Selected Poems
Algernon Swinburne

Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909) fell into neglect after the First World War. The eccentricities of his character and a few anthology pieces were remembered ; but novels, criticism, letters and - especially - translations and poems were left to gather dust : a sad fate for a poet of whom Queen Victoria said, "I am told that Mr Swinburne is the best poet in my dominions."
Hardy and Pound are just two of the major poets of this century who fell under the spell of Swinburne's music. He had, as Jonathan Raban wrote, "a dazzling facility for delivering words at speed" ; he was "the besotted logophile. No one invested more of his life in words..." His work is no longer neglected. I recent years it has found advocates all over the world. The poetry of our century is more intelligible to readers familiar with Swinburne's approach to words and meanings. His roots are in the Elizabethans, he loved Landor and Whitman, Johnson and Blake, Baudelaire and the Marquis de Sade. His inclusiveness is tonic. His poems are radical in many ways.
This selection draws on the full range of his poetry and includes introduction and notes.

Titre original : Selected Poems