Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ravenna | TBD | Oscar Wilde | Buy |
| 2 | Poems | TBD | Oscar Wilde | Buy |
| 3 | The Poetry of Oscar Wilde | TBD | Oscar Wilde | Buy |
| 4 | Poems in Prose | TBD | Oscar Wilde | Buy |
| 5 | The Sphinx | TBD | Oscar Wilde | Buy |
| 6 | Ballad of Reading Gaol | TBD | Oscar Wilde | Buy |
Oscar Wilde’s poetry is less celebrated than his prose and plays, but The Ballad of Reading Gaol stands as one of the great English poems of the 19th century. Written after his release from prison, it describes the execution of a fellow inmate and uses the event to examine guilt, punishment, and the human capacity for cruelty. The poem’s rhythm and repetition give it a relentless, haunting quality.
His earlier poetry is more decorative. Ravenna won the Newdigate Prize at Oxford in 1878 and launched his literary career. Poems (1881) collected his early verse, which drew heavily on the aesthetic movement and Keats. The Sphinx is a longer poem in an ornate style. Poems in Prose, a set of short prose poems, bridges the gap between his verse and his fairy tales.