Charles Algernon Swinburne's literary reputation rests almost exclusively upon his poetry, and though his critical writings were voluminous, they are usually slighted by literary historians. Examinations of Swinburne's aesthetic principles, too, are generally based upon interpretations of his poetry, though these may be as misleading as the discrepancies between other artists' principles and practices. Believing that a solid and consistent core of poetic theory underlay all of Swinburne's critical essays, casual pieces, and letters, Professor Connolly has attempted to reconstruct the theory from a careful analysis of this body of writing. In this book he sets forth his findings as general principles and as they apply to lyric and dramatic poetry. "Swinburne was a far sounder and more consistent critic than he is usually given credit for being," Professor Connolly concludes, "and the various critical principles that can be discovered in his essays hang together in a more integrated theory of poetry than is usually imagined. He had, as other critics had, a number of basic principles and themes that he used with astonishing versatility in his criticism. The successful poet who is also a critic usually has a valuable contribution to make to the general understanding and appreciation of poetry. Swinburne, in this respect, was not an exception."

No detailed description available for "Swinburne's poetics".

Swinburne's Style: An Experiment in Verse History establishes Swinburne's significance in the historical development of English poetry from 1865 to the present. Situating Swinburne on the cusp of modernism, it argues that Swinburne had no personal style because he possessed all styles. His mastery of traditional verse forms promoted a level of stylistic self-awareness which the next generation of poets could not sustain. If criticism to date has found Swinburne challenging, this is because his poetry challenges criticism. Rather than making or remaking arguments for or against Swinburne's style, Kilbride begins from a forensic investigation of 'the period ear'. Close analysis of primary works, manuscripts, reviews, obituaries, letters, manuals of prosody and other documents of Swinburne's own times attempt to reconstruct a context largely lost after the break with traditional verse-forms in the early twentieth century. From the powerful choral rhythms of Atalanta in Calydon, to the daring development of a unique form of ode in Erechtheus, the reader will encounter a Swinburne previously lost to us, but whose stylistic achievements are once again brought before our ears. Laura McCormick Kilbride is Research Fellow in English at Peterhouse, Cambridge.