Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was an Irish poet and playwright best remembered for his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray and play The Importance of Being Earnest. Educated at Trinity College and Oxford, Wilde became involved with aestheticism and moved to London. Wilde was tried and imprisoned for “sodomy and gross indecency” and wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaol after his release. Source
Requiescat
Tread lightly, she is near
Under the snow,
Speak gently, she can hear
The daisies grow.
All her bright golden hair
Tarnished with rust,
She that was young and fair
Fallen to dust.
Lily-like, white as snow,
She hardly knew
She was a woman, so
Sweetly she grew.
Coffin-board, heavy stone,
Lie on her breast,
I vex my heart alone
She is at rest.
Peace, Peace, she cannot hear
Lyre or sonnet,
All my life’s buried here,
Heap earth upon it.
Published:
1881
Length:
Shorty
Literary Movements:
Aestheticism
Romanticism
Anthology Years:
2020
Themes:
Death & Loss
Literary Devices:
Elegy
a meditation on death, often in thoughtful mourning lamentation
Epizeuxis
words or phrases repeated one after another in quick succession
Hyperbole
exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally
Imperative
an instruction or a command
Rhyme
correspondence of sound between words or the endings of words, especially when these are used at the ends of lines of poetry