Part 5 of The Ballad of Reading Gaol

Quotes:
"And that each day is like a year, A year whose days are long." - hyperbolic
"...that every Law That men have made for Man, since first Man took his brother's life..." - Cain and Abel Bible story, nature of crime and punishment
"And bound with bars lest Christ should see How men their brothers maim." - blocks out Christ - forgiveness
"It is only what is good in Man That wastes and withers there..." - prisons breed violence
"For they starve the little frightened child Till it weeps both night and day..." - pathos, child prisoners Wilde recounted in letters he wrote to "The Daily Chronicle" about prison reform - letters were mentioned during the passing of the 1898 Prison Act - "preyed upon by terror"
"The brackish water that we drink Creeps with a loathsome slime..."
"With midnight always in one's heart, And twilight in one's cell..."
"But God's eternal Laws are kind And break the heart of stone."
"How else but through a broken heart May Lord Christ enter in?"
"And he of the swollen purple throat..." - botched execution of Wooldridge
"And with tears of blood he cleansed the hand...For only blood can wipe out blood And only tears can heal: And the crimson stain that was of Cain Became Christ's snow-white seal."
"The man had killed the thing he loved, And so he had to die."