands that took	U
The Thief to Paradise	S
And a broken and a contrite heart	K4
The Lord will not despise	S
	-
The man in red who reads the Law	M4
Gave him three weeks of life	X3
Three little weeks in which to heal	M4
His soul of his soul's strife	X3
And cleanse from every blot of blood	K4
The hand that held the knife	X3
	-
And with tears of blood he cleansed the hand	K4
The hand that held the steel	M4
For only blood can wipe out blood	K4
And only tears can heal	M4
And the crimson stain that was of Cain	Z2
Became Christ's snow white seal	M4
	-
	-
	-
VI	I2
	-
In Reading gaol by Reading town	Z2
There is a pit of shame	Q
And in it lies a wretched man	Z2
Eaten by teeth of flame	Q
In burning winding sheet he lies	S
And his grave has got no name	Q
	-
And there till Christ call forth the dead	K4
In silence let him lie	I2
No need to waste the foolish tear	I2
Or heave the windy sigh	I2
The man had killed the thing he loved	K4
And so he had to die	I2
	-
And all men kill the thing they love	X3
By all let this be heard	K4
Some do it with a bitter look	U
Some with a flattering word	K4
The coward does it with a kiss	S
The brave man with a sword	K4

Oscar Fingal O'flahertie Wills Wilde

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