eNAPTER

he Romantic Age
poetry (1798-1837)
TreRomantic Age poetry is characterised bya shift from structure, intellect
andreason towards freedom of thoughts and expressions besides idealisation
othure. Individuality and passionwere valued bythe Romantic poets.
aiam Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, PB Shelly and
Keats were a fewimportant poets of the age.

Backgroundtothe Romantic Age

Towards the end of the 18th century,major changes in agriculture, manufacturing,
mining, transport and technology in England took place. These major technological
and socio-economic changes, resulted from the replacement of an economy based on
nanual labour to one dominated by industry and machine manufacturing. The first
phase of Industrial Revolution was from about 1750 to 1850. Coal and the steam
cngines were the main driving forces of this phase.
by l800, steam power had become apractical reality. It radically improved Britain's
core industries, namely the production of textiles, metalwork and other
Tanutactured goods and the mining of coal and other raw materials. By l820, the
potential of the steam engine as a viable source of power for ships and railway
locomotives had been realised.
We, Englandwas being radically transformed by the Industrial Revolution and
tunied into the most industrialised nation,it also led to social unrest among the
OrKINg class. It generated a violent class conflict between employers and workers,
t notably in the Luddite Riots of 1811-12, when textile workers in the North of
England attacked the new mills and machinery, which had put them out of work.
tgust 1819, The Peterloo Massacre (or Battle of Peterloo) occurred at St Peter's
Field, , Manchester, England, when cavalry charged into a crowd of 60000-80000
Rathered at a meeting to demand the reforms of parliamentary representation.
Graham Milner states that the "massacre was one outcome of an extraordinarily
powerful and determined agitation for social and political justice in England, which
a times Cinthis Chapter
behind
this nassSapproached the new workingproportions.
agitation waspre-revolutionary new primary
class." This The class force
workingsocial was born out " Background to the Romantic Age
ot the
Industrial Revolution. " Major Poets of the Romantic Age
258 UGC NET Tutor
Eng'
Literary Background to the "Many Romantics turned to a past Or an
world that they felt was more nner
Romantic Age picturesque
than the ugly Industrial Age they
and n
The German poct Friedich Schlegel is given credit for using
the tem 'romantic' to describe literature for the first time.
mysterious and supernatural
elements lived
Coleridge's, Kubla Khan and in
can
in
be
Hedefined it as, "literature depicting emotional matter in an Dame Sans Merci. Keats pOen La
imaginative form."FLLucas in his book, The Decline and Fall "Most Romantics believed in individual
of the Romantic ldeal (1948) gave around|1396 definitions of
sympathised with those who rebelled liben
'romanticism'. The American Scholar A O Lovejoy stated
that the word 'romantic' has come to mean, so many things The Romantics thought of nature asagainst tytat
that, by itself, it nmeans nothing at all. they were fascinated by the ways; nature and transfor,heh
mind mirrored the others creative properties
However, generally speaking, the Romantic movement in
The Romantics each used the lyric as the
literature is characterised by a shift from the structured,
suited to expressions of feeling, form bes
intellectual, reasoned approach of the 1700s to use of the
imagination, freedom of thought and expression and an imagination. sellff-revelation and
idealisation of nature. While, Enlightenment thinkers of the
1Sth century had valued reason and rationality, Romantics
valued emotion, passion and individuality. They turned Major Poets of the
from impersonal works to works of a more subjective,
personal nature.
Williamn Long states that"the essence of Romanticism was, it
Romantic Age
must be remembered, that literature must reflect all that is Romantic Poets are divided into tWO major groupsie
spontaneousand unaffected in nature and in man and be free Generation Romantics and Second Generation Roman
to follow its own fancy in its own way." Poetry was the
dominant genre in the Romantic period. The Romantic poets
First Generation Romantic Poers
such as VWordsworth and Coleridge withdrew into an inner The first generation's writings were inspired bv the Bar
world and were less concerned with the outer public world. of Bastille and the French Revolution. They wrote at at
of revolutionary fervour. The main poets belonging to
They also turned to the nature and devoted themselves to
recording its beauty as a counterpart to the wide ugliness of generation were William Blake, William Wordswo
the industrial towns. Coleridge and Southey.
Characteristics of Romanticism
Harley Henry sums up the main characteristics of
William Blake (1757-1827)
English poet, engraver and painter William Blake was b
Romanticism as in London, England, on 28th November, 1757. Fron
"Romanticism turned away from the 18th century earliest years, he sayvisions. When his parents did obx
emphasis on reason and artifice. Instead, the Romantics that he was different from his peers they did not torce1
embraced imagination and naturalness." Coleridge to attend conventional school. He learned to read
defined imagination, as a creative power, which colours write at home. At age of fourteen he began a seves
objects of sense with the mind's own light. apprenticeship to an engraver. After he was twenty
"Romanticera poets rejected the public, formal and Blake studied for a time at the Roval Academy ot rt
works of the previous century. They preferred poetrywitty
spoke of personal experiences and emotions, oftenthatin Literary Career and Works
simple, unadorned language." Romantic poets Blake's first printed work, Poetical Sketches (1783),/
that feelings and believed elass
cotlection of apprentice verse, mostly imitatingandK
emotions could create poetry.
Wordsworth himself defined good models. The poems protest against war, tyranny
spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings'poetry
.
as "the
George 1Il's treatment of the American colonies.
thei
The artist or the individual self In 1787 Blake produced Songs of Innocene(1789) asEiyei
period. The poet or artist was seen gained primacy in this
as a creator of a piece of major work in his new process, followed bySonmgsofcollecu
work, which reflected his
individuality and inner mind. (1794)) The magnificent lyrics in these two
 Age Poetry (1798-1837) 259

