Person    | Male  Born 5/4/1837  Died 10/4/1909

Algernon Charles Swinburne

Categories: Poetry

Born 7 Chester Street, Chelsea. Poet associated with the Pre-Raphaelites. He invented the poetic form called ‘roundel’. Was a good friend of Dante Rossetti, who called him his ’little Northumbrian friend’ as Swinburne had adopted Northumberland as his native county and was just over five feet tall.

Staying with his homosexual lover, George Powell, at Entretat (near Dieppe) Swinburne had a near-death experience swimming off the beach when he was swept out to sea. His rescue by a fishing vessel was witnessed (possibly assisted) by Guy de Maupassant who thus got to know Swinburne and Powell. He described his visits to their cottage on a number of occasions and the abode does seem very bizarre: on display were piles of bones and a flayed hand (the fingers of which Powell kept sucking), supposedly of a patricide. A large pet monkey was noisily present. After lunch pornographic German photographs were brought out for the boastfully heterosexual Maupassant's enjoyment. Afterwards he wrote: "If genius is a kind of delirium of the higher intelligence then Swinburne is assuredly a genius". The genius died at 11 Putney Hill.

Credit for this entry to: Alan Patient of www.plaquesoflondon.co.uk

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Algernon Charles Swinburne

Commemorated ati

Rose and Crown, Wimbledon

The Rose and Crown - one of Wimbledon's oldest public houses, dating from the...

Read More

Rossetti & Swinburne

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1828 - 1882, and Algernon Charles Swinburne, 1837 - 1...

Read More

Swinburne & Watts-Dunton

L.C.C. Algernon Charles Swinburne, (1837-1909), -poet-, and his friend, Theod...

Read More

This section lists the memorials created by the subject on this page:
Algernon Charles Swinburne

Creations i

Rossetti fountain

Unveiled by William Holman Hunt. There must have been a committee to erect th...

Read More

Other Subjects

Matthew Arnold

Matthew Arnold

Poet, writer and school inspector.  Born at Laleham-on-Thames, Middlesex, son of Thomas Arnold. He won the Newdigate prize in 1843 with a poem on Cromwell. Appointed a lay inspector of schools in 1...

Person, Education, Poetry, France, Germany, Netherlands

2 memorials
Joseph Brodsky

Joseph Brodsky

Russian-American poet and essayist. US Nobel Prize Laureate. Born Leningrad. Exiled from the Soviet Union in 1972, he settled in the USA, aided by W. H. Auden and others. There he taught and was ap...

Person, Poetry, Russia, USA

1 memorial
Walter de la Mare

Walter de la Mare

Poet and writer. Born 83 Maryon Road, Charlton. Best known poem "The Listeners" ("Is there anybody there?" said the Traveller, Knocking on the moonlit door ....).  Lived at: Bovill Road, Forest Hil...

Person, Poetry

5 memorials
John Masefield

John Masefield

Poet. Born Herefordshire. Orphaned early he was sent to sea, aged 13, to train as an officer and seems to have spent a lot of time reading and writing. Aged 17 he jumped ship in New York where he c...

Person, Poetry, USA

1 memorial
Anna Laetitia Barbauld

Anna Laetitia Barbauld

Poet and writer. Born Anna Letitia Aikin at Kibworth Harcourt, Leicestershire. She had a successful career at a time when women rarely were professional writers. Her writing includes essays, poems ...

Person, Literature, Poetry

1 memorial

Previously viewed

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Poet & painter. Born 38 Charlotte Street, son of an Italian political refugee and Professor of Italian (with a bit of a thing about Dante). Brother to Christina. Their mother was brother to Dr ...

Person, Art, Poetry

4 memorials
Helen Carte

Helen Carte

Born Wigtown, Scotland as Susan Helen Couper Black. Later changed "Black" to "Lenoir", apparently the family's original name in 17th century France. Starting as secretary to Richard D'Oyly Carte s...

Person, Commerce, Music / songs, Theatre, Scotland

1 memorial
Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester

Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester

Born Montagu House, Whitehall. Married Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester in 1935. Mother of Richard Duke of Gloucester. President, and from 1937 Patron, of the Guild of the Royal Hospital of St Bart...

Person, Royalty

2 memorials
Rolling Stones

Rolling Stones

The line up has included: Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Bill Wyman, Charlie Watts, Ian Stewart, Mick Taylor, Ronnie Wood. The first public performance with Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts...

Group, Music / songs, Seriously Famous

2 memorials
Vita Sackville-West

Vita Sackville-West

Writer and gardener. Born Victoria Mary Sackville-West at Knole, near Sevenoaks, Kent, the only child of Lionel Sackville-West, 3rd Baron Sackville. She started writing at an early age, having many...

Person, Gardens / Agriculture, Literature

1 memorial