Swinburne, Algernon

Algernon (1837-1909), an English poet and essayist. He was born in London. He studied at Oxford, but he left without taking a degree, and began at once publishing poems which for some time attracted no attention. He was associated with Dante Rossetti and Walter Savage Landor, and was an admirer of Victor Hugo. His first work to attract attention was Atalanta in Calydon, published in 1862, in which he displayed that facile metrical invention for which he is celebrated, and in which he is almost unequaled. Other writings of Swinburne's are Poems and Ballads, Songs before Sunrise, Songs of Two Nations, A Century of Roundels, and The Sisters. Swinburne's critical writings do not display the quality of fine discrimination. He either over-praises or over-blames. He wrote eulogies on Charlotte Bronte, Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and Victor Hugo. Swinburne's reputation as a poet rests upon his mastery of poetic form, in which respect he has been compared with Milton and Shelley. He has been called a "molder of exquisite melodies."