Oscar Wilde - A Tribute

"Oscar Wilde once told Andre Gide that he had put his genius into his life, and only his talent into his art. " - So goes the first line in the Introduction in the book "The Works of Oscar Wilde" published in The Wordsworth Poetry Library Series, published in 1994 by Wordsworth Editions Ltd., Hertfordshire, England, printed in Denmark by Norhaven.

I bought the book in New Delhi on 07th June, 2004. Long back, I think about 15 years ago atleast, I accidentally came across a book titled "The Complete Works of Oscar Wilde" at my grandfather's bunglaw room in Warangal. I read the La Belle Donna Della Mia Mente in the book, and I could now, looking back all these years, say without doubt, that this was what influenced me and brought me into the world of English Poetry. Later on, I came across the book once again in 2000 in my college library. Every line in this poem is my favorite and amazes me everytime I read it. For example, here are a few lines that show the "genius" of Wilde, although he would not admit it, and say it is merely his talent from the poem La Belle Donna Della Mia Mente:

1) My limbs are wasted with a flame,
My feet are sore with traveling,
For, calling on my Lady's name,
My lips have now forgot to sing.
2) She is too fair for any man....
...Fairer than Queen or courtesan
Or moonlit water in the night.
3) Her little lips, more made to kiss
Than to cry bitterly for pain,
Are tremulous as brook-water is,
Or roses after evening rain.
4) O twining hands! O delicate
White body made for love and pain
O House of Love! O desolate
Pale flower beaten by the rain.

Perhaps it is just talent for the witty Irishman, but for mortals like me, this is genius.
This poem will always remain my most favorite.

However, there are more that I came across later and I would like to put a few of them here in this post.

a) Thou knowest all; I cannot see.
I trust I shall not live in vain,
I know that we shall meet again
In some divine eternity. -- -- (The True Knowledge)

b) ... Yet, though my lips shall praise her without cease
Even to kiss her feet I am not bold,...... -- -- (Madonna Miad)

And then there is this master piece, "The Ballad of Reading Gaol", where we see a new, much more matured poet in Wilde. Here are some very very very inspiring lines from the poem:

1) "...And though I was a soul in pain,
My pain I could not feel"
2) "...The man had killed the thing he loved,
And so he had to die."
3) "...Who watch him lest himself should rob
The prison of its prey."
4) "...He only looked upon the sun,
And drank the morning air."
5) "The loftiest place is that seat of grace
For which all worldlings try;.."
6) It is sweet to dance to violins
When Love and Life are fair:
To dance to flutes, to dance to lutes
Is delicate and rare:
But it is not sweet with nimble feet
To dance upon the air.

Ultimately he says in this Ballad:

And all men kill the thing they love,
By all let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look,
Some with a flattering word,
The coward does it with a kiss,
The brave man with a sword!

Inspired by Wilde, I might have written many lines in my own stupid poems so far.
However here are a few I would like to capture, for my own reference, as I wrote in the blank pages of the Wilde book:

* As the wild flower gets wilted in the fangs of time,
So is the lover punished and love is called a crime.

* Dream, you are with me right now
As I lie down weared in my bed.


Just a snapshot, a tribute to the one who gave me a life in the world of poetry, although it is an ant's life.

-Siddartha Pamulaparty
Dt: 25-Jan-2009.