The Ballad of Reading Gaol

¹Yet each man kills the thing he loves,

²By each let this be heard,

³Some do it with a bitter look,

⁴Some with a flattering word,

⁵The coward does it with a kiss,

⁶The brave man with a sword!

⁷Some kill their love when they are young,

⁸And some when they are old;

⁹Some strangle with the hands of Lust,

¹⁰Some with the hands of Gold:

¹¹The kindest use a knife, because

¹²The dead so soon grow cold.

¹³Some love too little, some too long,

¹⁴Some sell, and others buy;

¹⁵Some do the deed with many tears,

¹⁶And some without a sigh:

¹⁷For each man kills the thing he loves,

¹⁸Yet each man does not die.

¹⁹He does not die a death of shame

²⁰On a day of dark disgrace,

²¹Nor have a noose about his neck,

²²Nor a cloth upon his face,

²³Nor drop feet foremost through the floor

²⁴Into an empty space.