the opennesssof innocence with the bitterness

tryetence They are a milestone becausc they are a Wiliam Wordsworth
rare
thesuccessful union of two art torns by one man,. (1770-1850)
HorkssuhaITheFrench Revolution (1791)\America,, aProphecy British poet William Wordsworth was born at
Cockermouth,, in Cumberland in 1770. After his
fthe Daughters of Albion(793) and Europe,
yhay(1794) express his opposition to the Englislha mother's death, Wordsworth was sent to Hawkshead
Varhrand,
to l8th-century political and social tyranny in Grammar School, near Windermere. Later, he was sent
Theological tyranny issthe subject of The Book of to St John's College, Carmbridge, where he developed
Inthe prose work The Marriage of Heaven andUrizen
194). Hell radical political views.
/203) he satirised oppressive authority in church and
Literary Career
ale He made his debut as a writer in 1787) when he
Fepham, he experienced profound spiritual insights that published a sonnet in The European Magazine.
aredhimfor his mature
In
works, the great visionary epics Wordsworth was reunited with his sister Dorothy in
letched between 1804 and 1820. Milton (1804-08),
w7itenandet
Jaa or The Four Zoas (1797; rewritten after 1800), and 1794. He moved with his sister to Racedown Lodge on
Jstlem(1804-20) have neither traditional plots, characters, the Devon/ Somerset border and it was here that he met
rhvme nor meter. They envision a new and higher kind of the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He moved closer to
onte. the human spirit triumphant over reason. The Four Coleridge at Alfoxden House and they collaborated on
Zoas was a mystical story predicting the future showing how and published Lyrical Ballads (1798), which began with
evilisrootedi in man's basic faculties-reason, passion, instinct Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner and ended with
and imagination. Imagination was the hero. Wordsworth's Tintern Abbey. Around 1798, Wordsworth
ie last six years of life were spent at Foundation Courts,
began writing alarge and philosophical autobiographical
poem, completed in 1805 and published posthumously
aumounded by a group of admiring young artists. Blake did in 1850 under the title The Preiude.
me of his best pictorial works: the IIlustrations to the Book of Job
ni his unfinished Dante. In 1824, his health began to weaken His other collections are Poems in Two Volumes, which
ndhe died singing in London, England, on 12th August, 1827. included the poems: Ode to Duty, Resolution and
Independence and Intimations of Imortality; The Excursion
Among his best known lyrics today are The Lamb, The Tyger and and Laodamia. In 1843, Wordsworth succeeded Robert
Londor. Lyrics of Blake's The Lamb from Songs of Innocence is
givenbelow Southey (1774-1843) as England's poet laureate.
He died in 1850 and was buried in Grasmere
GThe Lamb Churchyard.
Litle Lamb, who make thee
Dost thou know who made three, Major Works
Gave thee life, and bid thee feed The Preface to the Lyrical Ballads
By the steam and o'er the mead;
(The Lyrical Ballads were first published in 1798) but it
Gave thee clothingof delight,
Softest clothing, wooly, bright:
was only in thesecond edition published in 1800, that
Gave thee sUch a tender voice,
\a Preface was added. Lyrical Ballads consisted of 23
Making all the vales rejoice!
poems, four by Coleridge and the rest by Wordsworth.
Little Lamb, who made thee The Prgface to the Lyrical Ballads is regarded as a
Romantic manifesto, wherein Wordsworth sets out
Dost thou know who made thee
Little Lamb, Iil tell thee, the rules for a new kind of poetry and poetic theory.
Little Lamb, "llteil thee: It declares the dawn of the English Romantic
He is called by thy Movement. Wordsworth and Coleridge, with the
name,
For he calls himself a Lamb publication of the Lyrical Ballads, break away with the
He is meek, and he is mild, Neo-classical tendencies in poetry.
He bacame a little child. Wordsworth claims to be breaking away from the
la child, and thou a 'artificiality', 'triviality' or 'over-elaborate' and
lamb,
We are called by His
name. contrived quality' of 18th century poetry and
Iittle Lamb, God bless thee! charting a new course.
Lttle Lamb. God bless thee!
 260
UGC NET
Tutor En
He The influence of French
fromsttates
that he has chosen 'inocidents and situations
common life' and described themin asimple and of the poem. Wordsworth Revolution also
naturallanguage 'rcally used by men
The subject matter of his poctrv is not tlhe rich or the
powerful, but humble and ustic folk.
politicaldisinterestedness
people to his days of active
finally growing disenchantment
describes
towards his
lorm
the cauSe of ie t
involvement
in
sa14
eary
He
descrilbwith
es poetmoreaslively
'a man Speaking to men: a man
result of the failure of ideals
associ ttoewards
with he a
a d hera
endowed sensibility, more cnthusiasm Akey concept of
Wordsworth's Prelude nihe
and
tendemess,
who has a grcater knowledge of human time'. These are epiphanic is 'therr
nature, and a more comprehensive soul, than one everyday events and entities momernts
appear where
Supposed to be common among mankind. transcendent, become
Dr William Tarvin describes the
different stages or imagination with charged throughextraortdhienar
enormous
Wordsworth's theory of poetic creation. "First, the poet physical,
spiritual meanings." (Arthur Clements
encounters a commonplace incident, which for reasons These 'spots of time' have a emotora
unknown at the time arouses powerful feelings in his
mind. At a later time, when he is far away from
the
nourish our minds and
enhance 'rplenovat
emotional experiences in life that easure.ingThevvirtuarese I
incident and can 'see' it only in his mind, the poet looks imagination to revitalise and could be
back calmly on the feelings aroused by this
incident. Examples of these are the renew poetrecalic led
strer
Suddenly his mind becomes agitated to the point
calls forth a facsimile of the original feelings hethat it
had
opening book and ascent of
mount boat-stealing
epi
According to Algy Pug, "The Prelude is thesnowdon.
s ode in
experienced. At this point, having proceeded through poem in European literature which first major nar
three sequences of (i) powerful feelings, (ii) tranquil
assessment and (iii) a recreation of the powertul spiritual journey of the author. In deals solelv wth
predecessor to, which it can be compared this respect, the
feelings in his mind, the poet is ready to write."
The Prelude
Comedy,which is similarly a jouney trom is Dantes
tocertitude, from
ignorance to realisation. personal conh
Wordsworth's
begun in 1799 autobiographical poem, The Prelude was
and was completed in 1805)However it
However, Dante starts his journey at the age of
35
was published only after his death in 1850. through a
lengthy rite of passage, involving both mon
The first version containing two books was intellectual purification, arrives at a state of
published in he is not really able to describe. In The illumination
1799/The second version with 13 books was published hand, Prelude, on the ot
in 1805and the final illumination
revised version came out in 1850 story is inscribed." appears as the background on which the
with 14books.
|The poem is subtitled Growth of a
Autobiographical
Poet's MindAn
Poem It isan account of Wordsworth' s
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
growth and developrhent as a poet. (772-1834)
Wordsworth begins the English poet and literary
the natural world had onpoem
his
by describing the impact, ST Coleridge was born incritic Samuel Taylor Colendg
its beauty and richness, as hechildhood by describing, Ottery St
states, "To more than 1772. Coleridge was educated at Christ'Mary,s
Devonshie
infant softness, giving me, /Among Hospital
College, ambridge with the intention of becoming andac
the fretful
a dim earnest dwelling
of mankind. /A
knowledge, minister. In 1793, Coleridge got enlisted in the |5th l
calm/Which nature breathes among the fieldsof the Dragoons as Silus Tomkyn Comberbache. but his brotie
groves?" and him
. He describes his
passage from childho0d animal discharged
Cambridge,
by reason of insanity. He then returne
but left his studies in 1794. witho
through adolescent, pleasures
sensual passion for the wild and degree to tour Wales. again
met Robert
Souther
gloomy, to the adult awareness of Bristol in 1794 and both Coleridge
proposed a utopian 2community
perception of the natural world and the relation of our would fullthe idealistic goals of the revolutionaries
the human and moral world. finally to our sense of COmmunit
degenerating
be called into the Terror, a thes
violenceto be establishedin
of the

