Armand Barbés
The title character of the poem named after him is described by the poet as “Fire out of heaven, a flower of perfect fire.” So who is this fiery individual claiming his day of glory? He was a French revolutionary involved in an attempted coup of King Louis Philippe who eventually was imprisoned, pardoned by Napoleon III, nicknamed Bayard of Democracy and would eventually die in exile. In short, Barbés was a perfect historical figure for the defiantly anti-establishment Swinburne to identify with and immortalize in verse.
Ben Jonson
The dramatist who was a serious rival of Shakespeare while they both lived and wrote made it not only to the level of title figure of a sonnet by Swinburne, but was also the subject of a book-length critical study. Swinburne starts off his analysis by making a comparison: if Shakespeare is a god of English verse, then surely Jonson is one of its giants.
Sir William Gomm
The subject of this poem represents a notable change that took place in the works of Swinburne as he grew older. The Swinburne who wrote of the French revolutionary 1871 never published a poem glorifying a British military hero like he would in this poem written a decade later. Gomm fought against the Napoleonic forces at Waterloo before ultimately becoming Commander-in-Chief over all British forces in India. The patriotic fervor which seemed to grip Swinburne in his later years is notable precisely because of the absence of same up to then.
John Nichol
Along with Swinburne and others, John Nichol was a co-founder of the Old Mortality Society, a literary discussion group at Oxford. The poet glorifies boon companion during his college days in verse as “Friend of the dead, and friend of all my days” but Nichol would later fall under unwarranted suspicion due to spurious accusations that he was instrumental in Swinburne’s later spiral into the depths of alcoholism.
Dolores
Dolores, also known as Our Lady of Pain, is described as having cold eyelids and a mouth like a “venomous flower.” If she seems hardly the typical subject of a romantic poem, that is hardly surprising since Swinburne was hardly the typical Victorian romantic poet. The woman who kisses with “ravenous teeth” of whom the speaker queries
"What tortures undreamt of, unheard of,
Unwritten, unknown?"
is hardly your typical Victorian maiden as well. “Dolores” is one of Swinburne’s most explicit acting out in verse of her darker sexual appetites and the attendant title of Our Lady of Pain is taken to be significantly less sacred symbolism and more literally profane confession of services rendered.
