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SWINBURNE, ALGERNON CHARLES (1837–1909)

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Originally appearing in Volume V26, Page 235 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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SWINBURNE, ALGERNON See also:CHARLES (1837–1909) , See also:English poet and critic, was See also:born in See also:London on the 5th of See also:April 1837. He was the son of See also:Admiral Charles See also:Henry Swinburne (of an old Northumbrian See also:family) and of See also:Lady Jane Henrietta, a daughter of See also:George, 3rd See also:earl of See also:Ashburnham. It may almost be said to have been by See also:accident that Swinburne owned London for his birthplace, since he was removed from it immediately, and always See also:felt a cordial dislike for the surroundings and influences of See also:life in the See also:heart of a See also:great See also:city. His own childhood was spent in a very different environment. His grandfather, See also:Sir See also:John See also:Edward Swinburne, See also:hart., owned an See also:estate in See also:Northumberland, and his See also:father, the admiral, bought a beautiful spot between See also:Ventnor and Niton in the Isle of See also:Wight, called See also:East Dene, together with a See also:strip of undercliff known as the Landslip. The two homes were in a sense amalgamated. Sir Edward used to spend See also:half the See also:year in the Isle of Wight, and the admiral's family shared his See also:northern See also:home for the other half; so that the poet's earliest recollections took the See also:form of strangely contrasted emotions, inspired on the one See also:hand by the See also:bleak See also:north, and on the other by the luxuriant and tepid See also:south. Of the two, the influences of the See also:island are, perhaps naturally, the stronger in his See also:poetry; and many of his most beautiful pieces were actually written at the See also:Orchard, an exquisite spot by Niton See also:Bay, which belonged to relatives of the poet, and at which he was a See also:constant visitor. After some years of private tuition, Swinburne was sent to See also:Eton, where he remained for five years, proceeding to Balliol See also:College, See also:Oxford, in 1857. He was three years at the University, but See also:left without taking a degree. Clearly he must have cultivated while there his passionate and altogether unacademic love for the literature of See also:Greece; but his undergraduate career was unattended by university successes, beyond the Taylorian See also:prize for See also:French and See also:Italian, which he gained in 1858. He contributed to the " Undergraduate Papers," published during his first year, under the editorship of John See also:Nichol, and he wrote a See also:good See also:deal of poetry from See also:time to time, but his name was probably regarded without much favour by the college authorities.

He took a second class in classical moderations in 1858, but his name does not occur in any of the " Final " See also:

honour See also:schools. He left Oxford in 186o, and in the same year published those remark-able dramas, The See also:Queen See also:Mother and See also:Rosamond, which, despite a certain rigidity of See also:style, must be considered a wonderful performance for so See also:young a poet, being See also:fuller of dramatic See also:energy than most of his later plays, and See also:rich in really magnificent See also:blank See also:verse. The See also:volume was scarcely noticed at the time, but it attracted the See also:attention of one or two See also:literary See also:judges, and was by them regarded as a first See also:appearance of uncommon promise. - It is a See also:mistake to say, as most biographers do, that Swinburne, after leaving Oxford, spent some time in See also:Italy with See also:Walter See also:Savage See also:Landor. The facts are quite otherwise. The Swinburne family went for a few See also:weeks to Italy, where the poet's mother, Lady Jane, had been educated, and among other places they visited See also:Fiesole, where Landor was then living in the See also:house that had been arranged for him by the kindness of the Brownings. Swinburne was a great admirer of Landor, and, knowing that he was likely to be in the same See also:town with him, had provided himself with an introduction from his friend, See also:Richard Monckton Milnes. Landor and Swinburne met and conversed, with great See also:interest and mutual esteem; but the meetings were not for more than an See also:hour at a time, nor did they exceed four or five in number. Swinburne never lived in Italy for any length of time. In i865 appeared the lyrical tragedy of See also:Atalanta in See also:Calydon, followed in the next year by the famous Poems and See also:Ballads, and with them the poet took the public gaze, and began to enjoy at once a See also:vogue that may almost be likened to the vogue of See also:Byron. His sudden and imperative attraction did not, it is true, extend, like Byron's, to the unliterary; but among lovers of poetry it was sweeping, permeating and sincere. The Poems and Ballads were vehemently attacked, but Dolores and Faustine were on everyone's lips: as a poet of the time has said, " We all went about chanting to one another these new, astonishing melodies." See also:Chastelard, which appeared between Atalanta and Poems and Ballads, enjoyed perhaps less unstinted attention; but it is not too much to say that by the See also:close of his thirtieth year, in spite of hostility and detraction, Swinburne had not only placed himself in the highest See also:rank of contemporary poets, but had even established himself as See also:leader of a See also:choir of singers to whom he was at once See also:master and See also:prophet.

