Quotation Monday

Quotation Monday is something I've come up with to share some of my favorite quotes from really great novels, movies, lyrics, etc.

In corresponding with the "heavy" book I just read (see: "Forbidden" by Tabitha Suzuma Review), today's quote is going to be a little different. For starters, it's not a quote at all, but a poem. It's also not the most uplifting one out there. However, it has truth and power and that's my kick this week.

"The Ballad of Reading Gaol" by Oscar Wilde

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!

Some kill their love when they are young,

  And some when they are old;

Some strangle with the hands of Lust,

  Some with the hands of Gold:

The kindest use a knife, because

  The dead so soon grow cold.

Some love too little, some too long,

  Some sell, and others buy;

Some do the deed with many tears,

  And some without a sigh:

For each man kills the thing he loves,

  Yet each man does not die.