Author: Stephen R. Swinburne

LibriVox volunteers bring you 9 different recordings of <em>A Match</em> by Algernon Charles Swinburne. This was the weekly poetry project for the week of February 11th, 2007.

LibriVox volunteers bring you 10 readings of <em>Nephelidia</em> by Algernon Charles Swinburne. Note: "Nephelidia" means "Cloudlets"; the poem is Swinburne's parody of his own style.

3Higher Pantheism in a Nutshell

By Algernon Charles Swinburne

LibriVox volunteers bring you 9 recordings of The Higher Pantheism in a Nutshell by Algernon Charles Swinburne. This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for September 18, 2011.<br><br>Algernon Charles Swinburne was an English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic. He invented the roundel form, wrote several novels, and contributed to the famous Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in every year from 1903 to 1907 and again in 1909. (Summary by Wikipedia)

4Century of Roundels

By Algernon Charles Swinburne

A roundel (not to be confused with the rondel) is a form of verse used in English language poetry devised by Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909). It is a variation of the French rondeau form. It makes use of refrains, repeated according to a certain stylized pattern. A roundel consists of nine lines each having the same number of syllables, plus a refrain after the third line and after the last line. The refrain must be identical with the beginning of the first line: it may be a half-line, and rhymes with the second line. It has three stanzas and its rhyme scheme is as follows: A B A R ; B A B ; A B A R ; where R is the refrain. Swinburne had published a book A Century of Roundels. He dedicated these poems to his friend Christina Rossetti, who then started writing roundels herself, as evidenced by the following examples from her anthology of poetry: Wife to Husband; A Better Resurrection; A Life's Parallels; Today for me; It is finished; From Metastasio. (Summary by Wikipedia)

5Dark Month

By Algernon Charles Swinburne

This is a sequence of poems by Algernon Charles Swinburne. The poems were written in 1881, during the one month in which his seven year old neighbor, Herbert (Bertie) Mason was away.Swinburne describes in 31 poems his feelings at the loss of his young companion, resulting in haunting images of loneliness and grief. - Summary by Carolin

6Songs Before Sunrise

By Algernon Charles Swinburne

This is a collection of some particularly beautiful poems of Algernon Charles Swinburne. This collection is connected by the Italian theme, as Swinburne was inspired to write most of them after learning of the Italian struggle for unification. - Summary by Carolin

7Match

By Algernon Charles Swinburne

LibriVox volunteers bring you 18 recordings of A Match by Algernon Charles Swinburne.<br> This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for May 19, 2019. <br> ------<br> Algernon Charles Swinburne was an English poet, playwright, novelist, and critic. He wrote several novels and collections of poetry such as Poems and Ballads, and contributed to the famous Eleventh Edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica.<br> Swinburne wrote about many taboo topics, such as lesbianism, cannibalism, sado-masochism, and anti-theism. His poems have many common motifs, such as the ocean, time, and death. (Wikipedia)

8Poems and Ballads (First Series)

By Algernon Charles Swinburne

Swinburne's first collection of poetry, published in 1866, circles around the themes of love, religion (or irreligion) and death. The poems are written in sonorous, formally inventive, and occasionally abstruse verse with many dramatic elements. The risqué subject matter and lurid imagery found in some of the poems aroused considerable controversy at the time, prompting one critic to denounce the author as an "unclean fiery imp from the pit". (Summary by Kazbek)

A collection of poems by the English poet Algernon Charles Swinburne, first published in 1904 and dedicated to the artist and designer William Morris. The first poem is a tribute to the Elizabethan poet Sir Philip Sidney and his sonnet sequence Astrophil and Stella. (Summary by Alan Mapstone)

10Phaedra and other Poems and Ballads

By Algernon Charles Swinburne

Phædra was the wife of Theseus, the King of Athens, but she developed a passion for her step-son Hippolytus. His rejection of her declaration of love leads to tragedy and death. <BR><BR> The Poems read here are from Swinburne's Poems and Ballads (First series) published in 1866. The poems were popular on publication but also controversial as Swinburne wrote about topics which were considered taboo at the time such as Lesbianism (or Sapphism), Sado-masochism and Anti-theism. Many of the poems have the common themes of love and death and there are several references to the Greek poet Sappho whose work Swinburne admired. - Summary by Alan Mapstone <BR><BR>Cast List for the Phædra play:<BR> Phædra: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/18086">laurakgibbs</a><BR> Hippolytus: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/7170">Alan Mapstone</a><BR> Chorus of Trœzenian Women: <a href="https://librivox.org/reader/19584">ShrimpPhish</a><BR>