'pantisocracy'and Pennsylvania.
World at Susquehanna river in
 ln Works
Major Society
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eriproduced
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to is by to Coleridge
for Highgate, of Dorothy.
witandh
impressions
it senses.)It of is
retain even creative a
Imagination,
between
Reflection
(1825)
and in t he an ol
bythe the imagination
imágination imagination defined al
Coleridge,
ideas tasks Literaria, was and literary
love
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and in
the primary
sensation human
divides theirwhen
near electeda
1824
known prose,
Biographia
journals 1798. theintinate was It
primary power. and that fancy is Kubla Mary T'oems
is of secondary. asindividual a criticism, with who the Poetry
possessedby is brought Fancy poéms Sibylline
notably during
this
imagination, the
merely perception'
imagination
'the
meaning' onarelowerColeridge fellow of Khan, and
Hutchinson.
Collaboration
farn1 friendship on
'an is and )and Ballads
imagination. and works upon living brings the influencethe areLiteraria,)which
He poems Sara, Various (1798-
external together,
properties. 'p faculty
assive' that is on the in
impressions everyone. the echo power The from
otherimagination. 25th the latter TheChurchcontinued as sister in time
Subjects
power whereas primary into together makes Rime Leaves with 1837)
lts what world theof hand, July, Royal
two they such and of
raw and of
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eachMotion"Good Ordinary the blended will, mode with, fixed Itrendered differing cOnsider
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to yet of The Th0ncepts
Agent
imagination, e
isunify. the excerpt
law which still primary
ItAnd Or Huge Amimighty
d A AsAnd Bye'esavage rAs Down Enfolding
A But
AndWhere And With So, Down cavernsWhere
Through
stately AKubla
Xanadu
In
Khan and ofessentially
but and
aseternal
of of
flung chaffy iffromwoman oh! here there walls
twice iSense
ts of memory
with dead. dissinates,
impossible, only as al Fancy from
midfragments whose this t0 Alph, forms memory it fixities identical anhuman
beneath
waning a the blossomed Li association.
fe we
up these earth this
that
place! green sunny were were and fisunlesSve pleasure-dome
a did and in echo imaginationact and
Biographia
momently grain fountain swift
wailing deep miles the Kubla all and is express
th e emancipated
Fancy,vital,
and degree of then
dancing beneathvaulted
chasm,
in as forests gardens towers measureless mansacred
to into modified, in wit h perception
of
creation Imagination
fast hil spotsS
holyromantic many ofsea. Imagination must even yet the
half-intermitted
momently thick for Khan Body definites. on order and I
wi th
athwart
ancient
ot bright were fertile river,decree: one by the still, former,
th e consider
the her and receive the as I Literaria,
rocks the like greenery. an
graceful in hold
sacred demon-lover!
pants
ceaseless enchanted moonwas
chasm
incense-bearing girdledground ran of by contrary, al at toprimary
the inand
thresher' a word that from The objects al co-existing the is
at s
rebounding was cedarn as with tpoetic
h e re-create mode to given
river. once were the al events, infinite aseitherhe
the fancy
helowwhich in
burstforced: turmoil which
hills, sinuousround; and Soul empirical
choice.
its in a
andever flail: breathing,
haunted cover!
genius, order has
(as ofthe repetition primary the
or
as
hail, slanted intelligent that materials is no it or its Iiving
seething, tree; rills,
But
indeed
of objects) strugglesoperation.
other where kind with AM. I Coleridge
is phenomenon time
everywhereFancy of the The prwer in
whole." equally
ready counters
no are the
and tothis conscious its
its other idealise agency
It secondary finite
secondary.
and explains
made space essentially process
dissolves,
Drapery, with 267
and of than playto mindprime
from the the and and and wil , his
in a is I
 262 UGC NET
The second stanza, he
Tutor Engli
Kubla Khan: Summary passionate and marvelous says, exploreswith he
published in 1816.)
Coleridge's poem KMbla Khan, was
( h is subtitled as A Vision in a Dream . AFraçment.
experience
deals. Hle goes on to suggest the
imagination operates and the way in whichwhich
i