Meanwhile, his private life was disturbed by troublous influences. A favourite See also:

sister died at East Dene, and was buried in the little shady See also:churchyard of Bonchurch. Her loss overwhelmed the poet's father with grief, and he could no longer tolerate the house that was so' full of See also:tender memories. So the family moved to Holmwood, in the See also:Thames Valley, near See also:Reading, and the poet, being now within See also:sound of the London literary See also:world, See also:grew anxious to mix in the See also:company of the small See also:body of men who shared his sympathies and tastes. Rooms were found for him in North See also:Crescent, off Oxford See also:Street; and he was See also:drawn into the vortex of London life. The Pre-Raphaelite See also:movement was in full See also:swing, and for the next few years he was involved in a See also:rush of fresh emotions and rapidly changing loyalties. It is indeed necessary to any appreciation of Swinburne's See also:genius that one should understand that his See also:inspiration was almost invariably derivative. His first See also:book is deliberately Shakespearian in See also:design and expression; the Atalanta, of course, is equally deliberate in its pursuit of the Hellenic spirit. Then, with a wider swing of the pendulum, he recedes, in Poems and Ballads, to the example of See also:Baudelaire and of the Pre-Raphaelites themselves; with the See also:Song of Italy (1867) he 'is See also:drawing towards the revolt of Mazzini; by the time Songs before Sunrise are completed (in 1871) he is altogether under the See also:influence of See also:Victor See also:Hugo, while See also:Rome has become to him " first name of the world's names." But, if Swinburne's inspiration was derivative, his manner was in no sense imitative; he brought to poetry a spirit entirely his own, and a method even more individual than his spirit. In summing up his See also:work we shall seek to indicate wherein his originality and his service to poetry has lain; meanwhile, it is well to distinguish clearly between the influences which touched him and the See also:original, See also:personal See also:fashion in which he assumed those influences, and made them his own. The spirit of Swinburne's muse was always a spirit of revolution. In Poems and Ballads the revolt is against moral conventions and restraints; in Songs before Sunrise the See also:arena of the contest is no longer the sensual See also:sphere, but the See also:political and the ecclesiastical.

The detestation of See also:

