He means that men have always killed the thing they loved, and in many cruel ways, but they have never really be executed for it. This can be taken as a justification, but it seems to be a product of his frustration at the hypocrisy of the sentencing. In the end of this particular section of the poem, he says that The speaker lists out all the different ways in which men have killed the thing they loved. This leads him to diverge from the point of the actual events that are happening into a world of his own introspection over whether the inmate’s crime was really a great crime. Soon, the speaker gets to know that the inmate has been sentenced to death and he is shocked. In the next few lines, the poet delineates the psychological condition of the prisoner. In the second stanza, the speaker speaks of the hardships faced by the man, which are juxtaposed by the poet with his regretful attitude towards the crime he committed.īy this time, it is abundantly clear that the crime was one of passion and not committed in cold blood. This might have pushed him to do something he wouldn’t have done if he were in his senses. The blood part is obvious, but perhaps “wine” indicates that the inmate was intoxicated when he committed the crime. It speaks of the man who killed the thing he loved, and how his hands were tainted with “blood and wine”. In this stanza, the essence of the actual murder is captured. It clearly seems to be because the speaker yearns to humanize the act of the inmate. One of the most interesting things about this poem is the way there is a reiteration of the fact that the man killed “the thing he loved”. The first stanza begins with the description of the “blood and wine” incident, or the murder by the inmate of the thing he loved. The poem consists of 109 stanzas that are categorized into 6 parts. While the title says Ballad, the poem almost seems to be an elegy to lament and question the death of his inmate. This poem was essentially written about Oscar Wilde’s experiences in the prison, or rather, one very specific incident that shocked him profoundly, the execution of his inmate. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own. These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community.

The ballad of gaol