Guillermo Valencia of Chinese poems. He translated La balada de la cárcel de Reading (1932; “The Ballad of Reading Gaol”) from the English poem by the 19th-century writer Oscar Wilde. He also turned more frequently to writing essays, many of which are collected in Panegíricos, discursos y artículos (1933; “Panegyrics, Speeches, and Articles”). Guillermo Valencia Guillermo Valencia Castillo (October 29, 1873 in Popayán, Colombia – July 8, 1943 in Popayán) was a Colombian poet and translator. He was the father of Guillermo León Valencia (1909-1971), Colombian president during 1962-1966. His first volume of poetry, Ritos (1898, rev. ed. 1914; “Rites”), containing original
The Ballad of Reading Gaol the poem, "He did not wear his scarlet coat"—because Wooldridge, as a member of the Royal Horse Guards, had a blue uniform—but justified this poetic licence because the second line would make no sense if it said "For blood and wine are "blue"". Several passages from the poem have become famous: <poem>Yet each man kills the thing he loves Some do it with a bitter look, The coward does it with a kiss, The line is a nod to Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice", when Bassanio asks "Do all men kill the things they do not love?" A passage from