ABSTRACT
The Ballad of Reading Gaol is written in that ballad stanza of six lines which Hood used for ‘The Dream of Eugene Aram’; and the accident of two poems about a murderer having been written in the same metre has suggested comparisons which are only interesting by way of contrast. ‘Eugene Aram’ is a purely romantic poem; The Ballad of Reading Gaol aims at being a realistic poem. It may more properly be compared with Mr. Henley’s ‘In Hospital’, where a personal experience, and personally observed surroundings, are put into verse as directly, and with as much precise detail, as possible. Taken merely as sensation recorded, this new poem is as convincing, holds you as tightly, as Mr. Henley’s; and it has, in places, touches at least as finely imaginative; this, for instance:
We have little care of prison fare, For what chills and kills outright Is that every stone one lifts by day Becomes one’s heart by night.
