Victorian PoetryAn Introduction
Some Facts Literally the events in the age of the reign of Queen
Victoria 1837-1901
Commonly associated with repression and social conformity
Increased the use of the sonnet as a poetic form
Wordsworth was Poet Laureate until his death in 1850 when Tennyson took over; he was Queen Victoria’s favorite poet and only agreed to the position when Victoria asked him, personally
Influenced by the Romantic poetry movement either reacting against or embracing Romantic motifs but with Victorian idealistic modifications
Focus on Growing Middle Class
Industrial Revolution created a burgeoning middle class
This growing middle class created a larger market, an educated public, thus reading began to function as a form of popular entertainment
Middle class values- hard work, moral seriousness, social responsibility begin to appear as motifs and ideas in literature
British Dominance At the forefront of the Industrial Revolution,
Britain also led the European drive to colonize The idea of “civilizing” weaker cultures through
Western moral and Christian ideals became “accepted” as “The White Man’s Burden” (See Kipling poem)
“Progress,” Colonialism, Imperialism, Nationalism Concern for economics, materialism over
spiritualism Refocus on institutions: marriage, education,
religion
Elements of Victorian Poetry
Paradoxical body of poetry:
Reclaiming the past, especially classical and Medieval literature
Combination of Romantic ideals of self, emotion and imagination with Neoclassical onus on the responsibility of the artist and awareness of the public role of art
Emphasis on morals, ethics and values
Suppression of passion and emotions
More Characteristics of Victorian Poetry
Refocus on institutions: marriage, education, religion
Strong sense of moral responsibility
Glorification of scientific discovery created practical questions about the “value” of poetry
Paradoxically, the era is known for a renewal of Religious furor seen notably in poets like Christina Rossetti and Gerard Manley Hopkins
To increase the paradoxes, writers like Oscar Wilde and Algernon Swinebourne embraced hedonistic, sensual impulses as seen in their poems and plays
Some “…isms”
Naturalism,
Social Darwinism,
Psychological Realism
Pre-Raphaellite Brotherhood
The Woman Question
The woman question- an examination of traditional roles
Many lower class/working class women worked equally as hard as their male counterparts
Middle class women became “domestic goddesses”
Yet there was an obvious tension between the sensual and the spiritual..the suppression of passion reared its head in unusual places- see “Goblin Market”
The Rise of the Female Poet
The Victorian Period also saw coming to the forefront what became known as the “Woman Question.” What were women’s roles in this rapidly changing world?
Prior to the Victorian Period women writers seemed scarce even though we now know that many women wrote using male pseudonyms
Until the last few decades, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Christina Rossetti were considered “the” Victorian women poets.
The Bronte sisters wrote poetry in addition to the famous novels