3-057-414 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

"On the Massacre of the Christians in Bulgaria" by Oscar Wilde, 1818. Sonnet. 'Christ dost thou live indeed? or are thy bones Still straightened in their rock-hewn sepulchre? And do we owe thy rising but to Her Whose love of thee for all her sin atones? For here the air is heavy with men's groans, The priests that call upon thy name are slain; Dost thou not hear the bitter wail of pain From those whose children lie upon the stones? Our prayers are nought; impenetrable gloom [?] God's face; and in the star-less night Over thy Cross the Crescent moon I see. If thou in very truth didst burst the tomb, Come down, O Son of Man! and show thy might, Lest Mahomet be crowned instead of Thee! Oscar Wilde, Magdalen College, Oxford'. Bulgaria had been part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire since the 14th century. An uprising by Christian Bulgarians against their Muslim oppressors in March 1876 brought horrific reprisals which became known as 'Bulgarian atrocities' and destabilised the region, sparking the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-8. Magdalen College in Oxford, where Wilde was studying when he composed the poem, was named after St Mary Magdalene. The line "Her Whose love of thee for all her sin atones" refers to the Magdalene.