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Oscar Wilde Biography - Poems

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was born on October 16, 1854 at 21 Westland Row, Dublin, Ireland. Wilde's father, William Wilde, was Ireland's leading ear and eye surgeon at Dublin Eye and Ear Hospital and author of books on archaeology and folklore as well as the husband to a successful Irish nationalist writer, Jane.

In June 1855, the Wilde's moved to 1 Merrion Square. There, Jane Wilde held many sessions with guests including Samuel Ferguson, George Petrie amongst many other figures.

Until the age of nine, Oscar Wilde received his education from home. After, Wilde attended Portora Royal School in Enniskillen, Fermanagh until 1871. After leaving Portora, Wilde continued his studies at Trinity College, Dublin for the next three years. Wilde was an excellent student receiving the highest award, Berkeley Gold Medal and then receiving a scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford where he would study from 1874 to 1878. At Magdalen he did much the same, winning the 1878 Oxford Newdigate Prize for his poem Ravenna. Wilde graduated with a double first.

After graduation, Wilde fell in love with Miss Florence Balcome. However, their relationship failed as she became engaged to Bram Stoker. After hearing of her engagement, Wilde wrote Miss Balcome and proclaimed to leave Ireland permanently. His next six years were spent in London, Paris and the United States only to return to his home country twice for brief visits.

During Wilde's stint in London, he met the daughter of a wealthy QC, Constance Lloyd and began courting her. She visited Dublin in 1884 when Wilde was giving lectures at the Gaiety Theatre. He proposed to her and they later married on May 29, 1884 in Paddington, London. With Constance's allowance of £250, the two lived in relative luxury.

The couple had two sons, Cyril in 1885 and Vyvyan in 1886. After Wilde's imprisonment for gross indecency and sentenced to two years of hard labor on May 25, 1895, Constance changed her and her sons names to Holland. She died in 1898 following a spinal surgery and was then buried in Staglieno Cemetary in Genoa, Italy.

Wilde's first born, Cyril was killed in France during WWI. However, Vyvyan became an author and translator later in life, his memoir was published in 1954.

After Wilde's release from prison on May 19, 1897, he spent the following years penniless. He took the pen-name Sebastian Melmoth, the central character of Melmoth the Wanderer, and wrote one of his finest works, The Ballad of Reading Gaol.

Wilde's last days were spent converting to the Roman Catholic church, which he long admired, at the Hotel d'Alsace in Paris. His last words are reportedly "My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has got to go."

Oscar Wilde died on November 30, 1900 due to cerebral meningitis. Wilde was buried at the Cimetière de Bagneux outside Paris but was later moved to Le Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris. His tomb was designed by the famous sculpor Sir Jacob Epstein.

Oscar Wilde Poems