Aonding to Coleridge's Preface to KubiaKhan, he was

iving in ill health during the summer of 1797 in a lonel
hears ancestral
prophesyingend,war,where Kibla
voices
is always under threat from the
Tarm-house between Porkock and Linton, on the Exmoor
Confines of Somerset and Devonshire. Having taken an
world.
The third stanza, which
violenceindiofcaltehse e\thea .
begins: "The
'anodvnc.( he fell asleep immediately upon reading a
I6th centuy travel book bv Samuel Purchas. )
Purchas, His PiignmageAthe work described Xanadu, the
of pleasure', brings together
sacred river, and of coldness,images
again symbolises Art or Poetry.
of Sun
of shadowpleasure
of the do
and of ICe,atdwt
summer palace of the Mongol nuler and Emperor of The final stanza recollects and
China Kubla Khan) While. sleeping for three hours, poetic inspiration and expresses the describes a
Colendge composed 200 to 300 lines, "If that indeed
can be called composition, in which all the images rose
could revive and prolong the wish
build the palace of art and dwel1 moment So
thatmomer
the
up before him as things, with a parallel production of the there
in that he ta
Corespondent expressions, without any sensation or
ecstasy.
continued
consciousness of effort". Upon waking, he set about
wTiting lines of poetrv that came to him from the dream Robert Southey (1774-1843)
until he was interrupted by a person from Porlock. English poet and biographer Robert Southey
Retuming to the poem, Coleridge could recallonly 'some Bristol, Englandin l177A, His early years was borm :
8or 10 scattered lines and images'. Southey was educated at were spent at Bat:
Coleridge's poem describes Xanadu, the Palace of Kubla but was later expelled for Westminster
writing
School in
an essay Londr
Khan, a Mongol Emperor. The poem's speaker starts by excessive corporal punishment, which he condemn
published
describing the setting of the Emperor's palace, which he school magazine.
calls a 'pleasure dome' in contrast to the structured
dome. Its gardens, the landscape surrounding Kubla's Literary Career and Works
domain are wild and untamed, covered by ancient In 1792, he got admitted to Oxford. In
1794, he Samype
forests and cut by a majestic river. Taylor Coleridge, who shared both his literarymetaspirations
In the latter part of the poem, the speaker talks about and his radical political views and
together that same ver
the two wrote a verse drama, The Fall
another vision of his dream where a woman is calling to of Robespierre. Souther
her daemonic (a supernatural being between gods and published his first collection of poems in 1795. Betwen
humans) lover. The speaker believes that her song would 1796 and 1798, he wrote many ballads, including T:
transport him to adream world, in which he could 'build Inchcape Rock and The Battle of Blenheim. His first publistei
that dome in air' and in which he can drink 'the mnilk of prose work, Letters Written Duringa Short Residence in Snan
Paradise'. and Portugalwas also written during this period.
John Spencer Hill states that Kubla Khan is a poem Southey was appointed as the poet laureate in S
about
poetry and poetic process. Under this reading, "Kubla Writing for the Quarterly Review and other publications. t
Khan, who causes a pleasure-domeand elaborate became increasingly identified with Tory politics ew
tobe constructed in Xanadu, is a type of gardens
the artist, whose A Vision of Judgement commemorating the death ot Gto
glorious creation, as the ancestral voices from the deep 1II, which was later mocked by Byron in his The Vi
caverns warn, is a precariously balanced
the natural and the reconciliation of
artificial." The birth of the sacred
river and its passage through the garden of Kubla
Juagement)
Along with Wordsworth
School ofand Coleridge, Southev formed
symbolises "the sudden eruption of the subconscious Khan part of the Lake Poets, named, so becausethe
lived in the English Lake District of Cumberlandwhe ad
into the realm of the
conscious mind and its eventual
inevitable recession back
unconscious."
into the deep well of the Westmorland)The
critidFrancis term was first used derogatorily.
Jeffrey conferred this designation
onthe
in
Reviey
thr
l8/
David Daiches states that the poets in an article Edinburgh
building
dedicatedto pleasure in a place, which is
of a palace Apart
from his
published in The talent as
also had a TheLit
symbolises the combination of pleasure 'sacred' directly biographer. He is
poetry, Southey biographies,
which, for Coleridge, was the sigrn of true art. sacredness Nelson and Life of known for his
and
Wesley.
Southey died in Cumberland in 1843.
 Age Poetry (1798-1837)
,omantic 263

Woks
ofSouthey The Inchcape Rock: Summary
reFallofRObespierre (The Inchcape Rock is aballad written by English poet
Robert Southey.
Robespierre is a three-act written by Robert
(Published in 1802) it tells the story of a 14th-century
vwther
ad Samuel Coleridge in 1794. attempt by the Abbot of Arbroath
(Aberbrothock) to
the
ollons
events in France after the downfall of install a warning bell on Inchcape, a
notorious
coast
I/avmlhenRobespierre. Robespicrre is portrayed as a sandstone reef about lImiles (18 km) off the East
but Southey's contributions praise him as a of Scotland.
nant,
fdespotism. a pirate,
The poem tells how the bell was removed byreturning
play docs not
operate as an effective drama for the who subsequently perished on the reef while
to Scotland in bad weather some time later.
The
t rather as a sort of dramatic poem with each act
but
sAc.
Inchcape Rock
different scene. Like many of Southey's ballads The main theme is
Aordingto Coleridge, "my sole aim is to imitate the describes a supernatural event, but its
impassioned,
and highly figurative language of the French that those who do bad things will ultimately be
Orators i develop
and the characters of the chief actors on a punished accordingly and poetic justice done.
horrors.
1aststageof filled Second Generation Romantics
is with various speeches on the topic of
The plav writing,
first scene is set in the Tuileries, in which When the second generation of Romantics starteddifferent
ibertv. The ended. But Britain was beset by
Bertrand Barere, Jean-Lambert Tallien and Louis war had already
social and political tensions, which led to the Peterloo
Legendre,opponents of Robespierre discuss their plans to
challengethe 'tyrant .Their conversation comprises highly Massacre.
torical speeches as if they were part of apublic meeting. According to Stephen Bygrave in his book, Romantic
The third act, originally written by Lovell, was rewritten Writings, another major difference between the two
hr Southey. Within the act, the opponents of Robespierre generations was that the second generation of Romantic
compare themselves tothe assassins of Julius
Caesar who poets died at a relatively young age. Also, the social
Bertrand backgrounds of the two generation of writers were
ate restoring the republic. In the final speech, different. Wordsworth and Coleridge came from a
Barere discusses the history of French Revolution and lists
the various would-be despots who have attempted to Cambridge background, Southey from Oxford, while
himself, Blake was a Londoner, who trained as an artisan. All three
usurp liberty for Louis XVI to Robespierre of them had contact with radical groups, who met to
concluding that France will be a Beacon of liberation to the
world. discuss the revolutionary ideas of Godwin and Paine.
Among the second generation Romantics, Byron and
Shelley lived in exile, while Keats was attacked in terms of
9The Inchcape Rock
Nor stir in the air, no stir in the sea, class.
The ship was still as she could be;
Her sails from heaven received no motion, George Gordon Byron or
Her keel was steady in the ocean. Lord Byron (1788-1824)
Without either sian or sound of their shock, British Romantic poet, Lord Byron was born in London in
Ihe waves flowdover the Inchcape Rock, 788. Bom with a club-foot, ByTon spent the first 10 years
So ittle they rose, so little they fell, in his mother's lodgings in Aberdeen.
Ihey did not move the Inchcape Bel.
The Abbot of Aberbrothok Literary Career andWorks
Trinity
Tac placed that bell on the Inchcape Rock; Byron attended Harrow School, London and
UnàDuoyin the stormit floated and swung. College, Cambridge. At Cambridge, he engaged in many
in love with
And over the waves its warning rung sexual escapades and also fell in debt. He fell
unrequited
When the Rockkwas hid bythe surge's Swell, his distarnt cousin, Mary Chaworth and this
expression in several
The Marinerssheard the warning Bell, not reciprocated passion found
And then they knewthe perilous Rock, poems, incduding Hills of Annesley and The Adieu. Byron's
Rnd blest the Abhot of Aberbrothok
 264

