Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909)
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Poetry
Victorian poetry is characterized by partial acceptance and modification of its Romantic inheritance. The Victorian poets turned away from the Romantic adoration of nature and were more aware of the social, religious and philosophical problems of their age which is characterized by scientific rationalism and rapid change. Thus their poetry is marked by a doubtful and pessimistic mood concerning the gradual loss of faith. But they did not go so far as to offer direct social and political comment.
The poetry of Algernon Charles Swinburne
He was a poet of the time which followed Romanticism, Victorianism. His poems had a great effect on his readers. In contrast to the other poets of his lifetime Swinburne's style became more and more aesthetic. Most poets wanted to convey a certain message to their readers. Some of them were provocative and critical. But Swinburne began ignore all social and political concerns so that his works did not contain messages but just pure beauty. Against the prevailing spirit of his time saying that poems should be morally useful he just based his poems on his personal experience and so he became more and more isolated from the real world.
Swinburne's verses are very melodious. He also is very flexible in the use of metre and emotional choice of words. "The Words are omnipotent in Swinburne s poetry and his language breaks through all structural barriers.", once a critic said.
And with his talent to express everything with emotional words he is also able to show his fascination with the human body and his poems also express some kind of eroticism.
At the beginning of his creative time some of his works could be seen as a revolt against the moral repressiveness of the dominant middle class referring to its attitude towards sex.
The style of Algernon Charles Swinburne is original and individual as part of a broad spectrum of new developments after the time of Romanticism. Swinburne is one of the "extremes". His kind of poetical style and thinking has a tendency towards Aestheticism.
Aestheticism
Aetheticism plays an important role in the poetry at that time. In the view of French writers art has a "supreme value among the works of man because it is self sufficient and has no aim beyond its own perfection: the end of a work of art is simply to exist, and to be beautiful."
"Not art imitates life, but life imitates art" is a sentence which expresses the new view.
Algernon Charles Swinburne, A Ballad of Dreamland
I hid my heart in a nest of roses,
Out of the sun’s way, hidden apart;
In a softer bed than the soft white snow’s is,
Under the roses I hid my heart.
Why would it sleep not? Why should it start,
When never a leaf of the rose-tree stirred?
What made sleep flutter his wings and part?
Only the song of a secret bird.
Lie still, I said, for the wind’s wing closes,
And mild leaves muffle the keen sun’s dart;
Lie still, for the wind on the warm sea dozes,
And the wind is unquieter yet than thou art.
Does a thought in thee still as a thorn’s wound smart?
Does the fang still fret thee of hope deferred?
What bids the lids of thy sleep dispart?
Only the song of a secret bird.
The green land’s name that a charm encloses.
It never was writ in the traveller’s chart.
And sweet on its trees as the fruit that grows is,
It never was sold in the merchant’s mart.
The swallows of dreams through its dim fields dart.
And sleep’s are the tunes in its tree-tops heard;
No hound’s note wakens the wildwood hart.
Only the song of a secret bird.
In the world of dreams I have chosen my part.
To sleep for a season and hear no word
Of true love’s truth or of light love’s art,
Only the song of a secret bird.
Interpretation:
This poem includes three stanzas each of which consists of eight verses and the Envoi`at the end of the poem which consits of just four verses.
In lines 1-5 of the first stanza the author describes the basic situation. "I hid my heart in a nest of roses." With the phrase "I hid my heart..." the rhetorical means of an enapalepsis is used. It can be found twice in this stanza. This repetition gives the poem coherence to the speaker s thoughts. This sentence stands at the beginning of the first verse and at the end of the first part of the stanza.
In the second part the auther shows a certain disquiet. This is expressed by the use of many verbs of movement: sleep not, start (line 5), stir (line 6) and flutter (line 7). Then a lot of questions are asked. "Why would it sleep not?" (line 5) or "What made sleep flutter his wings and part?" (line7) are some of them. Just one answer is given in the last verse of the stanza: "Only the song of a secret bird". This answer is given in every last verse of every stanza.
In the second stanza the speaker himself becomes the object of his speaking. He talks to himself (lines1/2). Then a lot of requests for behaving quietly are repeated in lines 1 and 3: "Lie still".
Also the behaviour of nature is described: "Leaves muffle the keen suns's dart" (line 2) and "the wind on the warm sea dozes" (line 3). But this behaviour is more lively than the poet's heart.
In lines 5-8 the speaker asks for the causes of his disquiet again. Here he uses a lot of metaphors,f.e. "thought smarts like a thorn".
There is also another question at the end of the stanza:"What bids the lids of thy sleep dispart?" (line 7). This is also answered by the sentence "Only the song of a secret bird " (line 8).
In the third stanza the poet tells us something about a dreamland which cannot be found in the real world and its fruits cannot be traded on any market.
After all these negative tales some positive expressions like "swallows of dreams" (line 5), "sleeps are the tunes" (line 6) and "No hound's note wakens the wildwood hart" (line7).
The last part of the poem is an `Envoi`( = French: escort ), which constitutes the conclusion of this Romantic ballad. It only consits of 4 verses and takes over the metre of the preceding verses.
Now a decision is taken: Everything shall sleep for a long time. Even love should be included in this plan.
In the last verse the sentence which expresses disturbance is used again. "Only the song of a secret bird." The disturbance will be there for eternity and cannot be abolished.
The shown idyl is so unrealistic that even nature with its qualities is not able to comprehend it. What remains is a description of a beautiful present. An inner world is shown which has no connection to the speaker's real experience of reality. Obviously Swinburne has cut every connection with the outside world.
Literatur:
Baugh, Albert C. (Hrsg.) A Literary History of England; 1967
Seeber, Hans Ulrich (Hrsg.) Englische Literaturgeschichte;Stuttgart 1991
http://www.geschichte.2me.net/bio/cethegus/s/swinburne.html
http://landow.stg.brown.edu/victorian/decadence/swinburne/acsbio1.html
http://cpw-online.com/sthetizi.htm