kings and priests, which marked so much of the work of his maturity, is now in full swing, and Swinburne's See also:language is sometimes tinged with extravagance and an almost virulent animosity. With See also:Bothwell (1874) he returned to See also:drama and the See also:story of See also:Mary See also:Stuart. The See also:play has See also:fine scenes and is burning with poetry, but its length not only precludes patient enjoyment, but transcends all possibilities of harmonious unity. See also:Erechtheus (1876) was a return to the See also:Greek inspiration of Atalanta; and then in the second See also:series of Poems and Ballads (1878) the French influence is seen to be at work, and Victor Hugo begins to hold alone the See also:place possessed, at different times, by Baudelaire and Mazzini. At this time Swinburne's energy was at See also:fever height; in 1879 he published his eloquent Study of See also:Shakespeare, and in 188o no fewer than three volumes, The See also:Modern Heptalogia, a brilliant See also:anonymous See also:essay in See also:parody, Songs of the Springtides, and Studies in Song. It was shortly after this date that Swinburne's friendship for See also:Theodore See also:Watts-See also:Dunton (then Theodore Watts) grew into one of almost more than brotherly intimacy. After 188o Swinburne's life remained without disturbing event, devoted entirely to the pursuit of literature in See also:peace and leisure. The conclusion of the Elizabethan trilogy, Mary Stuart, was published in 1881, and in the following year Tristram of Lyonesse, a wonderfully individual contribution to the modern treatment of the Arthurian See also:legend, in which the heroic See also:couplet is made to assume opulent, romantic cadences of which it had hitherto seemed incapable. Among the publications of the next few years must be mentioned A See also:Century of Roundels, 1883; A See also:Mid-summer See also:Holiday, 1884; and Miscellanies, 1886. The current of his poetry, indeed, continued unchecked; and though it would be vain to pretend that he added greatly either to the range of his subjects or to the fecundity of his versification, it is at least true that his See also:melody was unbroken, and his magnificent torrent of words inexhaustible. His See also:Marino Falicro (1885) and Locrine (1887) have passages of See also:power and intensity unsurpassed in any of his earlier work, and the rich metrical effects of Astrophel (1894) and The See also:Tale of Balin (1896) are inferior in See also:music and range to none but his own masterpieces. In 1899 appeared his Rosamund, Queen of the See also:Lombards; in 1908 his See also:Duke of Gardia; and in 1904 was begun the publication of a collected edition of his Poems and Dramas in eleven volumes.

Besides this See also:

wealth of poetry, Swinburne was active as a critic, and several volumes of fine in.passiclnsd See also:prose testify to the variety and fluctuation of his literary allegiances. His See also:Note on See also:Charlotte See also:Bronte (1877) must be read by every student of its subject; the Study of Shakespeare (188o)—followed hi 1909 by The See also:Age of Shakespeare—is full of vigorous and arresting thought, and many of his scattered essays are rich in See also:suggestion and appreciation. His studies of Elizabethan literature are, indeed, full of " the See also:noble See also:tribute of praise," and no contemporary critic did so much to revive an interest in that wonderful See also:period of dramatic recrudescence, the See also:side-issues of which have been generally somewhat obscured by the pervading and dominating genius of Shakespeare. Where his See also:enthusiasm was heart-whole, Swinburne's appreciation was stimulating and infectious, but the very qualities which give his poetry its unique See also:charm and See also:character were antipathetic to his success as a critic. He had very little capacity for cool and reasoned See also:judgment, and his See also:criticism is often a tangled thicket of prejudices and predilections. He was, of course, a master of the phrase; and it never happened that he touched a subject without See also:illuminating it with some See also:lightning-flash of genius, some vivid penetrating suggestion that outflames its shadowy and confused environment. But no one of his studies is satisfactory as a whole; the See also:faculty for sustained exercise of the judgment was denied him, and even his best appreciations are disfigured by See also:error in See also:taste and proportion. On the other hand, when he is aroused to literary indignation the See also:avalanche of his invective sweeps before it judgment, taste and dignity. His dislikes have all the superlative violence of his affections, and while both alike See also:present points of great interest to the See also:analyst, revealing as they do a rich, varied and fearless individuality, the criticism which his hatreds evoke is seldom a safe See also:guide. His prose work also includes an See also:early novel of some interest, Love's See also:Cross-currents, disinterred from a defunct weekly, the Taller, and revised for publication in 19Q5. Whatever may be said in criticism of Swinburne's prose, there is at least no question of the quality of his poetry, or of its important position in the See also:evolution of English literary form. To treat first of its technique, it may safely be said to have revolutionized the whole See also:system of metrical expression.

