The poem centers around a prisoner who has been condemned to death for the murder of the woman he loved and deals with the effect that his execution has on other prisoners. Wilde was a prisoner at Reading Gaol (now HM Prison Reading) when Charles Thomas Wooldridge was executed there on July 7, 1896 for the murder of Laura Ellen Glendell. The Ballad of Reading Gaol is dedicated to "C.T.W."