Victoria poetry

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 20 th 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.

23. 23 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 2 nd most quoted writer after Shakespeare.

26. 26 26 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)

29. 29 29 A ware 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.

33. 33 33 Began writing in old-fashioned form I influences : the Bible, the Greeks, Byron and Shelley. A n imitation of Coleridge in her impressions of the Middle Ages W rote 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.