PASSING OF SWINBURNE

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 479, 12 April 1909, Page 4

PASSING OF SWINBURNE

DIED FROM PNEUMONIA. (by telegraph—fhusb association—corvniGiiT.) (Rec. April 12, 1.4 a.m.) London, April 11. Obituai-T: Algernon Charles Swinburne, poet, aged 72 years. Tlio cause of death was pneumonia. A MASTER OF VERBAL MUSIC. As the lite Lord Tennyson ncared tlio end of his days the great names which were associated with his in tho highest circle of British posts gradually dropped away in death until at the cud ho was almost universally held to have but one rival for supremacy. That rival was Mr. Swinburne, and upon Tennyson's death criticism accepted the suthor of "Poems and Ballads" as the greatest surviving British poet. It is a curious circumstance that Swinburne lias not yet come into bis ott'n, for ali though'ho has nevor wanted enthusiastic 1 devotees,| it steins unlikely .that his poetry will take i dot in tho soil of universal approval uutjj (f.o public has forgotten tho circumstancos attending' his fiist definite appearance as a great poet. "Literary Froot'j'ought." Only vc-ry boople now remember as a personal experience ono storm of anger and denunciation that greeted one famous littlo green octavo that'.broko on tho conventions and Puritanism 0I ..IBG6. . It 1 is curious, again, that although l "literary frcethought has grown and bwjeoncd so rapidly as to make what was revolutionary and shocking in 18G0 quito comnonplace to-day, yet tho shock of distasto ftlfc at "Poems' and Ballads" lias been transmitted so faithfully for 40 years that even to-day tho public that finds the modern dccidcnt mild believes that Swinburne is too fledily to" road. Most people have at 0110 time or another , read and wondered at some mimical "stanzas' full of the Swinburnian colotr, and music, but tho public that knows tho poet at J all well, is a small ono. Yet ho vas 0110 of tlio most prolific of English poets; and tlid.'oiiljf .'English poet who has over l.ved who lias stamped his sign manual on evsry lino of the vast treasury of his songs. lOf lato years, tho old ccstasy'of colour aiU sound gave.ivny to a greater restraint and Vignity; but tbt'fe is still not ono,poem of Swiilmnie's whiolr'does not proclaim , its parentage: by its liuosjwtl music, and its colossal fechnique.. Early Career. , . .• , • > Swinburne was tho son of a British Admiral, and tho. grandson, 011 his mother's,■ • side, of tho Earl of Ashlmnhnm., Born oil 5 .,, April 5, 1837, lie entered ai. a commoner at' , Balliol Collcgo in. 1857 aftir- a courso at Eton. Ho loft collego in 1860,, and silica', then ho lived mainly in or 111'ar London. For many years past lio lived under the same roof with'jMr. Watt} Dunton. His first volume, "Tim Queen Mother," appeared in 1860, when tho po.'t was hut 23 years old. Of tips poetc drama Mr. Arthur Symons, ono of tin, foremost of modern critics of poetry, has., said that it "lias never had justice dono t*, its really r.omarknble qualities." ■' After.','five , yeai;s, Swinburne's "Atalanta' in Calojdon" appeared, and at oneo gamed fo:. him i> placo amongst tho great poets, of his country. Tho drama has been praised AVithout restraint ( by ovory critic, and it is to-day admired as ono of tho finest speciments, of British poetry, and as tho most admirable rc-captura m English of tho Greek spirit and iorui. Everybody knows tho wonSerful first chorus, which begins:— When the .hounds of spring are on winter's traces, Tho mother of months in meadows and plain _ r, Fills the shadows and windy places ~ With lisp of leaves and rjpplo of rain; And the brown bright nightingale amoious' Is half assuaged for Itylns ,' For tho Uracian ships and tho foreign fices, Tho tongueloss vigil, and all t).o pain. "Poems and Ballads." Immediately after this brilliant-outsot'to his career tho "Poems and Ballads: Frst