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Poet and Novelist

Walt Whitman, circa 1887 (US Library of Congress). O'Reilly first met Whitman through his involvement in a Boston literary club. The two men remained in contact throughout the 1880s. In 1888, Whitman recalled an occasion in which O’Reilly described his experiences as a convict: ‘I shall never forget the first time he spoke to me about his prison life. He was alive with the most vivid indignation – he was a great storm out somewhere, a great sea pushing upon the shore.’

I shall never forget his delivery of his “In Bohemia” at...the Papyrus Club, when, though not unaware that the creed was fustian, I subscribed unreservedly un­der the spell of the moment to the ardor of his rapturous eloquence....With what passionate faith did he proceed, and when he reached the glowing, re­lentless close, it was impossible not to feel that one was listening to a seer…What a tumult of applause when he sat down. I was stirred to the depths, though dimly aware that I was under a spell.

Social Problems and his Poetry

Oscar Wilde photographed during his tour of the United States in 1882 (US Library of Congress). Wilde and O'Reilly had exchanged letters and met in Boston.

I am sick of the showy seeming

Of a life that is half a lie;

Of the faces lined with scheming

In the throng that hurries by.

From the sleepless thoughts' endeavour,

I would go where the children play;

For a dreamer lives forever,

And a thinker dies in a day.