Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909) was a poet, critic, novelist and playwright. He was born in London and educated at Eton and Oxford and was a contemporary of the Pre-Raphaelites. "Hymn to Proserpine" was published in 1866 in "Poems and Ballads," Swinburne's first collection of poems which was a great success but which contained subjects that were, at the time, very controversial. Other poems in this collection are: "A Ballad of Dreamland," "A Leave-Taking," "At Parting," "August," "Genesis," "Itylus," "Rococo," "Sapphics," "An Interlude," "The Nightingale," "Three Faces," and "Before the Mirror."