born April 5, 1837, London, Eng.
died April 10, 1909, Putney, London
English poet and critic.
After attending Eton and the University of Oxford, Swinburne lived on an allowance from his father. His verse drama Atalanta in Calydon (1865) first showed his lyric powers. Poems and Ballads (1866), containing some of his best work, displays his paganism and masochism and provoked controversy; a second series (1878) was less hectic and sensual. His verse is marked by emphatic rhythms, much alliteration and internal rhyme, and lush subject matter. His health collapsed in 1879 and he spent his last 30 years under a friend's guardianship. His early poetry is noted for innovations in prosody, but his later poetry is considered less important. Among his outstanding critical writings are Essays and Studies (1875) and monographs on William Shakespeare (1880), Victor Hugo (1886), and Ben Jonson (1889).
Algernon Charles Swinburne, watercolour by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1862; in the Fitzwilliam Museum, ...
By courtesy of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge