A Cameo

Love and Sleep

The Oblation
By :Algernon Charles Swinburne
Lim, Paolo
Manarin, Lew Earvin
Papa, Kenneth
Algernon Charles Swinburne
St. Boniface Church, Bonchurch, Isle of Wright
Brief Background Information
Born in London on April 5, 1837
Eldest son of Charles Henry Swinburn and Lady Jane
Henrietta
Attended Eton College and Oxford University
Member of Intellectual Circle at Wallington Hall
He authored Poems and Ballads which became a
sensation
Devised the poetic form called roundel (variation of French
Rondeau)

Brief Background Information
Became popular in the Victorian era
Works are mainly composed of intense lyrics
Early works is characterized by themes of
pathological sexuality
Other works in poetry and other genres are
often outlooked until the mid-twentieth
century
Background of the Poem (The Oblation)

He was being ridiculed by other poets of his
poetic abilities was drowned with alcoholism
during the time when he was writing the
oblation
Talks about the selfless love of a man for his
woman
Background of the Poem (Love and Sleep)
Classified as one of the Poems of
Transforming Love
Organized around Lucretia Estensis Borgia
Image of a perfect lover
More emphasis on corporeal love
Background of the Poem (A Cameo)
Talks about the five strong feelings of desire,
pain, pleasure, satiety, and hate as
physically tormented figure of the mortal
world.
Only death set these feelings from despair
Lying asleep between the strokes of night
I saw my love lean over my sad bed,
Pale as the duskiest lilys leaf or head,
Smooth-skinned and dark, with bare throat made to bite,
Too wan for blushing and too warm for white,
But perfect-coloured without white or red.
And her lips opened amorously, and said
I wist not what, saving one word Delight.

And all her face was honey to my mouth,
And all her body pasture to mine eyes;
The long lithe arms and hotter hands than fire,
The quivering flanks, hair smelling of the south,
The bright light feet, the splendid supple thighs
And glittering eyelids of my souls desire.



Love and Sleep
by: Algernon Charles Swinburne
Love and Sleep
by: Algernon Charles Swinburne
Lying asleep between the strokes of night
I saw my love lean over my sad bed,
Pale as the duskiest lilys leaf or head,
Smooth-skinned and dark, with bare throat made to bite,
Too wan for blushing and too warm for white,
But perfect-coloured without white or red.
And her lips opened amorously, and said
I wist not what, saving one word Delight.
Love and Sleep
by: Algernon Charles Swinburne

And all her face was honey to my mouth,
And all her body pasture to mine eyes;
The long lithe arms and hotter hands than fire,
The quivering flanks, hair smelling of the south,
The bright light feet, the splendid supple thighs
And glittering eyelids of my souls desire.
The Oblation
by:Algernon Charles Swinburne
Ask nothing more of me, sweet;
All I can give you I give.
Heart of my heart, were it more,
More would be laid at your feet
Love that should help you to live,
Song that should spur you to soar.

All things were nothing to give,
Once to have sense of you more,
Touch you and taste of you, sweet,
Think you and breathe you and live,
Swept of your wings as they soar,
Trodden by chance of your feet.



I that have love and no more
Give you but love of you, sweet.
He that hath more, let him give;
He that hath wings, let him soar;
Mine is the heart at your feet
Here, that must love you to live.

The Oblation
by:Algernon Charles Swinburne
Ask nothing more of me, sweet;
All I can give you I give.
Heart of my heart, were it more,
More would be laid at your feet
Love that should help you to live,
Song that should spur you to soar.

All things were nothing to give,
Once to have sense of you more,
Touch you and taste of you, sweet,
Think you and breathe you and live,
Swept of your wings as they soar,
Trodden by chance of your feet.


The Oblation
by:Algernon Charles Swinburne
I that have love and no more
Give you but love of you, sweet.
He that hath more, let him give;
He that hath wings, let him soar;
Mine is the heart at your feet
Here, that must love you to live.

There was a graven image of Desire
Painted with red blood on a ground of gold
Passing between the young men and the old,
And by him Pain, whose body shone like fire,
And Pleasure with gaunt hands that grasped their hire.
Of his left wrist, with fingers clenched and cold,
The insatiable Satiety kept hold,
Walking with feet unshod that pashed the mire.
The senses and the sorrows and the sins,
And the strange loves that suck the breasts of Hate
Till lips and teeth bite in their sharp indenture,
Followed like beasts with flap of wings and fins.
Death stood aloof behind a gaping grate,
Upon whose lock was written Peradventure.





A Cameo
by: Algernon Charles Swinburne
There was a graven image of Desire
Painted with red blood on a ground of gold
Passing between the young men and the old,
And by him Pain, whose body shone like fire,

And Pleasure with gaunt hands that grasped their hire.
Of his left wrist, with fingers clenched and cold,
The insatiable Satiety kept hold,
Walking with feet unshod that pashed the mire.




A Cameo
by: Algernon Charles Swinburne

The senses and the sorrows and the sins,
And the strange loves that suck the breasts of Hate
Till lips and teeth bite in their sharp indenture,
Followed like beasts with flap of wings and fins.

Death stood aloof behind a gaping grate,
Upon whose lock was written Peradventure.





A Cameo
by: Algernon Charles Swinburne
Reasons (The Oblation)
Why I chose the Author?
- He was ridiculed for having no talent
- He did not have many awards to boast off
- He had a hard life with many vices
Why I chose the Poem?
- It shows the unconditional love of a person
- It is one of the shortest poem he has but it is still meaningful
- It was the closest poem to present in class :)

Love and Sleep
Why did I chose the author?
Writing style is different
from other poems
Wanting to see why he
received so much criticism
He was not your typical
poet
Why did I chose the poem?
A very interesting concept of
love
The lines used in the poem
was somehow complicated to
understand for a common
reader
Overall uniqueness of the
poem is fascinating and a bit
challenging to recite/perform
Reasons (A Cameo)
Why I chose the Author?
- The author has a quite a unique style of writing
- He wrote the preeminent symbol of revolution during victorian era
- Curious about his works
Why I chose the Poem?
- It portrayed powerful emotion such as desire, hate, pain, and
pleasure
- It piqued my interest
- It satisfies the requirements given in class


Sources:
http://swinburnearchive.indiana.edu/swinburne/view#docId=swinburne/acs0000
504-01.xml
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/algernon-charles-swinburne
http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/swinburne/
http://philosophymajor.wordpress.com/2012/12/20/on-a-c-swinburnes-poems-
ballads-the-theory-of-the-monodrama/
http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/swinburne/flygare8.html
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/180737#poem