(fist collection of poetry, Hous of ldleness appeared in 1807. The pocm is a vindication of
CCNETT¯tor Eng
reason arnd propriety, which the
The poems were savagelv attacked by Henry Brougham in
the Edinburgh Review. Bvron replied with the publicaion of by his contemporaries. Augustarn
Byron felt had
his satire. Fnglish Bards and Sootch Revicwers (1809).
(Along with his close fricnd, John Cam Hobhouse, Byron
Byron draws a contrast
argues that modern betweenwith past
writers,
beed
neglected their great heritage from few
went on a grand tour toGrecce, Albania, Spain, Portugal
and Malla in 1809 )Byron retunned to England in the Dryden and Pope. It is an attack
contemporary writers: on the except n
S hakespeare,
summer of 1811, having completed the opening cantos of Wordsworh, eXCeses
Childe Hanld's Pilgrimaçe, apoctic travelogue of picturesque
lands.
Mrs Radcliff and others.
CH Herford called
Byron's
angry reverberation of the English
CoBarledsndg.
This poem instantly catapulted Byron to fame so much that literary satire of asD The
Pope". He termed it an Inverted,
he himself remarked that 1 awoke and found myself
famous. Byron was numoured to have had affairs with
falls upon the masters of his Dunciad
day, as wheretethe
upon the nonentities of his and the
iDryde:
severalwomen. The agitation of these affairs and the sense emulatesAugustar
n
of mingled guilt and exultation they aroused in his mind are
reflected in the Ornental tales he wrote during the period,
with avigorous bludgeon". ,Pope ss
such as The Giaour, The Bride of Abydos arnd The Corsair. Canto I: Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
Oh. thou, in Hellas deemed of
After divorcing his wife Annabella Milbanke in 1816, Byron heavenly birth
Muse. formed or fabled at the minstrel's will!
was criticised and hounded by the press. As a result, Byron Since, shamed full oft by later yres on Earth,
fled England and settled in Italy. He began writing his Mine dares not callthee from thy sacred hil:
masterpiece, Don Juan, an epic-satire novel-in-verse loosely Yet there I've wandered by thy
based ona legendary hero. In 1822 Byron, Leigh Hunt and vaunted rill:
Percy Bysshe Shelley travelled to Italy, where the three men Yes! sighed o'er Delphis long-deserted shrine
Where,save that feeble fountain, all is still:
published the political journal, The Liberal. By publishing in Nor mote my shell awake the weary nine
Italy they remained free from the fear of being
by the British authorities. In 1823, Byron was prosecuted To grace soplain a tale-this lowly lay of mine.
elected to the
Greek committee of liberation against the Turks and Whilome in Albion's isle there dwelt a youth,
for Greece. However, his health sailed Whone in virtue's ways did take delight;
deteriorated soon after. But spent his days in riot most
Byron died from a bad fever in Greece on 19th April, uncouth,
And vexedwith mirth the drowsy ear of
at Messolonghi. 1824 night.
Ah, me! in sooth he was a
shameless wight,
Major Works Sore given to revel and ungodly glee;
Fewearthly things found favour in his sight
English Bards and Scotch Reviewers Save concubines and carnal
companie,
Published anonymously in 1809, English Bards and Scotch And flaunting wassailers of high and low degree.
Reviewers was Byron's first major work after his volume Childe Harold was he hight. but whence his name
Hours of Ildleness. And lineage long, it suits me not to
It was a satirica/poem written in say
Suffice it, that perchance they
It was modeled on Alexander heroic couplets.) And had been glorious in were of fame,
The foundation for English Pope's satirical verse) But one sad losel soils a another day:
British Bards was a poem called name for aye,
Bards, written by Byron in October However, mighty in the olden time;
January 1808, after the Edinburgh l807) In Nor all that heralds rake from
Review
scathing review of Byron's book of poemspublished a Nor florid prose,nor honeved linescoffinedcay,
Idleness; Byron was, so incensed that he Hours of of rhyme,
Can blazon evil deeds. or
original satire and renamed it English Bards revised his Childe Harold basked himconsecrate
a crime.
and Scotch in the noontide Su
Reviewers.
The work is an attack on Disporting
Nor
there like any other fiy,
contemporary writers and critics. deemed before his
One blast might chill little day was done
him into misery.
 omantic, Age Poetry (1798-1837) 265

Harold's Pilgrimage: Summary The poem is regarded as laryely autobiographical in nature.

