Transcribed from the 1911 Methuen & Co. edition by DavidPrice,

SELECTED POEMS
OF OSCAR WILDE

INCLUDING

THE BALLAD OF
READING GAOL

METHUEN & CO. LTD.
36 ESSEX STREET W.C.
LONDON

‘The Ballad of Reading Goal’ was firstpublished by Leonard Smithers, February 13th,1898.  Second Edition, February,1898.  Third Edition, March 1898. Fourth Edition, March 1898.  FifthEdition, March 1898.  Sixth Edition,1898.  Seventh Edition, 1899. Eighth and Cheaper Edition (1s. net). Methuen & Co., Ltd., August 1910. Ninth Edition, September 1910.  ‘TheBallad of Reading Goal’ was published anonymouslyunder the signature of C. 3. 3.  The author’sname first appeared on the title-page of the SeventhEdition.  It was included in the Collected Edition ofthe author’s Poems published by Messrs. Methuen in 1908 and1909.

Wilde’s Poems were first published in volume form in1881, and were reprinted four times before the end of1882.  A new edition with additional poems,including Ravenna, The Sphinx, and The Ballad ofReading Gaol, was first published (limited issueson hand-made paper and Japanese vellum) by Methuen &Co. in March 1908.  A further edition (makingthe seventh) with some omissions from the issue of1908, but including two new poems, was published inSeptember 1909.  Eighth Edition, November1909.  Ninth Edition, December 1909.

p.vPREFACE

It is thought that a selection fromOscar Wilde’s early verses may be of interest to a largepublic at present familiar only with the always popular Balladof Reading Gaol, also included in this volume.  Thepoems were first collected by their author when he was twenty-sexyears old, and though never, until recently, well received by thecritics, have survived the test of NINE editions.  Readers will be ableto make for themselves the obvious and striking contrasts p. vibetween thesefirst and last phases of Oscar Wilde’s literaryactivity.  The intervening period was devoted almostentirely to dramas, prose, fiction, essays, and criticism.

ROBERT ROSS

Reform Club,
      April 5, 1911.

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