Victorian Poetry

1. VICTORIAN POETRY!
By

2. INTRODUCTION OF VICTORIAN POETRY
 The Victorian age in English literature was
the age of Queen Victoria, who ruled Britain
in the nineteenth century.
 This age comes after the Romantic age and
ends with the turning of the modern age of
the twentieth century.
 The Victorian age was in many ways the
most glorious age in the history of England,
because it made unexpected progress in all
spheres of life, and the British empire.

3.  It was an age of material prosperity, political
awakening, democratic reforms, industrial and
mechanical advancement, social upheaval,
educational expansion, imperialism and empire-
building, humanitarianism and all-pervading
energy and activity in social life.
 However, it was strangely the time of pessimism
for poets, writers and thinkers.
 Most scholars severely criticized the age and
denounced all the external gloss and glitter of
material prosperity and wonders of mechanical
progress.

4. VICTORIAN AGE 1832-1900
 It commenced in 1832, the year first reform bill was
presented.
 It was the period of QUEEN VICTORIAN’S reign
(1837-1901)
 It was the period of great literary expansion
 Victorian England was the period of grandeur and
prosperity along with the expansion of wealth,
poverty and culture.

5. EARLY VICTORIAN POETRY (1830-1880):
 A. Tennyson
 R. Browning
 M. Arnold
 A. H. Clough

6. VICTORIAN POETRY
 Seen as a bridge between the earlier
“Romantics” and the modernist poets of the
20th Century
 Several important poets include Elizabeth
Barrett Browning and her husband, Robert
Browning, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Matthew
Arnold and Gerard Manley Hopkins
 Features a resurgence of Medieval interests
blended with contemporary concerns (Idylls
of the King)

7. CONIC THEMES OF VICTORIAN
POETRY
Realism
 Humanism
Idealism
 Socialism
 Criticism
Naturalism
Glory of Past
Modernism
Philosophical
ideas feminism
Romanticism
 Intellectualism
Pre-Raphaelitism

8. REALISM
The attempt to produce art and literature an accurate
portrayal of reality.
Realistic detailed descriptions of everyday life, and of
its darker aspects.
Themes in realistic writing included
Families
Religion
Social reforms

9. HUMANISM
Deals with
Ordinary concerns of human life
Tenderness of English life
Emotions of everyday life
Glory of soul through senses individually

10. SOCIALISM
Social aspects of contemporary life
Social disintegration
Life affected by industrialism
Conflicts between upper and lower class
Homeliness of middle and lower class

11. CRITICISM
On social life of that time
On contemporary industrialism
On political situation
On the ways of English thoughts
On mid-century skeptical unrest
Indirect criticism on slavery

12. NATURALISM
"A belief of Aesthetics”
Events and actions are not resulted from human
intentions but from the uncontrolled external forces
Description of green pastures and still waters
Man is corrupted by social institutions

13. GLORY OF THE PAST
Culture and anarchy of the past
Positive effects of Puritanism
Propinquity with the Romantic Movement
Religious and social ideas of past

14. MODERNISM
Certain aspects of existence
Life in industrial North
Individuality and seniority of modern era

15. PHILOSOPHICAL IDEAS
Institutionism and utilitarianism were the two basic
philosophies used in Victorian literature
 To deals with the serious moral issues of that time
For example : religion , thoughts and above all
social life

16. FEMINISM
Wrote about their own emotions and inmost
thoughts and feelings
Love of a wife and mother
Spiritual geography of hopes, fears and loves from a
woman’s point of view

17. ROMANTICISM
Some of the Victorian literature influenced by
Romantic movement
Themes of love with nature revived
Nature is a part of God
Imaginations in fiction gained power again instead
of Realism but for a short time

18. INTELLECTUALISM
Geological discoveries
Philosophical generalization
Biological investigation

19. PRE-RAPHAELITISM
School against the intellectualism of Victorian age
“Science has nothing to do with art”
Followed the Aesthetic movement
“Art for art sake”
Tractarian Movement
“Science has nothing to do with religion”

20. DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI
 Rossetti was an artist
and poet very
influential in the pre-
Raphaelite movement.
 He would often write a
poem specifically for a
piece of his artwork, or
the other way around.

21. CHRISTINA ROSSETTI
 Most famous for her
poem Goblin Market,
Rossetti asserted
herself as a great
female poet of the era.
 She was published
widely until her death,
especially in the pre-
Raphaelite magazine
“The Germ”

22. MATTHEW ARNOLD (1822-88)
 Matthew Arnold was
considered one of the
first modern poets of
the Victorian Era.
 He was the
superintendent of
England’s schools for
many years and was
highly revered.
 Arnold was famous for
his imagery involving
the ocean and also
themes involving
women.

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Poet, prose writer,critic and
educationalist
 wrote a series of essays on literary
and social topics.
 constantly looked to the classics for
symbols of permanence and stability.
 Arnold's use of nature is in "A Wish," in
which the speaker's dying wish is to be
placed by a window as he dies, so that
he may look out at the beautiful
landscape that will be there long after he
is gone.

24. In Dover Beach he remarks on the
disparity between what faith used to be
and what faith is now. Arnold’s turning
to the past and his praise of classical
writers reflect his dissatisfaction with the
present.
 In "Bacchanalia,“ themes on the
impact of the revolutions in industry and
science was not comforting, and Arnold,
like other Victorians sought refuge in
faith. Other themes used by him were
time , criticism on labor and classical
mythology.

25. ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON (1809 – 1892)
 Tennyson was the Poet
Laureate of the era,
and one of the most
revered poets of all
time.
 His lengthy poem In
Memoriam is his most
famous.
 He is the 2nd most
quoted writer after
Shakespeare.

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Early poems in the style of those of Keats, which
delighted in the senses
In The Princess, A Medley (1847) theme of equality of
the sexes.. The first three books of poetry (1833, 1832,
1842) include Tennyson´s best work e.g. Mariana, “The
Lady of Shalott”, “Ulysses”,” Morte d´Arthur”, “The
Lotos-Eaters”.
Later, new developments in scientific progress led him to
contemplate on the changing world. For Tennyson, doubt
was the basis of his inspiration.
In, “In Memoriam” A.H.H. – a series of elegies (1833-
1850), - comments on change and evolution and
contemplates the question of man’s destiny and immortality
in the age of new discoveries. Queen Victoria declared that
she valued it next to the Bible.
Despite Tennyson’s Romantic spirit, he was a Victorian
who shared the fundamental ethos of the Victorian age.

27. “Ulysses”(1833), illustrates the Victorian morality of
self-control and self-discipline as a means to continue
and succeedis about the great hero searching for life in
spite of old age and coming death.
 “Tithonus” concerns the weariness of life on earth
when all one wants to do is fade into the earth and no
longer linger on.
“The Two Voices” is a debate about whether or not to
commit suicide.
“The Idylls of the King” (1859-72) his popular series
of poems on episodes from the legends of King
Arthur.
Tennyson - in constant protest against the
individualism, which the Victorian era inherited from
the Romantic period.

28.  Browning was famous
for his dramatic
monologues and
commentary on social
institutions.
 He was married to
Victorian poet
Elizabeth Barrett
Browning.
ROBERT BROWNING (1812 – 1889)

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Aware that he was writing poetry in an age of science, of
technology and prose.
Interested in the study of human soul.
From the very start he discussed in monologue, problems
of life and conscience.
His poem, “Pauline” was a fragment of personal
confession.
In “Paracelsus” (1835) he described the strange career of
the Renaissance physician, in whom true science and
charlatanism were combined.
B‘s main literary inspiration - P.B.Shelley.
His early long poem” Sordello “(1840) poem - the
relationship between life and art - recognized as one of his
most extraordinary and important works.
Browning’s admiration for the’ subjective poet´ soon gave
way to a desire for greater objectivity which led him to his
‘dramatic monologues ‘ MY LAST DUCHESS

30. The dramatic monologue - Browning’s main
achievement
B’s mature poetry, portrays exciting controversial
characters, some based on historical figures, some
products of his imagination:
Dramatic Romances and Lyrics ( 1845 ) , Men and
Women (1855 ), Dramatis Personae ( 1864).
Many poems consider the impending nature of
death as a melancholy context to balance the joy of
life. Examples are "Love Among the Ruins" and "A
Toccata of Galuppi's." Other poems find strength in
the acceptance of death, like "Prospice," "Childe
Roland to the Dark Tower Came," and "Rabbi Ben
Ezra." Some poems – like "My Last Duchess,"
"Porphyria's Lover," "Caliban upon Setebos," or "The
Laboratory" – simply consider death as an ever-
present punishment.

31. Browning’s most ambitious work, the
long narrative of a 17th-century murder
story is” The Ring and the Book” (1868 -
69).
The poem consists of 10 verse
narratives, all dealing with the same
crime, each from a different viewpoint.
 Based on an actual trial, the record of
which Browning discovered in Florence.
 Browning´s fame rests on the
volumes, published between 1842 and
1864, which contain his love poems and
dramatic monologues.

32. ELIZABETH BARETT-BROWNING
(1806 – 1861)
 Browning, married to
poet Robert Browning
was also one of the
most famous Victorian
poets – famous both in
England and the US.
 She had a great
influence on Edgar
Allen Poe and Emily
Dickinson.

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Began writing in old-fashioned form
Iinfluences: the Bible, the Greeks, Byron and
Shelley.
An imitation of Coleridge in her impressions of
the Middle Ages
Wrote many of her short poems for magazines,
the most important contribution” The Cry of the
Children” (1844), a protest against the
employment of children in factories.
 In 1845, Robert Browning met her, fell in love
with her, and persuaded her to elope with him to
Italy.

34.  She wrote 44 sonnets as the sonnets were deeply
personal,wrote for her love R. Browning she decided to
present them as translations, calling them “Sonnets
from the Portuguese”. They were published in 1850 in
the volume Poems.
 B. - a passionate supporter of Italian independence - in
her work by “Casa Guidi Windows” (1851)
 “Aurora Leigh”(1857) deals with the themes of social
responsibility and the position of women.
 Mrs. Browning's distrust of the theories of
contemporary French socialists. She believed that in
the kind of state envisioned by the radical socialists
there would be no place for artists and poet ,this was
the important theme used by her in her work

35. SCIENCE IN THE VICTORIAN ERA
 Important time for the development of
science, tried to describe and classify the
natural world
 Charles Darwin On the Origin of the Species
about the theory of evolution. Although it
took a long time to be accepted, it
dramatically affected society and thought.