de }Harold's Pilgrimage written in four cantos Don Juan's encounters are viewed as poetic reconstructions
M//ulished
between 1812 and 1818. of Byron'sown life and his affairs with several women in his
-autobiographical poem that focuses ON a life.
lisillusioned with sensory pleasures and Byron reverses the European legend of Don Juan (where
on a scarch for entity. Juan was a libertine) and makes his protagonist a naive
mhirkin
of the poem's title is a medieval title for a young man seduced by women.
g
nnan,
who is eligible for knighthood. InByron's pocm, Juan becomes the passive recipient of the
pocm, which introduced the concept of the erotic attentions of a succession of aggressive and powerful
sthis a brooding, solitary man, who is an women. The poem begins with a dedication to Robert
wtastOroutla,. Southey and William Wordsworth. The narrator distances
Srncnvisioned Childe Harold's Pilgrimage as a poetic himself from these great' men by insisting that his own
sNelogueofhis experiencessin Portugal, Spain, Greece muse is of a lesser nature and so his verse will be lesser as
hdAlbania)In his Preface' to the poem, Byron stated well.
chatthepoem "was written, for the most part, amidst The narrative of the poem begins with Juan's birth to Don
chescenes which it attempts to describe. It was begun Jose and Donna Inez, his education and his early love affair
inAlbaniaand the parts relative to Spain and Portugal with Julia, wife of Don Alfonso of Seville. Juarn then goes
the author's observations in those
wer*COmposedlfrom through a range of experiences and encounters with
vuntries. Thus, it may be necessary to state for the different women.
uectnessot the descriptions". Thepoem is written in the Italian ottava rima or eight-line
The poem also reflects Byron's political views, stanza, the poetic form favoured by the Italian satirical
nuticularly his support for Greek independence from writers of mock-heroic romances.
Turkev and the Convention of Cintra in which the
English politicians allowed enemy French soldiers Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
"antured in battle to return to France with their loot English poet PB Shelley was born at Field Place near
intact. Horsham, England in 1792. Shelley attended Sion House
The poem is written in Spenserian stanzas. Academy from 1802-1804 and later joined Eton College. In
1810, Shelley entered University College, Oxford. However,
GCanto I: Don Juan both he and his friend, Thomas Jefferson Hogg, were expelled
want a hero:an uncommon want, after a year for suspected authorship of a pamphlet entitled
When every year and month sernds forth a new one, The Necessity of Atheism.
Tl,after cloying the gazettes with cant, Literary Career and Works
Ihe age disCOvers he is not the true one;
Shelley's first publication was a Gothic Novel, Zastrozzi
O' such as these Ishould not care to vaunt,
therefore take our ancient friend Don Juan
1810). He eloped and married 16 years old Harriet
We all have seen him, in the pantomime, Westbrok in 1811 in Scotland. When his marrage did not
Sent to the devil somewhat ere his time. go well he became interested in a woman named Elizabeth
Hitckener, a school teacher who inspired his first major poem,
Venon, the butcher Cumberland, Wolfe, Hawke,
Queen Mab.Shelley continued to be involved in politics and in
Pnce ferdinand, Granby, Burgoyne, Keppel, Howe, 1817 wrote the pamphlet A Proposal for Putting Reform to the
tHi andgood, have had their tithe of talk,
And fil'd their sign posts then, like Wellesley now; Vote Throughout the United Kingdom) .n 1817, Shelley produced
tach in their turn like Banquo's s monarchs stalk, Laon and Cythna<a long narrative poem that was withdrawn
after onlya few copies were published because of its references
Folowers of fame, 'ninefarrow of that sowW to incest, as wellas attacks on religion.It was later edited and
France. too,in hadthe Buonaparté and Dumourier reissued as The Revolt of Islam (1818)}
Recorded and Courier.
Moniteur He also wrote 'Preface' to his wife's novel, rankenstein.
Don Juan Shelley's pastoral elegy on the death of Keats, Adonais
Biron's Don Juan is an Consisting unfinished poem written appeared in 1821)By 1820, the Shelley finally settled in Pisa)
between 1819 and 1824,( andofadventures 16 cantos, this Italy, where Shelley extended his literary circle to include
satVhungirical mock-epic details the life of a Byron, Leigh Hunt, Edward Trelawny, Edward Williams.
Spaniard. Don Juan.
266 11GC N2T Tutor
Eng
Thomas Jefferson Hogg and the young John Keats) On 8th Her clarion o'er the dreaning earth, and fil
July. 1822, Percy Shelley and Edward Williank set sail (Driving sweet buds like flocks tofeedin
from Leghorn en oute to Lerici. They both drowned With living hues and odours plain and hl ai)
during this journey. Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere.
Destroyer and Preserver, hear, Ohear!
Major Works Thou on whose stream,'mid the
steep sky scorrrrc
Loose clouds like Earth's decaying
ADefence of Poetry leaves are sred
Shook from the tangled boughs of
Shelley's ADefence of Poetry was originally written in Heaver
Angels of rain and lightning: there are spreadang e
1821 in response to Thomas Love Peacock's The Four On the blue surface of thine airy surge,
Ages of Poctry. Like the bright hair uplifted from the head
Shelley begins his cssay by distinguishing between Of some fierce Maenad,even trom the dim
reason and imagination. He defines reason as logical yerne
Of the horizon to the zenith's height,
thought and imagination as perception, arguing that The locks of the approaching storm.
"Reason respects the differences and imagination the
similitudes of things" Ode to the West Wind: Summary
Shellev states that Poetry is the 'expression of the Shelley's Ode to the West Wind was written in 1:
imagination' of the poet. Poets, using their imagination, published in the Prometheus Unbound volume in ik
'imagine and express' the 'indestructible order'.
A poem, for him is, "The very image of life expressed in The pooem is written in terza rima a verse tom consis
its eternal truth...the creation of actions according to of stanzas of three lines (tercets); the
first and thirt
the unchangeable forms of human nature, as existing in rhyming with one another and the second
the mind of the Creator"'; while Poetry is 'a mirror which the first and third of the following tercet. rhvming
makes beautiful that which is distorted'. In his note to the poem, Shelley wrOte,
"This poem
Poets, for Shelley, are "not only the authors of language conceived and chiefly written in a wood that skirs
and of music...they are the institutors of laws and the Arno, near Florence and on a day when that tempesu
founders of Civil Society." They are the wind, whose temperature is at once mild and anima
'unacknowledged legislators of the world'. Poets have was collecting the vapours, which pour down
the power to transform society. autumnal rains. They began, as I foresaw, at sunset w
Gerald Lucas states that Shelley believes poetry to be violent tempest of hail and rain, attended bv
divine, since it "Provides the seed for all of humanity's magnificent thunder and lightning peculiar to
creations: religions, institutions, politics, philosophy Cisalpine regions".
and technology. The poem is addressed to the West Wind. The spease
Shelley says that poetry both pleases and instructs. It the poem appeals to the West Wind to infuse him w
gives both pleasure and wisdom. new spirit and a new power to spread his ideas.
Poetry as a whole, he argues, "is ever-accompanied with he West Wind is personified both as a'Preserer
pleasure' and it 'lifts the veil from the hidden beautyof
the world'. Poetry's primary purpose is to focus on 'Ihe
Destroyer'.:)
speaker describes the effects of the West lWind
revealing the beauty in the world that is apparently land, air and water.
hidden from people. The speaker wants to be like the wind's lvre andimpl
9 Ode to the West Wind the wind to blow his thoughts Over the universe
O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being, they might become seeds to cause a newbËrth. He wants
Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead be an agernt of change and spread his revolutionan
lan Lancashire states that in this poem, Shellevinv
Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing.
thoughts
Yellow and black and pale and hectic red Zephirus, the West Wind, to free his 'dead
hearth/ Ashes
Pestilence-stricken muititudes: Othou, words, "As from an unextinguished
Who chariotest to their dark vwintry bed Sparks , in order to prophesy a renaissa-ht
The wingèd seeds, where they lie cold and low, humanity, to quicken a new birth'. He hopesvords'n
Each like acorpse within its grave,until 'spark-like, potentialy fiery thoughts andintellectual
Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow 'moral
enlighten humanity
imprisonment'. and liberate it from
 Age Poetry (1798-1837) 267