It found English poetry See also:

bound in the bondage of the See also:iambic; it left it revelling in the freedom of the choriambus, the dactyland the See also:anapaest. Entirely new effects; a richness of orchestration resembling the See also:harmony of a See also:band of many See also:instruments; the See also:thunder of the waves, and the lisp of leaves in the See also:wind; these, and a See also:score other astonishing poetic developments were allied in his poetry to a mastery of language and an overwhelming impulse towards beauty of form and exquisiteness of See also:imagination. In Tristram of Lyonesse the heroic couplet underwent a See also:complete See also:metamorphosis. No longer wedded to See also:antithesis and a See also:sharp See also:caesura, it grew into a rich melodious measure, capable of an See also:infinite variety of notes and harmonies, palpitating, intense. The service which Swinburne rendered to the English language as a vehicle for lyrical effect is simply incalculable. He revolutionized the entire See also:scheme of English See also:prosody. Nor was his singular vogue due only to this extraordinary metrical ingenuity. The effect of his See also:artistic See also:personality was in itself intoxicating, even delirious. He was the poet of youth insurgent against all the restraints of conventionality and See also:custom. The young See also:lover of poetry, when first he encounters Swinburne's influence, is almost bound to be swept away by it; the See also:wild, extravagant See also:licence, the apparent sincerity, the vigour and the verve, cry directly to the aspirations of youth like a clarion in the See also:wilderness. But, while this is inevitable, it is also true that the See also:critical lover of poetry outgrows an unquestioning See also:allegiance to the Swinburnian See also:mood more quickly than any other of the diverse emotions aroused by the study of the great poets. It is not that what has been called his " See also:pan-anthropism" —his universal See also:worship of the See also:holy spirit of See also:man—is in itself an unsound See also:philosophy; there have been many See also:creeds founded on such a basis which have impregnably withstood the attacks of criticism.

But the unsoundness of Swinburne's philosophy lies in the fact that it celebrates the spirit of man engaged in a defiant See also:

rebellion that leads nowhere; and that as a " criticism of life " it has neither finality nor a sufficiently high seriousness of purpose. Walt See also:Whitman preaches very much the same See also:gospel of the " body electric" and the See also:glory of human nature; but Whitman's attitude is far saner, far more satisfying than Swinburne's, for it is concerned with the human spirit realizing itself in accordance with the unchangeable See also:laws of nature; while Swinburne's enthusiasm is, more often than not, directed to a spiritual revolution which sets the laws of nature at See also:defiance. It is impossible to acquit his poetry entirely of the See also:charge' of an animalism which See also:wars against the higher issues of the spirit—an animalism sometimes of love, sometimes of hatred, but, in both extremes, out of centre and harmony. Yet, when everything has been said that can be said against the unaesthetic violences of the poet's excesses, his service to contemporary poetry outweighed all disadvantages. No one did more to See also:free English literature from the shackles of formalism; no one, among his contemporaries, pursued the poetic calling with so' sincere and resplendent an allegiance to the claims of See also:absolute and unadulterated poetry. Some English poets have turned preachers; others have been seduced by the attractions of philosophy; but Swinburne always remained an artist absorbed in a lyrical See also:ecstasy, a See also:singer and not a seer. When the See also:history of Victorian poetry comes to be written, it will be found that his personality was, in its due See also:perspective, among the most potent of his time; and as an artistic influence it will be pronounced both inspiring and beneficent. The topics that he touched were often ephemeral; the causes that he celebrated will, many of them, See also:wither and desiccate; but the magnificent freedom and lyrical resource which he introduced into the language will enlarge its See also:borders and extend its sway so See also:long as English poetry survives. On the loth of April 1909, after a See also:short attack of See also:influenza followed by See also:pneumonia, the great poet died at the house on Putney See also:Hill, " The Pines," where with Mr Watts-Dunton he had lived for many years. He was buried at Bonchurch, Isle of Wight. (E.

End of Article: SWINBURNE, ALGERNON CHARLES (1837–1909)

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