Complete Poetry

Product Description

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! A powerful poem of universal guilt & a protest against capital punishment The Ballad of Reading Gaol is Wildes best-known poem yet it is quite unlike the rest of his poetry. At Oxford Wilde discarded the passion & politics of his mothers Irish nationalistic anti-famine poetry & opted to follow an English Romantic tradition paying tribute to Keats Swinburne & the Pre-Raphaelites. Admiration of French masters gradually led to his writing Impressionist even decadent poems & his collection Poems (1881) brought accusations of obscenity & plagiarism as well as scathing reviews. Unabashed Wilde revised & reprinted his final Authors Edition in 1892 by which time he was the successful author of fiction criticism & Lady Windermeres Fan. This volume follows as closely as possible the chronological order of composition highlighting autobiographical elements including the young Wildes conflicting attitudes to Greece & Rome pagan & Christian & his fluctuating attraction to Roman Catholicism. The Appendix shows Wildes original ordering constructed with great care around a musical arrangement of themes. The poems reveal unexpected aspects of a literary chameleon usually identified with sparkling wit & social comedy. ABOUT THE SERIES: For over 100 years Oxford Worlds Classics has made available the widest range of literature from around the globe. Each affordable volume reflects Oxfords commitment to scholarship providing the most accurate text plus a wealth of other valuable features including expert introductions by leading authorities helpful notes to clarify the text up-to-date bibliographies for further study & much more.