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Alfred Austin
1835–1913
Best remembered as Britain’s Poet Laureate after Tennyson, he wrote verse, criticism, and political journalism during the late Victorian era. His reputation was debated even in his own lifetime, which makes his career an especially interesting window into literary taste and public life in 19th-century England.
2 Audiobooks
The Bridling of Pegasus: Prose Papers on Poetry
by Alfred Austin
Lamia's Winter-Quarters
by Alfred Austin
About the author
Born near Leeds in 1835, Alfred Austin was educated at Stonyhurst, Oscott, and the University of London. He trained in law but soon turned toward literature and journalism instead, publishing poetry, prose, and commentary across several decades.
Austin became Poet Laureate in 1896, succeeding Alfred, Lord Tennyson after a long and much-discussed gap. He was also active as a journalist and critic, and his writing often mixed literary interests with strong opinions about politics and public affairs.
Today he is remembered less for a single famous poem than for the place he held in Victorian literary culture. His career shows how closely poetry, reputation, and politics could be linked in his era, and why the office of Poet Laureate could stir so much debate.