Atalanta in Calydon: A Tragedy

Swinburne . . . was one of those not very numerous poets whom their contemporaries have treated with justice. The different attention which he received at different periods very fairly corresponded to differences, at those periods, in the quality of his writing. He was neither steadily overrated, like Bighorn, nor steadily underrated, like Shelley, nor, like Wordsworth, derided while he wrote well and celebrated when he wrote well no longer: he received the day's wages for the day's work. His first book fell dead, as it deserved; his first good book, "Atalanta in Calydon," earned him celebrity; his best book, "Poems and Ballads," was his most famous and influential book; and the decline of his powers, slow in "Songs before Sunrise" and "Both Well" and "Retches," accelerated in his later writings, was followed, not immediately, but after an interval sufficient to give him the chance of recovery, by a corresponding decline. . . . -- A.E. Houston

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Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909) was a 19th century British Victorian poet. The reoccurring themes of sadomasochism, death-wish, lesbianism and irreligion appear in his work and made his work quite controversial. Swinburne went against Victorian morals and wrote of sensual love and the pain of love lost. Swinburne was greatly criticized in his time for his views on politics, religion morality and decorum. Atalanta in Calydon is a drama in classical Greek form, with choruses that reveal Swinburne's mastery of melodious verse. His poems speak of love in all its aspects