The Ballad of Reading Gaol the poem was chosen as the epitaph on Wilde's tomb; <poem>And alien tears will fill for him, For his mourners will be outcast men, <poem>So with curious eyes and sick surmise We watched him day by day, And wondered if each one of us Would end the self-same way, For none can tell to what red Hell His sightless soul may stray.</poem> The Ballad of Reading Gaol The Ballad of Reading Gaol is a poem by Oscar Wilde, written in exile in Berneval-le-Grand, after his release from Reading Gaol () on 19 May 1897. Wilde had been incarcerated in Reading
The Ballad of the Cloak reiterated the evils of Roman Catholicism and asserted the Church's independence from the Episcopalianism practised by King Charles I and many of the nobles who supported him. Ultimately, the Covenanters would be drawn into civil war against the Royalists, and this ballad blames the Covenanters for the eventual execution of Charles I as well as other evils done against Scotland." The Ballad of the Cloak The Ballad of the Cloak, Or the Cloak's Knavery is an English Broadside ballad that dates back, roughly, to the last quarter of the 17th century. It is most often set to the popular tune,