[ti:The Ballad of Reading Gaol]
[ar:Psychotropic]
[al:]
[00:00.69]He did not wear his scarlet coat,
[00:03.97]For blood and wine are red,
[00:06.63]And blood and wine were on his hands
[00:09.16]When they found him with the dead,
[00:11.56]The poor dead woman whom he loved,
[00:14.32]And murdered in her bed.
[00:16.62]
[00:18.08]He walked amongst the Trial Men
[00:19.72]In a suit of shabby grey;
[00:21.71]A cricket cap was on his head,
[00:23.32]And his step seemed light and gay;
[00:26.43]But I never saw a man who looked
[00:28.46]So wistfully at the day.
[00:29.74]
[00:30.42]I never saw a man who looked
[00:31.74]With such a wistful eye
[00:33.70]Upon that little tent of blue
[00:35.73]Which prisoners call the sky,
[00:38.07]And at every drifting cloud that went
[00:40.61]With sails of silver by.
[00:41.56]
[00:43.15]I walked, with other souls in pain,
[00:45.95]Within another ring,
[00:49.16]And was wondering if the man had done
[00:50.79]A great or little thing,
[00:52.99]When a voice behind me whispered low,
[00:55.83]"That fellow's got to swing."
[00:57.06]
[00:57.82]Dear Christ! the very prison walls
[01:01.84]Suddenly seemed to reel,
[01:03.71]And the sky above my head became
[01:05.66]Like a casque of scorching steel;
[01:08.74]And, though I was a soul in pain,
[01:11.30]My pain I could not feel.
[01:12.51]
[01:13.98]I only knew what hunted thought
[01:16.27]Quickened his step, and why
[01:17.45]He looked upon the garish day
[01:20.19]With such a wistful eye;
[01:22.26]The man had killed the thing he loved
[01:25.24]And so he had to die.
[01:26.43]
[01:29.50]Yet each man kills the thing he loves
[01:31.89]By each let this be heard,
[01:34.32]Some do it with a bitter look,
[01:36.16]Some with a flattering word,
[01:38.38]The coward does it with a kiss,
[01:40.26]The brave man with a sword!
[01:41.35]
[01:42.78]Some kill their love when they are young,
[01:44.72]And some when they are old;
[01:46.64]Some strangle with the hands of Lust,
[01:48.95]Some with the hands of Gold:
[01:51.35]The kindest use a knife, because
[01:53.32]The dead so soon grow cold.
[01:54.33]
[01:56.57]Some love too little, some too long,
[01:58.58]Some sell, and others buy;
[02:00.18]Some do the deed with many tears,
[02:02.99]And some without a sigh:
[02:05.37]For each man kills the thing he loves,
[02:08.74]Yet each man does not die.
[02:12.02]He does not die a death of shame
[02:13.80]On a day of dark disgrace,
[02:16.04]Nor have a noose about his neck,
[02:17.84]Nor a cloth upon his face,
[02:20.28]Nor drop feet foremost through the floor
[02:22.33]Into an empty place
[02:23.33]
[02:25.40]He does not sit with silent men
[02:27.47]Who watch him night and day;
[02:29.48]Who watch him when he tries to weep,
[02:31.30]And when he tries to pray;
[02:33.37]Who watch him lest himself should rob
[02:35.32]The prison of its prey.
[02:36.43]
[02:38.09]He does not wake at dawn to see
[02:39.82]Dread figures throng his room,
[02:41.97]The shivering Chaplain robed in white,
[02:44.59]The Sheriff stern with gloom,
[02:47.00]And the Governor all in shiny black,
[02:48.78]With the yellow face of Doom.
[02:49.79]
[02:51.67]He does not rise in piteous haste
[02:54.65]To put on convict-clothes,
[02:56.26]While some coarse-mouthed Doctor gloats, and notes
[02:59.81]Each new and nerve-twitched pose,
[03:02.01]Fingering a watch whose little ticks
[03:04.35]Are like horrible hammer-blows.
