VIII

THE POETRY OF SWINBURNE

ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE was born at Holmwood, near Henly-on-the-Thames, April 5, 1837; and is, thus, the youngest, by several years, of that distinguished circle of nineteenth-century British poets with which his name is intimately connected. Born a quarter of a century after Tennyson and the Brownings, his life and work are, in fact, more closely related to that order of authors of which Morris, Clough, Jean Ingelow, and the Rossettis are representative members. He may be said, however, to be virtually contemporary with each of these groups; to partake, in a sense, of the qualities of each, and yet so to differ from them as to stand somewhat isolated and to maintain a place and personality thoroughly his own. He may be viewed as an author of culture and scholarly instincts, basing his work, to some extent, on classical and Continental teachings, and yet never forgetting the historical relation of the modern to the ancient; of the native English to

the foreign; and of the man of letters to the man of affairs. It is suggestive to note, at the outset, that his education was begun in France, the traces of which country and language are, to an extent, discernible in his subsequent work. Afterwards, at Eton College, he entered Oxford in 1857, as a Commoner, and, though taking no degree in regular course, received the full benefit of university study. "A natural scholar and linguist," as he has been called, he took pains to justify and enlarge these natural endowments by a prolonged system of academic training. In this respect he but adds another proof of a notable fact in English letters, that its most conspicuous names are as remarkable for broad and accurate scholarship as for original poetic gift. Even among other names of lesser note, there are not a few who have been scholars as well as authors, and have thus maintained the historical reputation of our literary men.

In turning to Swinburne's specifically literary work, we mark a career of continuous prose and verse production from the appearance of his earliest writings, such as "The Queen Mother," "Rosamond," and "Atalanta in Calydon" (1861-65), on to his latest contributions to contemporary British letters a period of creative and critical work ex

tending through four completed decades of the nineteenth century. His "Atalanta in Calydon," though produced in the very opening of his life as an author, is still justly regarded as one of his ablest dramas. Full of the old Greek spirit, it emphasizes the impressive truth that the gods cannot be successfully resisted. Thoroughly Hebraic in its serious severity, it is equal in spirit and poetic merit to anything of a similar classical character from the pen of Arnold or Shelley or the Angloclassical school. In 1865 "Chastelard" appeared. It might justly be called "A Tragedy of Mary Stuart." When we learn that it was withheld from publication some time after its preparation, it must be conceded that the author's reputation would have been materially enhanced had it been altogether withheld. This is also true of the volume "Laus Veneris," as a whole, in so far as its animal grossness is concerned a volume that for the time embittered the poet's critics and served to turn many well-disposed readers permanently away from anything he might produce. It stands related to Swinburne's work and fame much as "Leaves of Grass" does to Whitman's. This is true, though in the first edition of "Poems and Ballads " some of his choicest verse is found. In

rapid succession appeared "A Song of Italy," "Ode on the Proclamation of the French Republic," and "The Songs of Two Nations," of whose history and people he was never weary. Then followed "Songs before Sunrise," which in their distinct democratic strain might almost be classed under the head of Civic Odes. Much of the best. work that Swinburne has done is seen in some of these shorter specimens, as in poetic spirit and wealth of utterance they have yet to be surpassed. In 1874 appeared "Bothwell," a tragedy to which the epithet "prodigious" has been fitly applied, so elaborate in its plot as somewhat to tax the patience of the reader. The following year "Erechtheus" appeared. In 1878 we note a second series of "Poems and Ballads," followed in rapid succession by such collections as "A Century of Roundels and Other Poems," "Songs of the Springtides," "A Midsummer Holiday, and Other Poems," "Marino Faliero," "Tristram of Lyonesse, and Other Poems," and "Studies in Song." In 1887 "Locrine" was published. In addition to these poetic works along lyric and dramatic lines, Swinburne has done an order and amount of work in prose criticism and miscellany that entitles him to high repute, and which must always be taken

into account by those who are seeking to assign him his true place in the literary world. Such are the collections, "Essays and Studies," "Under the Microscope "a critical estimate of Poe, Whitman, and other American authors, "A Study of Ben Jonson," "A Study of Victor Hugo," "A Study of Shakespeare," "A Note on Charlotte Brontë." Here is seen, in verse and prose, a substantive body of authorship, indicative of a wide mental range and a high literary ideal. Swinburne is not a versatile and voluminous poet in the sense in which Browning is, nor a versatile prose critic and essayist in the sense in which Matthew Arnold is, but he has written enough in each of these domains to give him notability and to justify that order of criticism which insists on connecting his writings with those of the Tennysonian school.

In entering upon a critical view of his merits and limitations, we shall purposely confine ourselves to his authorship as a poet.

1. The first of his merits that impress us is his poetic passion. This is one of the radical factors of all genuine verse. What may be called the three primary poetic forms are the Creative, the Impassioned, and the Artistic, emphasizing, in turn,