Alfred Austin

__FORCETOC__Alfred Austin (May 30, 1835 – June 2 1913) was an English poet, who was appointed Poet Laureate in 1896 upon the death of Tennyson.

Life

Alfred Austin was born in Headingley, near Leeds, on 30 May 1835. His father, Joseph Austin, was a merchant in Leeds; his mother, a sister of Joseph Locke, M.P. for Honiton. Austin was educated at Stonyhurst College (Clitheroe, Lancashire), and University of London, from which he graduated in 1853.]

He became a barrister in 1857 before leaving law to concentrate on literature."ibid"]

Politically conservative, Austin edited "National Review" for several years, and wrote leading articles for The Standard."ibid"]

On Tennyson's death in 1892 it was felt that none of the then living poets, except Algernon Charles Swinburne or William Morris, who were outside consideration on other grounds, was of sufficient distinction to succeed to the laurel crown, and for several years no new poet-laureate was nominated. In the interval the claims of one writer and another were assessed, but eventually, in 1896, Austin was appointed to the post"ibid"] after Morris had declined the post.

Austin died of unknown causes in Ashford, Kent, England."ibid"]

Poetry

In 1861, after two false starts in poetry and fiction, he made his first noteworthy appearance as a writer with "The Season: a Satire", which contained incisive lines, and was marked by some promise both in wit and observation. In 1870 he published a volume of criticism, "The Poetry of the Period", which was conceived in the spirit of satire, and attacked Tennyson, Browning, Matthew Arnold and Swinburne in an unrestrained fashion. The book aroused some discussion at the time, but its judgments were extremely uncritical."ibid"]

As poet-laureate, his topical verses did not escape negative criticism; a hasty poem written in praise of the Jameson Raid in 1896 being a notable instance. The most effective characteristic of Austin's poetry, as of the best of his prose, was a genuine and intimate love of nature. His prose idylls, The "Garden that I love" and "In Veronica's Garden", are full of a pleasant, open-air flavour. His lyrical poems are wanting in spontaneity and individuality, but many of them possess a simple, orderly charm, as of an English country lane. He had, indeed, a true love of England, sometimes not without a suspicion of insularity, but always fresh and ingenuous. A drama by him, "Flodden Field", was acted at His Majesty's theatre in 1903."ibid"]

Among his works are "Pacchiarotto", "Prince Lucifer" and "The Human Tragedy" (1862). His autobiography was published in 1911."ibid"]

A Poem -- "To England"

References

#"The autobiography of Alfred Austin, poet laureate", 1835 – 1910; (ISBN 0-404-08717-5)

Notes

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Research resources

* [http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf600004sq Alfred Austin Papers, 1869-1902] (5 linear ft.) are housed in the [http://library.stanford.edu/depts/spc/spc.html Department of Special Collections and University Archives] at [http://library.stanford.edu/ Stanford University Libraries]