What is the Analysis of the poem The colour of his hair by AE Houseman?

The poem is a dedication to the struggle of Oscar Wilde, the Irish-born Victorian writer who was sent to prison for homosexuality. Housman equates punishing a person for his sexual orientation with the barbarity and injustice of punishing a person for "the colour of his hair." Neither one is something a person can control, and neither is something one should be ashamed of (according to Housman's poem).

For a full understanding of the symbolism here, a person must know about the following:

1. Victorian social codes (Homosexuality was an inexcusable abomination.)

2. Oscar Wilde's life

3. Victorian vocabulary used in this poem (poll = hair, oakum = rope, etc)