Alfred Austin

Alfred Austin (30 May 1835 – 2 June 1913) was an English poet who served as Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom.

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.

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

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 after Morris had declined it.

Broadus writes that the choice of Austin for poet-laureate had much to do with Austin's friendship with Lord Salisbury, his position as an editor and leader writer, and his willingness to use his poetry to support the government. For example, shortly before his appointment was announced, Austin published a sonnet entitled A Vindication of England, written in response to a series of sonnets by William Watson, published in the Westminster Gazette, that had accused Salisbury's government of betraying Armenia and abandoning its people to Turkish massacres.

Austin died of unknown causes in Ashford, Kent, England.

Writing
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.

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.

Recognition
Austin was appointed Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom in 1896, and served in that position until his death in 1913.

In popular culture
Austin was caricatured as "Sir Austed Alfrin" by L. Frank Baum in his 1906 novel John Dough and the Cherub.

Poetry

 * My Satire and its Censors. London: George Manwaring, 1861.
 * Rome or Death!. Edinburgh: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1873.
 * Randolph: A Poem in Two Cantos. London: Saunders & Otley, 1855; revised edition published as Leszko the Bastard: A Tale of Polish Grief, Chapman & Hall, 1877.
 * The Season: A satire. London: Hardwicke, 1861; revised edition, London: Manwaring, 1861; new revised edition, London: Hotten, 1869.
 * The Human Tragedy: A poem. London: Hardwicke, 1862; revised edition, Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1876; new revised edition, London: Macmillan, 1889.
 * The Golden Age: A satire in verse. London: Chapman & Hall, 1871.
 * Interludes. Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1872.
 * Soliloquies in Song. London: Macmillan, 1882.
 * At the Gate of the Convent and other poems. London: Macmillan, 1885.
 * Love's Widowhood and other poems. London: Macmillan, 1889.
 * Lyrical Poems. London & New York: Macmillan, 1891.
 * Narrative Poems. London & New York: Macmillan, 1891.
 * English Lyrics. London: Macmillan, 1896.
 * The Conversion of Winckelmann and other poems. London: Macmillan, 1897.''
 * A Tale of True Love and other poems. London: Macmillan, 1902; New York: Harper, 1902.
 * The Door of Humility. London & New York: Macmillan, 1906.
 * Sacred and Profane Love and Other Poems. London: Macmillan, 1908.

Drama

 * The Tower of Babel: A Poetical Drama. Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1874.
 * Savonarola: A Tragedy. London: Macmillan, 1881.
 * Prince Lucifer. London & New York: Macmillan, 1887.
 * Fortunatus the Pessimist. London & New York: Macmillan, 1892.
 * England's Darling. London & New York: Macmillan, 1896; Republished as Alfred the Great: England's Darling, London: Macmillan, 1901.
 * Flodden Field: A Tragedy. New York: Harper, 1903; London: Macmillan, 1903.

Novels

 * Five Years of It. London: J.F. Hope, 1858.
 * An Artist's Proof (3 volumes). London: Tinsley, 1864.
 * Won by a Head (3 volumes). London: Chapman & Hall, 1866.

Other

 * A Vindication of Lord Byron. London: Chapman & Hall, 1869.
 * The Poetry of the Period. London: Bentley, 1870.
 * The Garden that I Love. London & New York: Macmillan, 1894.
 * In Veronica's Garden. London & New York, Macmllan, 1895,
 * Lamia's Winter-Quarters. London: Macmillan, 1898.
 * Haunts of Ancient PeaceLondon & New York: Macmillan, 1902. London: A.& C. Black, 1902.
 * A Lesson in Harmony. New York: French, 1904.
 * The Poet's Diary. London: Macmillan, 1904.(London)
 * The Garden That I Love (second series). London: Macmillan, 1907.
 * The Bridling of Pegasus: Prose Papers on Poetry. London: Macmillan, 1910.
 * The Autobiography of Alfred Austin, Poet Laureate, 1835-1910 (2 volumes). London: Macmillan, 1911.

Edited

 * An Eighteenth Century Anthology (edited and introduction by Austin). London: Blackie, 1904.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy Wikipedia.