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6
INTRODUCTION
that of the classical dramas, fate. Perhaps Swinburne never
attained a higher metrical and purely artistic perfection
than in the famous choruses of these two dramatic poems.
General Characteristics of Swinburne’s Language.
On page 205 of his book on Swinburne, Theodore
Wratislaw says:
< The tone of the greater part of Swinburne’s work is
curiously un-English. At the very first sight of his work
it is difficult to follow his meaning; the style seems
curiously constructed and involved^.
Wratislaw finds the cause of this in foreign influence:
< His genius was ripened under many alien
influences — the Latin literature of the decadence, the Greek
dramatists and lyrists, the Hebrew prophets, the French
medieval scribes and rhymers. In later life the English
side of his temperament is more apparent».
Wratislaw, who, by the way, has not penetrated very
deep into the spirit of Swinburne, is undoubtedly right
in his first assertion: neither can it be denied that his
second one has hit part of the truth. But the factors to take
into account for a true explanation of his first statement
are far more numerous than he gives us to understand.
In the first place, the difficulty of understanding, which
is easily felt in Swinburne, comes partly from the excesses
of his style, and partly from the style itself. The style,
however, certainly contains the seeds of these excesses
from the very first. ’Le style c’est rhomme’; and
Swinburne’s chief characteristic, both as a man and as a poet,
was his immense fund of enthusiasm. With this the main
thing about his style becomes clear: its never-ending
torrent of words and phrases. Just as new images and new
phases of an idea poured in on him while writing, so new
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