Scries" (18G6)„ burst upon thoi'world.'On 0110 hand tho little green volume .was-ac-cepted with a joy and enthusiasm that giyo birth to tho movement which yielded .illo poetry of Danto Kossetti and tho pictures of tlio pre-ltaphaelito. Accompanying tiis applause camo a storm of censure from tio shocked conservatism of tho literary body, the Conservatism that culminated in Buchanan's ferocious attack upon Rossetii, and that ultimately denied tho Lsureatesh'j 011 Tennyson's death to tho ono great potj' fitted to wear the laurel. , "Thatwonderful volume," says a, modern critic," gar« evidence of such an astonishing ly~ic gonial that nothing seemed too great toprophosy on behalf of so young, and alnady bo finished, a writer." It is this vol'mowliicii has yielded the most quoted of Siinburno's poems, as it is tho volume in 'hich his sonso of music and beauty is ill its most passionate full blossom, , "Tho (arden of Proserpine." "The Triumph of Time." "Ilicet," tlio odo to Victor Hugo, ho muchparodied "Dolores," "A Ballad of lurdens," "Iylus," and tho famous "Sans Venoris" and "Anactoria" aro tho most fmous of the G2 wonderful verses ill ono boo:. Republican Enthusiasm. 111 1867 camo "A Song of Italy,"and tho famous essay 011 William Blako, ail during tho next few years the poet had eveloped that Republican enthusiasm that iroducod some of his finest work, his "Sony Before Sunrise" (1871), "Ercchthcns," 1 Greek tragedy appeared in 1870, and th second series of "Poems and Ballads" ■in"B79. In 1881 "Mary Stuart" was publishd, completing tho trilogy of "Cliastelar" and "liotiiwcll," and "Tristram of , Soriesso" appeared in the samo year. Tb poet's appeared in tho same year. Tho pot's productiveness continued for many yeas;. As a critic alone Swinburne would haß taken a high place in English letters, to! placo perhaps of the most profound schlnr of his time, and his studies of Blake Victor Hugo, Snakespeare, and the Eliabothan dramatists) will remain as long as wonderful poems. Swinburne's equals', with tho greatest of English poets is deied and affirmed by equal bodies of opjpjny out there has never been any dissent ttm his right to bo callcd tho greatest mater of metrical, form and rhymo who ,ks ever written in any language. Personal Characteristics. "i A critic (Harold Begbie) wrote W admirable eulogy of the poet in 1905, i'which lie declared, his subject to bo "tho lupiemo literary figure of our time." Of'to poet's personality ho wrote: " I think h is tlio happiest, "creature- under Heaven.' It is amazing to sit with him and listento him. 0110 feels breathless ■ under tlio "caselcss rapturo of his contentment. The'iilo foroliead is clear like a summer sky; to violet eyes overflow with twinkling laugher; tho lips, visible under nioustaclio and ieard of fading gold, bubble over with hater and quick merriment. • He'interrupts fr.a jest tho reading of a poor.i; be rcmembcß in tho midst of political talk 11 swim in sbio moun--1 tain-locked lake or , the supper atnn inn after a famous walk 011 a moonlit oast. Ho is quick with his words, speaking i a high and feminine voice, and he is irrcsitiblo in his sudden and ■ eager appeals to ono'a sympathies." Of Into years tho poet devoted himself mainly to tho celebatiou of tlio sea, of Victor Hugo, of childrn, and of the glory, of the England to whici lie was so passionately attached. It is astlio poet 01 the sen that 110 touches assured '.re-omin-once in English song. In a luindrd of his songs tlio sea has been lis theme, i a Hundred others tho music ol storm ad green water rings through wonderful stanza upon stanza. lii'his omi preface 1904) to tho complete edition of his poems ,0 has a sontenco which says in elftct that "Homer liimsclf" could for great uhs '(onlj find fii and full expression by similitudes dawn lifci initio from the revels and tho tenors am® tlio glories of the sea." • ■