Laus Veneris [The Praise of Venus]. by BUCKLAND WRIGHT, John.…

The energetic passion of Swinburne’s poem Laus Veneris, the praise of Venus or Love, is based on the story of Tannhauser. In the legend Tannhauser falls in love with Venus and lives with her in underworld home until he is filled with remorse and escapes her snares. He goes to Rome to ask the Pope to absolve him of his sins. The Pope declares it is not possible and as likely as his papal staff bursting into flower. Tannhauser returns to Vienna and although the Papal staff does blossom with flowers, the knight never knows of the divine miracle and spends his life in damnation. Throughout the poem Swinburne bemoans enslavement to love, or Tannhauser’s damnation - “Alas thy beauty! for thy mouth’s sweet sake/My soul is bitter to me, my limbs quake”. Venus’s beauty is seen as dangerous and creates an addiction in Tannhauser, and those like him, to physical love and sensuality.
As one might expect Buckland Wright responded from the heart and the poem finds its match in his elegantly erotic engravings..
Our copy has a charming presentation note from ‘Franz’ dated 1955 “To Dear Bernard, Musical Bulwark, Enthusiastic Genius, Lover of Beauty” - together with an earlier letter from Hunter’s Hill in Sydney from Franz to Bernard.