Swinburne’s “A Nympholept” in the Making

Abstract

Writing to William Sharp, in October 1901, Swinburne, expressed great pleasure at finding lengthy included, in a leading place, in Tauchnitz edition of his verse, Lyrical Poems, edited by Sharp. Swinburne characterized this as of best and most representative things I ever did. Sharp himself thought well of Nympholept, stating that it was nobly ordered verse and that it was a splendid and strangely ignored nature-poem, one that once for all should do away with ... foolish misstatements about any supposed decline in poet's powers during his later years when he was ensconced in orderly life, directed by Watts Dunton, at Putney. (1) Sharp's remarks provide counters to what was in early twentieth century a widespread conception--and one that has continued into present among many readers. These readers would cast Swinburne as a poet whose poetic accomplishments of 1860s and 1870s were sole part of his work worth serious attention and preservation because his later suffered a steep decline in art, thanks to Watts's taming of Swinburne, his housemate, after 1879. Nympholept demonstrates that that long-standing attitude is by no means authoritative, and increasingly other from Swinburne's later publications have also been credited with serious substance and artistic technique. Among noteworthy modern scholarly assessments of Nympholept is that by Clyde K. Hyder, who in 1933 suggested that, with A Tale of Balen and other meritorious poems written late in his life, Swinburne's lasting fame owed much to Nympholept. (2) In seventy-odd years since, just one study has focused on this alone. In 1958 Paull F. Baum interpreted Nympholept as an exemplification of Swinburne's methods in mingling sound with sense, and most subsequent commentators have been content to combine their observations regarding with larger issues that involve clusters of other works. Even one of Swinburne's recent biographers, Philip Henderson, quickly passes by Putney period, during which would have been composed, as one not worth extended consideration) What we encounter in Nympholept, is, however, one of those startling that reflects numerous currents typical, for many, of arts in 1890s. The is replete with themes of Pan's powers, compelling sexuality, dream visions, and deft minglings of pleasure with pain and ecstasy with fear. Baum, and S. C. Chew before him, (4) viewed work as a mood poem, one in which metrics and stanzaic pattern function as attempts to impose an order upon chaos--no mean feat that, to concretize a dream, but one that should not astonish anyone who is acquainted with, say, works by Beardsley, Dowson, Yeats, Poe or Faulkner--or, for that matter, with a whole host of postmodern and contemporary literary and other artistic achievements. As long ago as 1894, in reviewing Astrophel volume, Edmund Gosse commented that Nympholept is perhaps most magical poem in book, adding that it may seem odd to compare Mr. Swinburne with a Symbolist; but only which in any degree resembles 'A Nympholept' is 'Apres-midi d'un Faune' of M. Stephane Mallarme. (5) Nympholept is also a about creative process in art; no wonder, therefore, that what it holds forth has often baffled readers. My intent in present study is to offer remarks about significance in manuscripts for this increasingly famous poem, which John Rosenberg designates the greatest and strangest of Swinburne's later lyrics. (6) An examination of these documents may shed light on Swinburne's long-lasting Fundamental Brainwork, to use D. G. Rossetti's term for poetic process. (7) Others, as well as myself, have demonstrated how valuable Swinburne's manuscripts may be for such studies. (8) Two manuscripts of Nympholept exist. One, in Berg Collection of New York Public Library, we know little about; Dr. …