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
Hay Gaol prisoners at Hay during the period 1895-7 was 25 (1895), 17 (1896) and 14 (1897). Ghiblim Everett eventually retired as the gaoler at Hay (probably in about 1896), “because of being over the superannuation age, on a pension”. The Gaoler at Hay during 1897 was Benjamin Shaw. On 14 December 1897 P. Phelan took over this position. The first gaoler of the Hay Gaol, Ghiblim Everett, died in May 1898 at Hay. From 4 April 1899 the Hay Gaol was under the control of S. J. Nebbett, who took over from D. D'Arcy (previously Chief Clerk at Darlinghurst Gaol). In