Part 1

Transcribed from the 1913 Methuen & Co. edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org

POEMS BY OSCAR WILDE

WITH THE BALLAD OF READING GAOL

* * * * *

METHUEN & CO. LTD. 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. LONDON

Twelfth Edition

First Published— Ravenna 1878 Poems 1881 ,, Fifth Edition 1882 The Sphinx 1894 The Ballad of Reading Gaol 1898 First Issued by Methuen and Co. (Limited March 1908 Editions on Handmade Paper and Japanese Vellum) Seventh Edition (F’cap. 8vo). September 1909 Eighth Edition ( ,, ,, ) November 1909 Ninth Edition ( ,, ,, ) December 1909 Tenth Edition ( ,, ,, ) November 1910 Eleventh Edition ( ,, ,, ) December 1911 Twelfth Edition ( ,, ,, ) April 1913

NOTE

This collection of Wilde’s Poems contains the volume of 1881 in its entirety, ‘The Sphinx’, ‘The Ballad of Reading Gaol,’ and ‘Ravenna.’ Of the Uncollected Poems published in the Uniform Edition of 1908, a few, including the Translations from the Greek and the Polish, are omitted. Two new poems, ‘Désespoir’ and ‘Pan,’ which I have recently discovered in manuscript, are now printed for the first time. Particulars as to the original publication of each poem will be found in ‘A Bibliography of the Poems of Oscar Wilde,’ by Stuart Mason, London 1907.

ROBERT ROSS.

CONTENTS

POEMS (1881): PAGE Hélas! 3 ELEUTHERIA: Sonnet To Liberty 7 Ave Imperatrix 8 To Milton 14 Louis Napoleon 15 Sonnet on the Massacre of the Christians in 16 Bulgaria Quantum Mutata 17 Libertatis Sacra Fames 18 Theoretikos 19 THE GARDEN OF EROS 21 ROSA MYSTICA: Requiescat 39 Sonnet on approaching Italy 40 San Miniato 41 Ave Maria Gratia Plena 42 Italia 43 Sonnet written in Holy Week at Genoa 44 Rome Unvisited 45 Urbs Sacra Æterna 49 Sonnet on hearing the Dies Iræ sung in the Sistine 50 Chapel Easter Day 51 E Tenebris 52 Vita Nuova 53 Madonna Mia 54 The New Helen 55 THE BURDEN OF ITYS 61 WIND FLOWERS: Impression du Matin 83 Magdalen Walks 84 Athanasia 86 Serenade 89 Endymion 91 La Bella Donna della mia Mente 93 Chanson 95 CHARMIDES 97 FLOWERS OF GOLD: Impressions: I. Les Silhouettes 135 II. La Fuite de la Lune 136 The Grave of Keats 137 Theocritus: A Villanelle 138 In the Gold Room: A Harmony 139 Ballade de Marguerite 140 The Dole of the King’s Daughter 143 Amor Intellectualis 145 Santa Decca 146 A Vision 147 Impression de Voyage 148 The Grave of Shelley 149 By the Arno 150 IMPRESSIONS DE THÉÀTRE: Fabien dei Franchi 155 Phèdre 156 Sonnets written at the Lyceum Theatre I. Portia 157 II. Queen Henrietta Maria 158 III. Camma 159 PANTHEA 161 THE FOURTH MOVEMENT: Impression: Le Réveillon 175 At Verona 176 Apologia 177 Quia Multum Amavi 179 Silentium Amoris 180 Her Voice 181 My Voice 183 Tædium Vitæ 184 HUMANITAD 185 FLOWER OF LOVE: ΓΛΥΚΥΠΙΚΡΟΣ ΕΡΩΣ 211 UNCOLLECTED POEMS (1876–1893): From Spring Days to Winter 217 Tristitiæ 219 The True Knowledge 220 Impressions: I. Le Jardin 221 II. La Mer 222 Under the Balcony 223 The Harlot’s House 225 Le Jardin des Tuileries 227 On the Sale by Auction of Keats’ Love Letters 228 The New Remorse 229 Fantasisies Décoratives: I. Le Panneau 230 II. Les Ballons 232 Canzonet 233 Symphony in Yellow 235 In the Forest 236 To my Wife: With a Copy of my Poems 237 With a Copy of ‘A House of Pomegranates’ 238 Roses and Rue 239 Désespoir 242 Pan: Double Villanelle 243 THE SPHINX (1894) 245 THE BALLAD OF READING GAOL (1898) 269 RAVENNA (1878) 305

POEMS

HÉLAS!

TO drift with every passion till my soul Is a stringed lute on which all winds can play, Is it for this that I have given away Mine ancient wisdom, and austere control? Methinks my life is a twice-written scroll Scrawled over on some boyish holiday With idle songs for pipe and virelay, Which do but mar the secret of the whole. Surely there was a time I might have trod The sunlit heights, and from life’s dissonance Struck one clear chord to reach the ears of God: Is that time dead? lo! with a little rod I did but touch the honey of romance— And must I lose a soul’s inheritance?

ELEUTHERIA

SONNET TO LIBERTY

NOT that I love thy children, whose dull eyes See nothing save their own unlovely woe, Whose minds know nothing, nothing care to know,— But that the roar of thy Democracies, Thy reigns of Terror, thy great Anarchies, Mirror my wildest passions like the sea And give my rage a brother—! Liberty! For this sake only do thy dissonant cries Delight my discreet soul, else might all kings By bloody knout or treacherous cannonades Rob nations of their rights inviolate And I remain unmoved—and yet, and yet, These Christs that die upon the barricades, God knows it I am with them, in some things.

AVE IMPERATRIX

SET in this stormy Northern sea, Queen of these restless fields of tide, England! what shall men say of thee, Before whose feet the worlds divide?

The earth, a brittle globe of glass, Lies in the hollow of thy hand, And through its heart of crystal pass, Like shadows through a twilight land,

The spears of crimson-suited war, The long white-crested waves of fight, And all the deadly fires which are The torches of the lords of Night.

The yellow leopards, strained and lean, The treacherous Russian knows so well, With gaping blackened jaws are seen Leap through the hail of screaming shell.

The strong sea-lion of England’s wars Hath left his sapphire cave of sea, To battle with the storm that mars The stars of England’s chivalry.

The brazen-throated clarion blows Across the Pathan’s reedy fen, And the high steeps of Indian snows Shake to the tread of armèd men.

And many an Afghan chief, who lies Beneath his cool pomegranate-trees, Clutches his sword in fierce surmise When on the mountain-side he sees

The fleet-foot Marri scout, who comes To tell how he hath heard afar The measured roll of English drums Beat at the gates of Kandahar.

For southern wind and east wind meet Where, girt and crowned by sword and fire, England with bare and bloody feet Climbs the steep road of wide empire.