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English Literature Of The 19th Century: John Richard Green Alexander William Kinglake Poets Of The Later Victorian Period William Morris Algernon Charles Swinburne Sir Edwin Arnold William Watson Alfred Austin Herbert Spencer Henry Drummond Read More Articles About: English Literature Of The 19th Century |
Alfred Austin( Originally Published Early 1900's ) When it was announced in 1895 that the poet laureate-ship left vacant since the death of Lord Tennyson had been bestowed by Lord Salisbury on Alfred Austin, most Americans were astonished; they did not know the man, had never heard of his poetry. Yet Austin was then sixty years old, and had been active in literature for many years. He was born near Leeds in 1835, of Roman Catholic parents. He was educated at Stonyhurst College and St. Mary's, Oscott. His early poems were satires, among which "The Golden Age" had the most success. After-ward came dramatic, lyric, and narrative poems, fairly good but not striking, the best being "The Human Tragedy," "Rome or Death" (1873), and "Savonarola" (1881). The laureate's later poems have had no striking merit. He is simply a respectable minor poet, with strong patriotic feeling, which is well shown in "England's Darling," a eulogy of Alfred the Great. His fondness for quiet country scenes appears in many poems, as "The Garden I Love." |