Author: Algernon Swinburne
Profile: Algernon Charles Swinburne, better known as Algernon Swinburne was a poet, novelist, playwright and critic. He was born in London, England and died in London, England. He completed his education at Eton College and Balliol College, Oxford. He has been pioneer of the Decadent movement and pre-Raphaelite literary movement. His most notable work is Poems and Ballads. Algernon Charles Swinburne grew up at East Dene in Bonchurch on the Isle of Wight. The family also had a home in London at Whitehall Gardens, Westminister. Though he was frail and nervous in his childhood he always remained fired up with fearlessness and nervous energy to the extent of being careless. He began writing poetry while attending Eton College when he worn first prizes in Italian and French.
Writing style: Algernon Swinburne has written a number of poetry collections and novels and has been contributor to the popular Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Many taboo topics like anti-theism, lesbianism, sado-masochism and cannibalism have been written by Swinburne. A number of motifs like time, ocean and death are commonly seen in his poems like Jesus (Hymn to Proserpine), Anactoria, Sappho, Catullus and Galilaee.
Published Texts:
Verse drama
1860 – The Queen Mother
1860- Rosamond
1865 – Chastelard
1874 – Bothwell
1881 – Mary Stuart
1885 – Marino Faliero
1887 – Locrine
1892 – The Sisters
1899 – Rosamund, Queen of the Lombards
Poetry
1865 – Atalanta in Calydon
1866 – Poems and Ballads
1871 – Songs Before Sunrise
1875 – Songs of Two Nations
1876 – Erechtheus
1878 – Poems and Ballads, Second Series
1880 – Songs of the Springtides
1880 – Studies in Song
1880 – The Heptalogia, or the Seven against Sense. A Cap with Seven Bells
1882 – Tristram of Lyonesse
1883 – A Century of Roundels
1884 – A Midsummer Holiday and Other Poems
1889 – Poems and Ballads, Third Series
1894 – Astrophel and Other Poems
1896 – The Tale of Balen
1904 – A Channel Passage and Other Poems
Criticism
1906 – William Blake: A Critical Essay
1872 – Under the Microscope
1875 – George Chapman: A Critical Essay
1875 – Essays and Studies
1877 – A Note on Charlotte Bronte
1880 – A Study of Shakespeare
1886 – A Study of Victor Hugo
1889 – A Study of Ben Johnson
1894 – Studies in Prose and Poetry
1908 – The Age of Shakespeare
1909 – Shakespeare
Major Collections
The poems of Algernon Charles Swinburne
The Tragedies of Algernon Charles Swinburne
The Complete Works of Algernon Charles Swinburne
The Swinburne Letters
Uncollected Letters of Algernon Charles Swinburne
Awards and Acknowledgements:
Stephane Mallarme praised Swinburne, highly in France. Swinburne was invited to contribute to a book in honor of the poet Theophile Gautier.
In 1892, the Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone considered him for the roel of poet laureate.
Right from 1903 to 1907 Swinburne was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature and again in the year 1909.
Swinburne was considered by H.P. Lovecraft as the only real poet in either America or England after Mr.Edgar Allan Poe’s death.