From Heroines of Passion to Heroes of Speech: Kostis Palamas and the Paradigm of A.G. Swinburne

Abstract

“The poet is somehow like a beautiful woman. You don’t need to marry her nor share intimacy with her. Her passing by or presence alone are enough for you to feel her and to sense her charm. In the worlds of mind the great writer and crafts - man of any speech can reveal grace in all languages”2  : this is how Kostis Palamas, the renowned Greek poet and critic of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, defines his relationship with the work of Algernon Charles Swinburne in his article entitled Swinburne published on May 3rd 1909 in the periodical O Noumas