an introduction to Victorian poetry and its characteristics

1. Victorian poetry
Dr Abdulrahman Mokbel

2. Victorian poetry definition
• Poetry written during the reign of Queen Victoria from 1837 to 1901 is defined as
Victorian poetry. The defining characteristics of Victorian poetry are its focus on sensory
elements, its recurring themes of the religion/science conflict, and its interest in medieval
fables and legends
• The Victorian poetry is, thus, divided into two main groups of poetry: The High Victorian
Poetry and The Pre-Raphaelite Poetry .

3. Victorian poetry
• Seen as a bridge between the earlier “Romantics” and the modernist poets of the
20th Century
• During the Victorian era, however, there was a lot of radical social change and as such, many poets of this time
didn’t like the romanticized version of society
• Comic verse abounded in the Victorian era. Magazines such as Punch magazine
and Fun magazine teemed with the humorous invention and were aimed at a
well-educated readership.

4. Characteristics of Victorian poetry
• a more purposeful poetry that focused on narrative and concrete,
everyday issues in the real world.
• a preference for the intellectual over the emotional
- Poetry was turned into a forum for discussing the socio-cultural
conflicts that preoccupied the leading minds of the time. In this manner,
Victorian poets reacted against what they perceived to be excessive
emotionalism of the Romantics and turned poetry into a rational,
intellectual criticism of contemporary society.

5. Characteristics of Victorian poetry
• The use of sensory elements.
• Most of the Victorian Poets used imagery and the senses to convey the scenes of struggles
between Religion and Science, and ideas about Nature and Romance, which transport the
readers into the minds and hearts of the people of the Victorian age, even today. Lord
Alfred Tennyson lives up to this expected characteristic in most of his works

6. Characteristics of Victorian poetry
• sentimentality.
• Victorian Poets wrote about Bohemian ideas and furthered the imaginings of the
Romantic Poets. Poets like Lord Alfred Tennyson prominently used sentimentality in
their poems.
• The husband and wife poet duo, Elizabeth Barrett-Browning and Robert Browning
conducted their love affair through verse and produced many tender and passionate
poems. Most prominent of which are Elizabeth Barrett-Brownings Sonnets from
Portuguese, the most notably her If thou must love me and How do I love thee.

7. Characteristics of Victorian poetry
• Its recurring themes of the religion/science conflict
• Pessimism

8. Characteristics of Victorian poetry
• Interest in medieval fables and legends.
• an interest in both classical and medieval literature of England blended with
contemporary concerns
• The Victorians loved the heroic, chivalrous stories of knights of old and they
hoped to regain some of that noble, courtly behavior .

9. Major THEMES OF VICTORIAN POETRY:
 Realism
 Humanism
 Morality
 Criticism
 Glory of Past
 Philosophical ideas
 feminism (women’s role in society)
 Romanticism

10. EARLY VICTORIAN POETRY (1830-1880):
• A. Tennyson
• R. Browning
• M. Arnold
• Elizabeth Barrett Browning
• Thomas Hardy

11. Romantic vs Victorian poetry
Romantic poetry Victorian poetry
Romantic poetry was produced during the period
from 1800 to 1850.
Victorian Poetry was produced during the reign of
Queen Victoria.
Romantic Poetry predominantly used the theme of
nature.
Victorian Poetry used medieval myths and legends
as well as realistic issues such as the struggle
between science and religion.
Romantic Poetry revered and admired nature. Victorian Poetry treated nature in more realistic
and less idealized view.
Romantic Poetry gave prominence to emotion,
imagination and spontaneity.
Victorian Poetry gave more importance to intellect
and realism.

12. Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
• drew on myth and folklore for their art,
• Love of details
• Truth to nature
• major poets : Dante Gabriel Rossetti and his sister Christina Rossetti a

13. 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.
• In, “In Memoriam” A.H.H. – a series of elegies (18331850), - comments on change
and evolution and contemplates the question of man’s destiny and immortality in the
age of new discoveries
• “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.

14. 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.

15. 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”

16. 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

17. 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.
• 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.
• “Aurora Leigh”(1857) deals with the themes of social responsibility and the
position of women.