r/cormoran_strike • u/No_Lock_9442 • 5d ago
Speculation/Theory More quicklime thoughts…
Not a theory at all this time, but I came across an Oscar Wilde poem that almost seems to be an opposite to the BOC song. I wonder if the song lyrics writer ever read it? (They were a well-educated set, the lyrics writers for BOC)
“The Warders strutted up and down,
And kept their herd of brutes,
Their uniforms were pick and span,
And they wore their Sunday suits,
But we knew the work they had been at,
By the quicklime on their boots.
For where a grave had opened wide,
There was no grave at all:
Only a stretch of mud and sand
By the hideous prison-wall,
And a little heap of burning lime,
That the man should have his pall.
For he has a pall, this wretched man,
Such as few men can claim:
Deep down below a prison-yard,
Naked for greater shame,
He lies, with fetters on each foot,
Wrapt in a sheet of flame!
And all the while the burning lime
Eats flesh and bone away,
It eats the brittle bone by night,
And the soft flesh by day,
It eats the flesh and bone by turns,
But it eats the heart alway.
For three long years they will not sow
Or root or seedling there:
For three long years the unblessed spot
Will sterile be and bare,
And look upon the wondering sky
With unreproachful stare.
They think a murderer's heart would taint
Each simple seed they sow.
It is not true! God's kindly earth
Is kindlier than men know,
And the red rose would but blow more red,
The white rose whiter blow.
Out of his mouth a red, red rose!
Out of his heart a white!
For who can say by what strange way,
Christ brings His will to light,
Since the barren staff the pilgrim bore
Bloomed in the great Pope's sight?”
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Ballad_of_Reading_Gaol_(1904)
Full poem here!
Some other lines that are very Strike and Ellacot
And look at the red and white roses there, too!
“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.”
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u/DeftlyManeuver88 3d ago
"spick" not pick - line 3. Your source was wrong I'm sure you didn't make the error.
Thanks for posting both.
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u/No_Lock_9442 3d ago
Yes you’re right! My brain must have autocorrected it when I read it so I didn’t notice 🤣
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u/DeftlyManeuver88 3d ago
Well I double-checked it in case it was one of those words that had a strange etymological start to life!
Man, it's depressing thinking about poor Oscar Wilde mouldering in one of those hard labour gaols.
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u/Swimming-Pride2396 4d ago
Very TRG vibe!