Victorian Poetry An Introduction

Some Facts  Literally the events in the age of the reign of Queen Victoria  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 RRefocus on institutions: marriage, education, religion SStrong sense of moral responsibility GGlorification of scientific discovery created practical questions about the “value” of poetry PParadoxically, the era is known for a renewal of Religious furor seen notably in poets like Christina Rossetti and Gerard Manley Hopkins TTo increase the paradoxes, writers like Oscar Wilde and Algernon Swinebourne embraced hedonistic, sensual impulses as seen in their poems and plays

Some “…isms” NNaturalism, SSocial Darwinism,  Psychological Realism P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 T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? PPrior to the Victorian Period women writers seemed scarce even though we now know that many women wrote using male pseudonyms UUntil the last few decades, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Christina Rossetti were considered “the” Victorian women poets. TThe Bronte sisters wrote poetry in addition to the famous novels