I bought this book in Hay on Wye
and I like O.W.

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Liebe Finderin, lieber Finder,
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I read The Ballad of Reading Gaol in German already and was deeply moved by the intensity of the poems.

Thanks for this wonderful little book, dear ghanescha.

Yet each man kills the thing he loves,
By each 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!

Wonderful and touching words written by a man who experienced what he wrote about:

And the wild regrets, and the bloody sweats,
None knew so well as I:
For he who lives more lives than one
More deaths than one must die.

The Ballad of Reading Gaol is an extremely moving and heartbreaking poem (if one can call it that) even in German and much more in English. I'm very thankful for this special gift!


There is a novel also in this little book " Pen, Pencil and Poison", what is completely different (crime with dark humor) and I had trouble to switch my mind from one part to the other.