When Swinburne's Poems & Ballads was first published in 1866, he was castigated as the 'libidinous laureate of a pack of satyrs'. The themes of moral, spiritual and political rebellion, and sometimes sadistic and blasphemous subject matter -- "Thou has conquered, O pale Galilean" -- goaded the Victorian reading public to fury.

With his imaginative experiments in both the classical and romantic traditions, his luxurious imagery and metrical pyrotechnics, Swinburne has found new admirers in an age which his outrageous virtuosity, as demonstrated in this generous selection of hs verse, speaks to those sickened by the conventions of the late twentieth century.