Swinburne dedicatedPoems and Ballads to fellowPre-Raphaelite,Edward Burne-Jones.[3] Burne-Jones' paintingLaus Veneris, first exhibited in 1878, shared the story ofTannhäuser as its inspiration with Swinburne's poem of the same name.[4]
TheBorgheseHermaphroditus at theLouvre inspired Swinburne's poem "Hermaphroditus", subscribed "Au Musée du Louvre, Mars 1863".[5]
TheIsle of Wight, to the south of the British coast, was Swinburne's home throughout his childhood and later life; his love for the sea appears often in his poetry, where it is a metaphor for time, as in "Love at Sea", written in imitation ofThéophile Gautier,[6] and "The Triumph of Time".
The first documented use of the word "lesbianism" to refer tofemale homosexuality is in 1870,[7] four years after Swinburne published this book, which includes the poem "Sapphics", where he refers toSappho of Lesbos and her loverAnactoria as "Lesbians". Although use of the term lesbian in this way was present as early as 1732,[8] "sapphic" or "tribade" were more commonly used until the late 19th century, when Swinburne was among the first to popularize the term lesbian.
In 1878, Swinburne published a collection of poems titledPoems and Ballads, Second Series, which is less political, and also shows the influence of French literature. It includes verses to Baudelaire, Gautier, Villon, Hugo, and Théodore de Banville. It also contains his translations of Villon.[9][10]
In 1889, Swinburne published a collection of poems titledPoems and Ballads, Third Series, which contains "To a Seamew", "Pan and Thalassius", "Neap-Tide", elegies for Sir Henry Taylor and John William Inchbold, and border ballads, that were written for an unfinished novel,Lesbia Brandon.[11][12]
Poems and Ballads public domain audiobook atLibriVox