[03:05.35]
[03:07.68]He does not know that sickening thirst
[03:10.09]That sands one's throat, before
[03:11.78]The hangman with his gardener's gloves
[03:14.04]Slips through the padded door,
[03:16.42]And binds one with three leathern thongs,
[03:20.03]That the throat may thirst no more.
[03:23.89]
[03:25.29]He does not bend his head to hear
[03:28.54]The Burial Office read,
[03:31.73]Nor, while the terror of his soul
[03:32.68]Tells him he is not dead,
[03:34.44]Cross his own coffin, as he moves
[03:37.95]Into the hideous shed.
[03:39.02]
[03:39.55]He does not stare upon the air
[03:41.32]Through a little roof of glass;
[03:43.16]He does not pray with lips of clay
[03:46.35]For his agony to pass;
[03:48.40]Nor feel upon his shuddering cheek
[03:51.51]The kiss of Caiaphas.
[03:53.20]
[03:54.99]There is no chapel on the day
[03:56.93]On which they hang a man:
[03:59.38]The Chaplain's heart is far too sick,
[04:02.12]Or his face is far too wan,
[04:04.72]Or there is that written in his eyes
[04:06.82]Which none should look upon.
[04:08.17]
[04:09.93]So they kept us close till nigh on noon,
[04:12.16]And then they rang the bell,
[04:13.66]And the Warders with their jingling keys
[04:15.83]Opened each listening cell,
[04:18.11]And down the iron stair we tramped,
[04:21.05]Each from his separate Hell.
[04:22.38]
[04:23.98]Out into God's sweet air we went,
[04:26.12]But not in wonted way,
[04:28.29]For this man's face was white with fear,
[04:30.65]And that man's face was grey,
[04:33.13]And I never saw sad men who looked
[04:36.02]So wistfully at the day.
[04:37.48]
[04:40.07]The Warders strutted up and down,
[04:42.69]And watched their herd of brutes,
[04:45.34]Their uniforms were spick and span,
[04:47.44]And they wore their Sunday suits,
[04:49.91]But we knew the work they had been at
[04:52.89]By the quicklime on their boots.
[04:54.60]
[04:55.47]For where a grave had opened wide,
[04:58.17]There was no grave at all:
[05:00.60]Only a stretch of mud and sand
[05:03.35]By the hideous prison-wall,
[05:05.47]And a little heap of burning lime,
[05:08.57]That the man should have his pall.
[05:09.59]
[05:11.32]For he has a pall, this wretched man,
[05:13.32]Such as few men can claim:
[05:16.20]Deep down below a prison-yard,
[05:18.57]Naked for greater shame,
[05:20.59]He lies, with fetters on each foot,
[05:23.77]Wrapt in a sheet of flame!
[05:24.83]
[05:26.83]And all the while the burning lime
[05:29.67]Eats flesh and bone away,
[05:32.00]It eats the brittle bone by night,
[05:34.28]And the soft flesh by the day,
[05:36.85]It eats the flesh and bones by turns,
[05:40.48]But it eats the heart alway.
[05:43.51]
[05:45.53]In Reading gaol by Reading town
[05:47.74]There is a pit of shame,
[05:49.79]And in it lies a wretched man
[05:51.68]Eaten by teeth of flame,
[05:54.29]In burning winding-sheet he lies,
[05:56.65]And his grave has got no name.
[05:58.45]
[05:59.70]And there, till Christ call forth the dead,
[06:02.73]In silence let him lie:
[06:05.04]No need to waste the foolish tear,
[06:07.01]Or heave the windy sigh:
[06:09.32]The man had killed the thing he loved,
[06:12.77]And so he had to die.
[06:14.50]
[06:15.36]And all men kill the thing they love,
[06:17.66]By all let this be heard,
[06:20.26]Some do it with a bitter look,
[06:22.16]Some with a flattering word,
[06:24.87]The coward does it with a kiss,
[06:27.29]The brave man with a sword!
[06:29.66]
[06:34.39]