Millennium biographers are poised ready to cash in,
On a trio who died 100 years ago.
Namely, Oscar Wilde, Sir Arthur Sullivan and John Ruskin,
Hoping their printers' pie will be encased in dough.
Modern painters' author Ruskin, died 20th of January,
Ironically, had previously lost his wife to painter Millais.
While Sullivan's comic opera music still makes maidens merry,
Tho' on November 22nd, Sir Arthur passed away.
For Oscar Wilde, there was no easy open prison,
He received two years' hard labour for being gay.
So wrote The Ballad of Reading Gaol with precision,
'Fore dying in Paris on November's last day.
Ernie Grundy
Memorial Road
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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