A queer Victorian, you may feel, is nothing shocking. But unlike some of his famously flamboyant and
brilliant contemporaries (like Swinburne
or Wilde), Symonds could hardly be
considered subversive. Symonds wanted to show that homosexuality wasn't at all deviant or
subversive. Although Symonds ultimately decided science was the superior tool to complete that task, his ideas about
homosexual identity were tightly bound to his poetry. This website will explore the intersection of those
elements: Symonds as poet, and Symonds as gay hero.
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