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    The Poetry of Algernon Charles Swinburne - Volume XVI: The Tale of Balen
    The Poetry of Algernon Charles Swinburne - Volume XVI: The Tale of Balen
    The Poetry of Algernon Charles Swinburne - Volume XVI: The Tale of Balen
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    The Poetry of Algernon Charles Swinburne - Volume XVI: The Tale of Balen

    By Algernon Charles Swinburne

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    Algernon Charles Swinburne was born on April 5th, 1837, in London, into a wealthy Northumbrian family. He was educated at Eton and at Balliol College, Oxford, but did not complete a degree. In 1860 Swinburne published two verse dramas but achieved his first literary success in 1865 with Atalanta in Calydon, written in the form of classical Greek tragedy. The following year "Poems and Ballads" brought him instant notoriety. He was now identified with "indecent" themes and the precept of art for art's sake. Although he produced much after this success in general his popularity and critical reputation declined. The most important qualities of Swinburne's work are an intense lyricism, his intricately extended and evocative imagery, metrical virtuosity, rich use of assonance and alliteration, and bold, complex rhythms. Swinburne's physical appearance was small, frail, and plagued by several other oddities of physique and temperament. Throughout the 1860s and 1870s he drank excessively and was prone to accidents that often left him bruised, bloody, or unconscious. Until his forties he suffered intermittent physical collapses that necessitated removal to his parents' home while he recovered. Throughout his career Swinburne also published literary criticism of great worth. His deep knowledge of world literatures contributed to a critical style rich in quotation, allusion, and comparison. He is particularly noted for discerning studies of Elizabethan dramatists and of many English and French poets and novelists. As well he was a noted essayist and wrote two novels. In 1879, Swinburne's friend and literary agent, Theodore Watts-Dunton, intervened during a time when Swinburne was dangerously ill. Watts-Dunton isolated Swinburne at a suburban home in Putney and gradually weaned him from alcohol, former companions and many other habits as well. Much of his poetry in this period may be inferior but some individual poems are exceptional; "By the North Sea," "Evening on the Broads," "A Nympholept," "The Lake of Gaube," and "Neap-Tide." Swinburne lived another thirty years with Watts-Dunton. He denied Swinburne's friends access to him, controlled the poet's money, and restricted his activities. It is often quoted that 'he saved the man but killed the poet'. Algernon Charles Swinburne died on April 10th, 1909 at the age of seventy-two.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPortable Poetry
    Release dateMar 10, 2017
    ISBN9781787371897
    The Poetry of Algernon Charles Swinburne - Volume XVI: The Tale of Balen

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      Book preview

      The Poetry of Algernon Charles Swinburne - Volume XVI - Algernon Charles Swinburne

      The Poetry of Algernon Charles Swinburne

      VOLUME XVI - THE TALE OF BALEN

      Algernon Charles Swinburne was born on April 5th, 1837, in London, into a wealthy Northumbrian family.  He was educated at Eton and at Balliol College, Oxford, but did not complete a degree.

      In 1860 Swinburne published two verse dramas but achieved his first literary success in 1865 with Atalanta in Calydon, written in the form of classical Greek tragedy. The following year Poems and Ballads brought him instant notoriety. He was now identified with indecent themes and the precept of art for art's sake.

      Although he produced much after this success in general his popularity and critical reputation declined. The most important qualities of Swinburne's work are an intense lyricism, his intricately extended and evocative imagery, metrical virtuosity, rich use of assonance and alliteration, and bold, complex rhythms.

      Swinburne's physical appearance was small, frail, and plagued by several other oddities of physique and temperament. Throughout the 1860s and 1870s he drank excessively and was prone to accidents that often left him bruised, bloody, or unconscious. Until his forties he suffered intermittent physical collapses that necessitated removal to his parents' home while he recovered.

      Throughout his career Swinburne also published literary criticism of great worth. His deep knowledge of world literatures contributed to a critical style rich in quotation, allusion, and comparison. He is particularly noted for discerning studies of Elizabethan dramatists and of many English and French poets and novelists. As well he was a noted essayist and wrote two novels.

      In 1879, Swinburne's friend and literary agent, Theodore Watts-Dunton, intervened during a time when Swinburne was dangerously ill. Watts-Dunton isolated Swinburne at a suburban home in Putney and gradually weaned him from alcohol, former companions and many other habits as well.

      Much of his poetry in this period may be inferior but some individual poems are exceptional; By the North Sea, Evening on the Broads, A Nympholept, The Lake of Gaube, and Neap-Tide.

      Swinburne lived another thirty years with Watts-Dunton. He denied Swinburne's friends access to him, controlled the poet's money, and restricted his activities. It is often quoted that 'he saved the man but killed the poet'.

      Swinburne died on April 10th, 1909 at the age of seventy-two.

      Index of Contents

      Dedication

      THE TALE OF BALEN

      Parts I - VII

      Algernon Charles Swinburne – A Short Biography

      Algernon Charles Swinburne – A Concise Bibliography

      DEDICATION

      TO MY MOTHER

      Love that holds life and death in fee,

      Deep as the clear unsounded sea

      And sweet as life or death can be,

      Lays here my hope, my heart, and me

      Before you, silent, in a song.

      Since the old wild tale, made new, found grace,

      When half sung through, before your face,

      It needs must live a springtide space,

      While April suns grow strong.

      March 24, 1896.

      THE TALE OF BALEN

      I

      In hawthorn-time the heart grows light,

      The world is sweet in sound and sight,

      Glad thoughts and birds take flower and flight,

      The heather kindles toward the light,

         The whin is frankincense and flame.

      And be it for strife or be it for love

      The falcon quickens as the dove

      When earth is touched from heaven above

         With joy that knows no name.

      And glad in spirit and sad in soul

      With dream and doubt of days that roll

      As waves that race and find no goal

      Rode on by bush and brake and bole

         A northern child of earth and sea.

      The pride of life before him lay

      Radiant: the heavens of night and day

      Shone less than shone before his way

         His ways and days to be.

      And all his life of blood and breath

      Sang out within him: time and death

      Were even as words a dreamer saith

      When sleep within him slackeneth,

         And light and life and spring were one.

      The steed between his knees that sprang,

      The moors and woods that shone and sang,

      The hours where through the spring’s breath rang,

         Seemed ageless as the sun.

      But alway through the bounteous bloom

      That earth gives thanks if heaven illume

      His soul forefelt a shadow of doom,

      His heart foreknew a gloomier gloom

         Than closes all men’s equal ways,

      Albeit the spirit of life’s light spring

      With pride of heart upheld him, king

      And lord of hours like snakes that sting

         And nights that darken days.

      And as the strong spring round him grew

      Stronger, and all blithe winds that blew

      Blither, and flowers that flowered anew

      More glad of sun and air and dew,

         The shadow lightened on his soul

      And brightened into death and died

      Like winter, as the bloom waxed wide

      From woodside on to riverside

         And southward goal to goal.

      Along the wandering ways of Tyne,

      By beech and birch and thorn that shine

      And laugh when life’s requickening wine

      Makes night and noon and dawn divine

         And stirs in all the veins of spring,

      And past the brightening banks of Tees,

      He rode as one that breathes and sees

      A sun more blithe, a merrier breeze,

         A life that hails him king.

      And down the softening south that knows

      No more how glad the heather glows,

      Nor how, when winter’s clarion blows

      Across the bright Northumbrian snows,

         Sea-mists from east and westward meet,

      Past Avon senseless yet of song

      And Thames that bore but swans in throng

      He rode elate in heart and strong

         In trust of days as sweet.

      So came he through to Camelot,

      Glad, though for

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