Audiobook · read by volunteers
Nephelidia
Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837–1909)
Read by Clarica, Hit_Picker, Délibáb, David Barnes, Ezwa, Jc Guan, J. M. Smallheer, Kristin Hughes (1974-2021), Mike Buckley, Mark F. Smith · 10 chapters · 30 min
About the book
Cloud-shaped, whirling and gloriously over the top: Nephelidia is a poem that mocks itself. Algernon Charles Swinburne, a Victorian poet famous for his sweeping rhythms and heavy use of alliteration, wrote this parody of his own style, a stream of misty images and tumbling sounds that means a good deal less than it seems to. The title means cloudlets, which tells you what to expect. Ten LibriVox volunteers each record their own reading, so you can hear how pace and emphasis change a poem that is all sound. Every version is short, about three minutes, and the whole set lasts only about half an hour, so it is easy to compare them one after another. It is a delight for lovers of poetry, of parody and of the sheer sound of words.
Introduction
Algernon Charles Swinburne, who lived from 1837 to 1909, was an English poet and critic who became famous, and for some readers notorious, for his sensuous and rhythmic verse. He had a gift for flowing metre and for sound effects such as alliteration, which made his poems immediately recognisable and also easy to imitate. Atalanta in Calydon (1865) and Poems and Ballads (1866) had made his name.
Nephelidia, whose title means cloudlets, is his parody of his own style. Written around 1880, it exaggerates his habits until the meaning dissolves into a haze of images and rolling syllables. It is a witty piece, partly an act of self-mockery and partly a demonstration of how closely technique and sound can come to stand in for sense. It also shows that Swinburne had a sense of humour about his reputation, which is not always remembered.
This recording is one of the weekly poetry projects run by LibriVox volunteers, in which many readers record the same short poem independently. As a result, it consists of ten separate readings, each labelled with the reader’s initials, rather than a single performance. Each reader has to decide how far to lean into the sonorous grandeur and how much to bring out the absurdity, and the tongue-twisting lines test every one of them.
The whole collection lasts about half an hour. Listening to several readings in a row lets you compare approaches and notice details that a single hearing would miss. It is worth hearing today for its humour, its musicality and the pleasure of poetry that does not take itself too seriously.
Public domain
Algernon Charles Swinburne died in 1909: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text