Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) was a champion of aestheticism and criticism, a literary artist and playwright remembered as much for his intellect and wit as he was for being imprisoned as a homosexual—a catastrophe that led to his early death. Married in 1884, he fathered two sons and relished six years of creativity that produced his classic only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, and his dramas, Lady Windermere’s Fan, A Woman of No Importance, and The Importance of Being Earnest, his masterpiece for the ages.

Magdalen Walks

by Oscar Wilde

The little white clouds are racing over the sky,
    And the fields are strewn with the gold of the flower of March,
    The daffodil breaks under foot, and the tasselled larch
Sways and swings as the thrush goes hurrying by.

A delicate odour is borne on the wings of the morning breeze,
    The odour of deep wet grass, and of brown new-furrowed earth,
    The birds are singing for joy of the Spring’s glad birth,
Hopping from branch to branch on the rocking trees.
People on couch
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