Selected Verse

A curated selection of verse from one of English poetry's most distinctive voices, Algernon Charles Swinburne. Next to Tennyson and Browning, he was one of the major poets of the Victorian era—and almost certainly the most provocative.

This new selection represents Swinburne's first major collection, the Poems and Ballads of 1866, more fully than in earlier selections, and ample extracts are given from his later masterpiece, the Arthurian epic Tristram of Lyonesse (1882). This edition also includes generous passages from the best of Swinburne's five-act tragedies, Chastelard and Bothwell, which have not been reprinted for nearly a century. This edition is for students and general readers of English literature, poetry enthusiasts, and those interested in the Victorian and Decadent movements.