the Ballad of reading gaol Flashcards
blood and wine
were on his hands
the poor woman whom he loved,
and murdered in her bed
his step seemed light and gay; but I never say a man who
looked so wistfully at the day
that tent of blue
which prisoners call the sky
I walked with
other souls in pain
was wondering if
the man had done a great or little thing
yet every man kills
the thing he loves
the coward does it with a kiss,
the brave man with a sword!
he does not pray with lips of
clay for his agony to pass;
the world has thrust us from its heart,
and God from out his care
the hangman’s
hands were near
why he said so strange a thing
no warder dared to ask
must set a lock upon his lips
and make his face a mask
-Warders when guarding the estranged prisoners
and through the bars that hide the stars
white faces seemed to peer
as molten lead were the tears we shed
for the blood we had not split
the warders with their shoes of felt
crept by each padlocked door
-warders wore that would make their footsteps silent (foreboding hangings, death) watch over prisoners like ghosts
there is no chapel on the day
on which they hang a man
with bars they blur the gracious moon
and blind the goodly sun
they scourge the weak, and
flog the fool, and gibe the old and gray’
the holy hands that
took the thief to Paradise
the poor dead woman whom
he loved and murdered in her bed
he walked amongst the trial men
he did not were
in a suit of shabby grey
his scarlet coat. -Wooldridge was a guard that is what guards wore
