Publisher's Synopsis
Tristram of Lyonesse is a long epic poem written by the British poet Algernon Charles Swinburne, that recounts in grand fashion the famous medieval story of the ill-fated lovers Tristan and Isolde (Tristram and Iseult in Swinburne's version). It was first published in 1882 by Chatto and Windus, in a volume entitled Tristram of Lyonesse and Other Poems. Swinburne himself considered Tristram of Lyonesse to be the crowning achievement of his poetic career (quoted by Harrison, p. 96). William Morris (referring to this poem) commented that Swinburne's work 'always seemed to me to be founded on literature, not on nature'. The poem consists of 4488 rhyming pentameters and is divided into ten different sections: one 'Prelude' and nine 'Cantos'. It is usually preceded, as in Tristram of Lyonesse and Other Poems by a dedicatory sonnet to Swinburne's friend Theodore Watts-Dunton.
