Thomas Thackeray Swinburne

Thomas Thackeray Swinburne (April 21, 1865 – December 17, 1926) was an American poet from Rochester, New York.

He has been called "Rochester's poet laureate"[1] He wrote a number of books of verse which he printed himself; one of these—By the Genesee: Rhymes and Verses—contains a version of the poem which, set to music by Herve D. Wilkins, has become the alma mater of the University of Rochester[2] – The Genesee.

[5] One critic compared Swinburne and Rochester in Song and Verse to Edgar Lee Masters and his Spoon River Anthology.

[4][7] A body was found in June 1927 at Forest Lawn, on the shore of Lake Ontario in Webster, New York was identified as Swinburne's by his clothing,[8] however, later some doubt was cast on the identification.

The memorial, proposed in 1927 and dedicated in 1933, is a 26-ton glacial boulder holding a bronze plaque with verses from The Genesee sculpted by Alphonse A.