Charles Swain (4 January 1801 – 22 September 1874) was an English poet and engraver, born in Manchester.

He was honorary professor of poetry at the Manchester Royal Institution, and in 1856 was granted a civil list pension.

[2] Charles Swain was born to an English father and French mother in Every Street, Manchester, England, on 4 January 1801,[a] He received an education and began work when aged 15 as a clerk for Tavaré and Horrocks, a dye-works that was part-owned by a maternal uncle.

[1] By the time the bookselling venture ended, Swain was already friends with Robert Southey and with other literary names.

[1] Around 1840 he became part of a working class poetry collective known as the Sun Inn Group, which met at a pub on Long Millgate in Manchester.