Keats(1795-1821) According to the Bedford Glossaryof Literary and Critical

Komanlicpoe John Keats was born in Terms, in order for a poet to 'perceive reality in all its
o h 1795.) Keats studied for sometime at the
Moorgate, manifold complexity, "He or she must rermain
hoo!Enficld,but had to
withdrawto apprentice open-minded...to embrace the unsure and armbiguOus, to
uncertainties, to
rke
apothecary-surgeon and study medicine in a avoid the temptation to rationalise all
prejudices" Keats
negate onc's own personality and
an
hospital He became a licensed
wh

ndon
apothecary in believed that Shakespecare possessed the quality of negative
never really practised medicine.
hut
capability.
Lterary Career
and Works
acquainted with celebrated artists of his time 9 Ode to a Nightingale
Leigh Hunt. Shelley and Benjamin Robert My heart aches and a drowsy nurmbness pains
May1816,, Hunt helped him publish his first My sense, as though of herniock ihad drunk,
HavdonnSolitude in a magazine called the Examiner)(The Oremptied some dullopiate to the drains
volume of his poetry, Poems by John Keats, was One minute past and Lethe-wards had sunk:
Tisnot through envy of thy happy lot,
Aentually published in 1817: )
ist
But being too happy in thine happiness,
Keats frst long poem, Endymion appeared in 1818. This That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees,
with the famous lines, "A thing of beauty is a
nembegins In some melodious plot
forever.(Based on the Greek myth of Endymion, a Of beechen green and shadows numberless.
shepherdloved by the Moon Goddess Selene the poem is Singest of summer in full-throated ease.
MrIttenin heroic couplets. Keats called this poem'a test, a 0, for a draught of vintage! that hath been
ial' of his 'powers of imagination' and of his 'invention Cool'da long age in the deep-delved Earth,
Tasting of Flora and the country green,
Thepoem wass dedicated to Thomas Chatterton..The year Dance and Provencal song and sunburnt mirtn!
Keats's life. It is
R19 was the most productive year of O
for a beaker fullof the warm South,
lso called his annus mirabilis as he wrote most of his
Belle Dame Fullof the true, the blushful Hippocrene,
inportant poems such as The Eve of StAgnes, La With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,
Sars Merci and his great odes To Melancholy, To a And purple-stained mouth,
Nightingale, To Psyche and To a Grecian Urn during this That Imight drink and leave the world unseen,
period. And with thee fade away into the forest dim:
He arrived in Naples in late 1820 and then moved to Fade far away, dissolve and quite forget
Rome, when he was in the last stages of tuberculosis. What thou among the leaves hast never known,
Keats died on 23rd February, 1821. He was buried in the The weariness, the fever and the fret
Protestant Cemetery in Rome. On his tombstone appears, Here,where men sit and hear each other groan;
name
at hisown request, the words "Here lies one whose Where palsy shakes a few, sad, last gray hairs,
Was writ in water' Where youth grows pale and spectre-thin and dies;
Where but to think is to be full of sorrovw
Keats and Negative Capability And leaden-eyed despairs,
In a letter to his brothers, George and Thomas Keats, Where Beauty cannot keep her lustrous eyes,
introduced the
On 2lst December, 1817, Keats Or new Love pine at them beyond tomorrow.
cOncept of Negative Capability. Ode to a Nightingale
hedescribed the term as"wheD a man is
capable of
Delng in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any Keats' Ode to a Nightingale was composed in 1819.
itable reaching after fact and reason Charles Brown, a friend with whom Keats was living when
composition: "In
stated that great poets should
have the he composed this poem,wrote about its her nest near my
Keats not to resolve the spring of 1819 a nightingale had built joy in her song
to remain in doubt or
wil ingness
conflicts or ambiguities. Some uncertainties
were best house. Keats felt a tranquil and continual breakfast table
and one morning he took his chair
from the
left open to imagination andthat the element of doubt to the grass-plot under a plum-tree, where he sat for two or
and ambiguity added romanticism.
268 UGC NET
Tutor
three hours. When be came into the house,1 The speaker tells the nightingale to fly
will follow, not through alcohol
(Not away and
"Engis
Perceived he had some scraps of paper in his hand and
these he was quictly thrusting behind the books. On
inquiry, Ifound those scraps, four or five in number,
and his pards), but through
'viewless wings.
charioted says
petry, which ha
wil gve t
Contained his poctic feeling on the song of our Surrounded by the nightingale's
nightingale". that the idea of death seems richer song the
The speaker begins with a declaration of his 'cease upon the midnight with no than ever speaker
pain.' By and
heartache. So, exquisite is the song of the nightingale poem, the speaker realises that the thn
in the shadowy forest that it makes the speaker's
heart The song of the nightingale that he is nightingale irntnin
is
ache with jov and numbs his senses like a drug. The
Singing kindles in him a desire for a draught of wine,
heard in ancient times by emperors and listening
He comes back to a realisation of peasants.
to
greenery, country dances, the music of Southern consciousness. He realises that he his own
France and davs spent in the Sunshine.
the help of his imagination. At thecannot State ar
He longs to disappear into the dim forest with the end escape
of even
speaker wonders whether he has had a the poem, t
nightingale and fade away. In the world of the experience or whether he has been true insight o
nightingale, he would forget about the afflictions of
the world-weariness, fever,
worries, old age.
" In Keats' ode, the song of the
that outlasts mortal life.
daydreaming
nightingale is a symbol of ar
 CHAPTER
12
TheVictorian Poetry
(1837-1901)
Ihe Victorian Age poetry witnessed varied forms like
realism, pessimism,
morality, sentimentality, humou, a senseof responsibility, dramatic
monologue,advancement of science and scepticism. The Victorian poetry
can be divided into the High Victorian poetry and the Pre-Raphaelite Poetry.
Tennyson, Robert Browning, Matthew Arnold and DG Rossetti were a few
important poets of the age.

The Victorian Age

The Victorian (1837-1901) Age is
ruled from 1837 to 1901. Shewas the named after the reign of Queen Victoria, who
to the period of her reign while still first English monarch to see her name given
living. Vast social, political and
changes occurred during this age. It was technological
history of England, a period of industrial one of themost prosperous periods in the
also sometimes known as the Age of development and colonial expansion. It is
which took place during this period. Reform because of the plethora of reforms.
It was an age of
Queen Victoria's democracy. The major democratic
reign was directed towards movement in Britain during
parliamentary expanding the voting population for
1832 Reform elections.
Bill,
Victoria came to the throne 5 years after the passage of the
office in Britain andwhich reduced property requirements for voting and holding
the 1832 Reform Actincreased
still
the number of
individuals entitled to vote. However.
failed to externd the beyond those owning
As a result of this,
People's Charter was drawn vote property.
Association (LWMA) by Thomas Lovett andup Francis for the London Working
Men's
demanded votes for all men,equal electoral Place in 1838, which
that Members of districts; abolition of the requirement
elections and the Parliament
secret
be property owners;
payment for MPs; annual general
1838. became importantballot. This movement known as the Chartist
social reform.Movement Cinthis Chapte
for working class of
The 1867 Reform Bill agitators for
Reform Bill (which gave(extended
working
right to vote to all settled male
men rural tenants) and 1884 " The Victorian Age
he boroughs) achieved England the same " Poets of the Victorian
Age
further democratisation of British politics rights those in
and by the end of " Pre-Raphaelite Poets
 Poetry (1837-1901) 285

