Wilde’s health suffered in prison and continued to decline after his release. Wilde was later transferred to London’s Reading Gaol, where he remained until his release in 1897. Prisoners spent hours untwisting and teasing apart recycled ropes to obtain the fibers used in making oakum. Oakum was a substance used to seal gaps in shipbuilding. He spent the first several months at London’s Pentonville Prison, where he was put to work picking oakum. On May 25, 1895, Oscar Wilde was taken to prison. This time, Wilde was convicted of gross indecency and received two years of hard labor, the maximum sentence allowed for the crime. The trial ended with the jury unable to reach a verdict. During the trial, Wilde was questioned extensively about “the love that dare not speak its name,” a phrase from Lord Alfred Douglas’ poem “Two Loves,” published in 1894, that many interpreted as a euphemism for homosexuality.
