The Happy Prince

When I was alive and had a human heart,

I did not know what tears were,

for I lived in the Palace of Sans-Souci,

where sorrow is not allowed to enter.

In the daytime I played with my companions in the garden,

and in the evening I led the dance in the great hall.

Round the garden ran a very lofty wall,

but I never cared to ask what lay beyond it,

everything about me was so beautiful.

My courtiers called me the Happy Prince,

and happy indeed I was, if pleasure be happiness.

So I lived, and so I died.

And now that I am dead they have set me up here so high that I can see all the ugliness and all the misery of my city,

and though my heart is made of lead yet I cannot choose but weep…

— The Happy Prince (Oscar Wilde)