UskaleGo / Pexels

• Ave Maria Gratia Plena
• Was this His coming! I had hoped to see 
• A scene of wondrous glory, as was told 
• Of some great God who in a rain of gold 
• Broke open bars and fell on Danae: 
• Or a dread vision as when Semele 
• Sickening for love and unappeased desire 
• Prayed to see God’s clear body, and the fire 
• Caught her white limbs and slew her utterly: 
• With such glad dreams I sought this holy place, 
• And now with wondering eyes and heart I stand 
• Before this supreme mystery of Love: 
• A kneeling girl with passionless pale face, 
• An angel with a lily in his hand, 
• And over both with outstretched wings the Dove.

• A Lament
• O well for him who lives at ease 
• With garnered gold in wide domain, 
• Nor heeds the splashing of the rain, 
• The crashing down of forest trees. — 
• O well for him who ne’er hath known 
• The travail of the hungry years, 
• A father grey with grief and tears, 
• A mother weeping all alone. — 
• But well for him whose feet hath trod 
• The weary road of toil and strife, 
• Yet from the sorrows of his life 
• Builds ladders to be nearer God.

• Symphony in Yellow
• An omnibus across the bridge 
• Crawls like a yellow butterfly, 
• And, here and there a passer-by 
• Shows like a little restless midge.

• Big barges full of yellow hay 
• Are moored against the shadowy wharf, 
• And, like a yellow silken scarf, 
• The thick fog hangs along the quay.

• The yellow leaves begin to fade 
• And flutter from the temple elms, 
• And at my feet the pale green Thames 
• Lies like a rod of rippled jade.

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was an Irish poet, playwright and novelist who is perhaps best known for his witty epigrams (“I can resist everything but temptation.”) and sardonic observations about society (“A family is a terrible incumbrance, especially when one is not married.”). While he died relatively young—precipitated by his imprisonment after being convicted of gross indecency (i.e. committing homosexual acts)—Wilde left behind a body of celebrated work, including the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, the play The Importance of Being Earnest, and the long poem The Ballad of Reading Gaol, which recounted his experiences as a prisoner. He converted to Catholicism and received the last sacraments on his deathbed.