Ashley MS 5272

'Astrophel and Other Poems'. 'Birthday Ode'; [1891]. Draft, written on both sides of a folio leaf of white wove paper. Watermark 'Hieratica / (a vegetable Parchment) / J. S & Co.'. The final text found in the draft differs by five words from that printed on pp. 145-148 of the first edition. In a letter to W. T. Watts[-Dunton] dated 10 Aug. 1891 Swinburne says 'I send you what Banville would have called an odelet on Lord Tennyson's birthday. It was Thursday the 6th, was it not?' (C. Y. Lang, Swinburne Letters, vi, 1962, p. 15). The poem was first published in the Athenæum for 29 Aug. 1891.

At the foot of the verso, inverted, are the draft lines 'A howling, growling poem, called Childe Harold, / Which flays men's ears as though a screechowl carolled.'.

Accompanying the MS. are pp. 145-148 from a copy of Astrophel and Other Poems, 1894 (ff. 2-3), and a letter from Swinburne to Watts[-Dunton], with envelope (f. 6), 11 Aug. 1891, printed in Lang, op. cit., vi, 1962, pp. 17-18 (ff. 4-5b).

Folio; ff. iii+6.

includes:

• f. 1b Algernon Charles Swinburne, poet: Couplet, beg. 'A howling, growling poem called Childe Harold' by Algernon Charles Swinburne: [1891]: Autogr. draft.
• ff. 1, 1b Poetry ENGLISH: Algernon Charles Swinburne, poet: Poem, 'Birthday Ode', by Algernon Charles Swinburne: [1891]: Autogr. draft.
• ff. 4-6 Walter Theodore Watts-Dunton, formerly Watts; critic, novelist and poet: Algernon Charles Swinburne, poet: Letter to Walter Theodore Watts-Dunton from Algernon Charles Swinburne: 1891.
• ff. 4-6 Walter Theodore Watts-Dunton, formerly Watts; critic, novelist and poet: Algernon Charles Swinburne, poet: Letters to Walter Theodore Watts-Dunton from Algernon Charles Swinburne: [1872]-1896.