The Ballad of Reading Gaol

I have busy been studying (a perennial mistress of a doctor, trust me!) Hence, whatever little sparks of inspiration have flashed have been smothered, hidden or even outright killed!

So I'm borrowing from Oscar Wilde tonight and his Ballad of Reading Gaol!!

Please read the whole poem if you can lay your hands on it. I've been the richer for the experience of doing so!

(Excerpt from) The Ballad of Reading Gaol

                                                                        - Oscar Wilde

.....The man had killed the thing he loved

  And so he had to die.

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!

Some kill their love when they are young,

  And some when they are old;

Some strangle with the hands of Lust,

  Some with the hands of Gold:

The kindest use a knife, because

  The dead so soon grow cold.

Some love too little, some too long,

  Some sell, and others buy;

Some do the deed with many tears,

  And some without a sigh:

For each man kills the thing he loves,

  Yet each man does not die.......