Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde

1854–1900

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) was an Irish poet, novelist and playwright, born in Dublin and educated at Trinity College Dublin and Oxford. A celebrated wit and leading figure of the Aesthetic movement, he wrote The Picture of Dorian Gray and comedies such as The Importance of Being Earnest.

He published Poems in 1881. After his imprisonment for “gross indecency” in 1895 he wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898), a powerful poem on prison life and capital punishment (“Yet each man kills the thing he loves”). He died in exile in Paris in 1900.

Best-known poems

All poems (17)

In English 5

In Hungarian 1

Poets of the same era

Clemente Althaus 1835–1881 Antonio Machado 1875–1939 Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer 1836–1870 Rubén Darío 1867–1916 Evaristo Carriego 1883–1912 José Tomás de Cuellar 1830–1894 Salvador Díaz Mirón 1853–1928 Julio Flórez 1867–1923