On the Recent Sale by Auction of Keat's Love-Letters
by Oscar Wilde

Irish wit, poet and dramatist. Probably best known for his play; The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), other plays include Lady Windermere's Fan (1892), A Woman of No Importance (1893) and An Ideal Husband (1895), Salome (in French and first performed 1896) and his first play Vera (first performed 1883). He also wrote fairy stories The Happy Prince (1888) and The House of Pomegranates (1891), short stories Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, and other stories (1891), his only novel The Picture of Dorian Grey (1891). Other works include a collection of essays Intentions (1891), and The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898). Wilde was the key figure in the late 19th century Aesthetic movement in England, which advocated art for art's sake.

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On the Recent Sale by Auction of Keat's Love-Letters
by Oscar Wilde

These are the letters which Endymion wrote
To one he loved in secret and apart,
And now the brawlers of the auction-mart
Bargain and bid for each poor blotted note,
Aye! for each separate pulse of passion quote
The merchant's price! I think they love not art
Who break the crystal of a poet's heart,
That small and sickly eyes may glare or gloat.
Is it not said, that many years ago,
In a far Eastern town some soldiers ran
With torches through the midnight, and began
To wrangle for mean raiment, and to throw
Dice for the garments of a wretched man,
Not knowing the God's wonder, or his woe?

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On the Recent Sale by Auction of Keat's Love-Letters by Oscar Wilde