Thomas Thackeray Swinburne
Thomas Thackeray Swinburne (April 21, 1865 – December 17, 1926) was an American poet from Rochester, New York. He has been called "Rochester's poet laureate"[1] He wrote a number of books of verse which he printed himself; one of these By the Genesee: Rhymes and Verses contains a version of the poem which has become the unofficial alma mater of the University of Rochester – The Genesee.[2]
Swinburne attended the University of Rochester as a member of the class of 1892, but never graduated.[3] He was a member of Theta Delta Chi fraternity.[4]
One critic compared Swinburne and Rochester in Song and Verse to Edgar Lee Masters and his Spoon River Anthology.[5]
In 1926, distraught over the death of his sister Rose, to whom he had dedicated By the Genesee and Rochester in Song and Verse, he committed suicide by jumping from a bridge into the Genesee River.[3][6]
The University of Rochester and the Rochester community honored Swinburne with a memorial, Swinburne Rock, placed "beside the Genesee" near the University's Interfaith Chapel. The memorial, proposed in 1927 and dedicated in 1933, is a 26 ton glacial boulder holding a bronze plaque with verses from The Genesee sculpted by Alphonse A. Kolb.[5][7][8]
Books
- By the Genesee: Rhymes and Verses (1900)
- St. Peter's Chimes & Bells of St. Peter (1902)
- Rochester Rhymes (1907)
- The Steingod: A Tale of Halloween (1908)
- Sonnets of Sonnenberg (1911)
- Rochester in Song and Verse, with Other Rhymes (1924)
- The Cosmies: A Little Science for Little People
- Cascónchiagón (one sheet, illustrated by Thomas Davies)
References
- ↑ Shilling, Donovan. "An Ode to the Genesee". Retrieved Dec 17, 2013.
- ↑ Swinburne, Thomas T. (1900). By the Genesee: Rhymes and Verses.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Slater, John R. "Tom Swinburne, Poet-Philosopher of the Genesee". Rochester Review. Retrieved Dec 17, 2013.
- ↑ University of Rochester (1911). General Catalogue of the University of Rochester, 1850-1911.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "College Friends Will Dedicate Memorial to Thomas T. Swinburne" (PDF). Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. December 17, 1927. Retrieved Dec 26, 2013.
- ↑ "Poet of Genesee suicides". Reading (PA) Eagle. Dec 19, 1926. Retrieved Dec 17, 2013.
- ↑ University of Rochester. "The Swinburne Rock". Landmarks. Retrieved Dec 17, 2013.
- ↑ "Thomas Thackeray Swinburne". Rochester's Hope. Retrieved Dec 17, 2013.