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    The Poetry of Algernon Charles Swinburne - Volume XVII: A Channel Passage & Other Poems
    The Poetry of Algernon Charles Swinburne - Volume XVII: A Channel Passage & Other Poems
    The Poetry of Algernon Charles Swinburne - Volume XVII: A Channel Passage & Other Poems
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    The Poetry of Algernon Charles Swinburne - Volume XVII: A Channel Passage & Other Poems

    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
    ISBN9781787371903
    The Poetry of Algernon Charles Swinburne - Volume XVII: A Channel Passage & Other Poems

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      Book preview

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

      The Poetry of Algernon Charles Swinburne

      VOLUME XVII - A CHANNEL PASSAGE AND OTHER POEMS

      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

      A CHANNEL PASSAGE

      THE LAKE OF GAUBE

      THE PROMISE OF THE HAWTHORN

      HAWTHORN TIDE

      THE PASSING OF THE HAWTHORN

      TO A BABY KINSWOMAN

      THE ALTAR OF RIGHTEOUSNESS

      A NEW YEAR'S EVE

      IN A ROSARY

      THE HIGH OAKS

      BARKING HALL: A YEAR AFTER

      MUSIC: AN ODE

      THE CENTENARY OF THE BATTLE OF THE NILE

      TRAFALGAR DAY

      CROMWELL'S STATUE

      A WORD FOR THE NAVY

      NORTHUMBERLAND

      STRATFORD-ON-AVON

      BURNS: AN ODE

      THE COMMONWEAL: A SONG FOR UNIONISTS

      THE QUESTION

      APOSTASY

      RUSSIA: AN ODE

      FOR GREECE AND CRETE

      DELPHIC HYMN TO APOLLO

      A NEW CENTURY

      AN EVENING AT VICHY

      TO GEORGE FREDERICK WATTS

      ON THE DEATH OF MRS. LYNN LINTON

      IN MEMORY OF AURELIO SAFFI

      CARNOT

      AFTER THE VERDICT

      THE TRANSVAAL

      REVERSE

      THE TURNING OF THE TIDE

      ON THE DEATH OF COLONEL BENSON

      ASTRÆA VICTRIX

      THE FIRST OF JUNE

      A ROUNDEL FROM VILLON

      A ROUNDEL OF RABELAIS

      LUCIFER

      THE CENTENARY OF ALEXANDRE DUMAS

      AT A DOG'S GRAVE

      THREE WEEKS OLD

      A CLASP OF HANDS

      PROLOGUE TO DOCTOR FAUSTUS

      PROLOGUE TO ARDEN OF FEVERSHAM

      PROLOGUE TO OLD FORTUNATUS

      PROLOGUE TO THE DUCHESS OF MALFY

      PROLOGUE TO THE REVENGER'S TRAGEDY

      PROLOGUE TO THE BROKEN HEART

      PROLOGUE TO A VERY WOMAN

      PROLOGUE TO THE SPANISH GIPSY

      PROLOGUE TO THE TWO NOBLE KINSMEN

      THE AFTERGLOW OF SHAKESPEARE

      CLEOPATRA

      DEDICATION

      ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE – A SHORT BIOGRAPHY

      ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE – A CONCISE BIBLIOGRAPHY

      A CHANNEL PASSAGE AND OTHER POEMS

      IN MEMORY OF WILLIAM MORRIS AND EDWARD BURNE JONES

      A CHANNEL PASSAGE

      1855

      Forth from Calais, at dawn of night, when sunset summer on autumn shone,

      Fared the steamer alert and loud through seas whence only the sun was gone:

      Soft and sweet as the sky they smiled, and bade man welcome: a dim sweet hour

      Gleamed and whispered in wind and sea, and heaven was fair as a field in flower.

      Stars fulfilled the desire of the darkling world as with music: the starbright air

      Made the face of the sea, if aught may make the face of the sea, more fair.

      Whence came change? Was the sweet night weary of rest? What anguish awoke in the dark?

      Sudden, sublime, the strong storm spake: we heard the thunders as hounds that bark.

      Lovelier if aught may be lovelier than stars, we saw the lightnings exalt the sky,

      Living and lustrous and rapturous as love that is born but to quicken and lighten and die.

      Heaven's own heart at its highest of delight found utterance in music and semblance in fire:

      Thunder on thunder exulted, rejoicing to live and to satiate the night's desire.

      And the night was alive and anhungered of life as a tiger from toils cast free:

      And a rapture of rage made joyous the spirit and strength of the soul of the sea.

      All the weight of the wind bore down on it, freighted with death for fraught:

      And the keen waves kindled and quickened as things transfigured or things distraught.

      And madness fell on them laughing and leaping; and madness came on the wind:

      And the might and the light and the darkness of storm were as storm in the heart of Ind.

      Such glory, such terror, such passion, as lighten and harrow the far fierce East,

      Rang, shone, spake, shuddered around us: the night was an altar with death for priest.

      The channel that sunders England from shores where never was man born free

      Was clothed with the likeness and thrilled with the strength and the wrath of a tropic sea.

      As a wild steed ramps in rebellion, and rears till it swerves from a backward fall,

      The strong ship struggled and reared, and her deck was upright as a sheer cliff's wall.

      Stern and prow plunged under, alternate: a glimpse, a recoil, a breath,

      And she sprang as the life in a god made man would spring at the throat of death.

      Three glad hours, and it seemed not an hour of supreme and supernal joy,

      Filled full with delight that revives in remembrance a sea-bird's heart in a boy.

      For the central crest of the night was cloud that thundered and flamed, sublime

      As the splendour and song of the soul everlasting that quickens the pulse of time.

      The glory beholden of man in a vision, the music of light overheard,

      The rapture and radiance of battle, the life that abides in the fire of a word,

      In the midmost heaven enkindled, was manifest far on the face of the sea,

      And the rage in the roar of the voice of the waters was heard but when heaven breathed free.

      Far eastward, clear of the covering of cloud, the sky laughed out into light

      From the rims of the storm to the sea's dark edge with flames that were flowerlike and white.

      The leaping and luminous blossoms of live sheet lightning that laugh as they fade

      From the cloud's black base to the black wave's brim rejoiced in the light they made.

      Far westward, throned in a silent sky, where life was in lustrous tune,

      Shone, sweeter and surer than morning or evening, the steadfast smile of the moon.

      The limitless heaven that enshrined them was lovelier than dreams may behold, and deep

      As life or as death, revealed and transfigured, may shine on the soul through sleep.

      All glories of toil and of triumph and passion and pride that it yearns to know

      Bore witness there to the soul of its likeness and kinship, above and below.

      The joys of the lightnings, the songs of the thunders, the strong sea's labour and rage,

      Were tokens and signs of the war that is life and is joy for the soul to wage.

      No thought strikes deeper or higher than the heights and the depths that the night made bare,

      Illimitable, infinite, awful and joyful, alive in the summit of air―

      Air stilled and thrilled by the tempest that thundered between its reign and the sea's,

      Rebellious, rapturous,

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