universal male suffrage becanme almost a Aesthetic Movement

ver, womenwere still deprived of the right to vote. The Aesthetic movement was launched during the later
and emphasised aesthetic
, socialand political refornns, reforms also took place part of the 19th centurythemes in literature and other
t
n
front. The most important of these was the values over moralorsocial
cComLawsin 1846. The Corn LAwS were aseries of arts. It was a reaction against utilitarian philosophies,
Chacted between 1815 and 1846, which kept corn predominanceof scientific thinking and the widespread
level to protect British farming from foreign belief of the middle classes that art should have a moral
'l'art
These laws were repealed by Prime Minister purpose. The movement drew upon the formula of
Gtlelinl846 pour | 'art'-Art for art's sake-articulated most
\itornan age was also characterised by the triumph of the memorablyby the French novelist Théophile Gautier in
nle classes, withtheir belief iin progress, their opposition to his 1836 preface to Mademoiselle de Maupin. Gautier was
artists of the
one of a number of French writers and
Anementalinterference in trade and economics, their moral be evaluated with
period, who argued that art should
their religious faith and their observance of external reference to its own criteria.
erteialnornms for behaviour.
While, the historical roots of the movement can be
ýueral movement and reforms took place during this period, traced back to Immanuel Kant's Critique of Judgemnent
whhinfluencedtheliterature. There was tremendous growth in (1790), the movement was brought into England by
rublication of;periodicals and also the emergence of children's Walter Pater, who in The Renaissance (1873) remarked
literature as a genere. Dramatic monologue emerged as apoetic that The love of art for its own sake'. He believed that
iam in the poems of Robert Browning. Charles Dickens, art produced pleasurable sensations that added up to an
c Eliot, the Bronte sisters were storytellers and their impression of beauty.
noels reflected the Victorian period.
The most important and the most known writer of late
Victorian period associated with this movement was
Literary Movements of the
Oscar Wilde. Wilde felt very strongly about elegance
Victorian Age and richness and it was this very coherence of
Anart from social, political and economic reforms, Victorian age philosophy that held the Aesthetic Movement together
also witnessed a few literary movements. and gave it a lasting influence.
A
notable few are described in brief below
Pre-Raphaelite Movement/Brotherhood
Oxford Movement Pre-raphaclites were a group of artists, poets and
Oxtord movement was a 19th century movement centred at the painters first formed in l848, who rejected the
University of Oxford that sought renewal of Roman Catholic dramatic, artificial mannerist painting styles succeeding
thought and practice within the Church of England. Immediate Raphael and Michelangelo (hence the term
Cause of the movement was the change that took place in the Pre-Raphaelite') and aimed to create more genuine,
relationship between the State and the Church of England. humble representations of their subjects.
Ihe igniting factor was the proposal of the Whig government to The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was formed by three
uppress half the Anglican bishoprics and to re-dispose their Royal Academy students Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who
iComes, without first consulting the church. This created a was a gifted poet as well as a painter, William Holman
ave of opposition, spearheaded by John Keble, John Henry Hunt and John Everett Millais. They were later joined
Newman and others. byWilliam Michael Rossetti, James Collinson, Thomas
Oxford Woolner and FG Stephens.
Henry Newman dated the beginning of the National
1833, on
movement to Keble's Assize Sermon of July
with this movement were
The Pre-Raphaelite/Brotherhood was based on the folloiving
Apostasy. Other figures associated Williams,
principles
Richard Hurrell Froude, Frederick Faber, Isaac Ward and Tohave genuine ideas to express.
Charles Marriott, Bernard Dalgairns, William Tostudy nature attentively.
Edward was primarily areligious
Bouverie Pusey. Although, itliterature wasthe series of
To sympathise with what direct and serious and

doctMovemer
rinal t,
its main connection with heartfelt in previous art.
forth the aims and teachings of the To defy all conventions of art.
papers setting Times.
the
movement. These were named as the Tracts for
 UGC NET
286 Tutor "Engli
taken Instead, proponents of evolution pointed to
The ideals of this goup of painters and artists were Dante anatomy remnants of a tailbone. signs in
Over by a literary movement, which included for
Gabriel Rossetti, Christina Rossetti, William Morris and
common ancestry with other mammals instance show
Algemon Charles Swinburnc. In poetry, the movement According to Dr Andrzej Diniejko,
evolution thereby undermined the value "Darwi n's
and morality, which had been acceptedfortraditionaltherrel: r
came in the shape of arevolt against contemporary poetry of
of the kind of Tennyson's. which was full of tradition and
involved in the immediate, mundane problems of guiding principle of mankind, because it impliedcentunes as
ontemporary societv. The Pre- Raphaclites also started a no more than a that marn
'talking monkey and no God Was nero
periodical called The Germ (1850), which outlined their create him. It revolutionalised man's
aesthetic theories. The most famous literary work Darwin thus started a new conception of hirs
associated with the Pre-Raphaclites was DG Rossetti's anthropocentrism thatof{[deprv
man of his unique position in the world. In the light
poem, The Blessed Damozel. theory, man appears left alone in the universe Darw
The Scottish poet and critic Robert Buchanan criticised divine power, which should or could protect him" arwithout
the Pre-Raphaclite school of poetry and termed it as The Darwinian thesis was further built
fleshBv school of poetry. It was a term of abuse coined by publication of Huxley's Man's Place in Nature upon with the
him to attack the explicit nature of subject matter as well
as erotic imagery in the poetry of poets such as Rossetti,
The Antiquity of Man (1863) and by Darwin himse'Lyel (11863),
f
Swinbume and William Morris.
The Descent of Man (1871). Huxdey articulated the religc
conflict of his age and questioned, "Does God exist? How e
Buchanan identified Rossetti as the leader of this group we know Him? Why isn't He revealed more
whose followers had taken a vow. "To appreciate unambiguouS
in the scriptures? Why would He create evil and whv wou
fleshliness as the distinct and supreme end of poetic and He allow the good to suffer and the wicked to flourish? Do
pictorial art; to state that poetic expression is greater than He intervene miraculously in this world?"
poetic thought and by inference that the body is greater
than the soul and sound superior to sense and that the He coined the term agnosticism to express his religios
poet, properiy to develop his poetic faculty, must be an scepticism and stated that the essence of it lav in follown
intellectual hermaphrodite, to whom the very facts of day reason. He further added that every man should be able to
and night are lost in a whirl of aesthetic give a reason for the faith i.e. in him and if there is no
terminology." reason, there can be no faith.
tangible
Conflict Between Science and
Apart from new scientific discoveries, a new range of Biblica
Religion in the Victorian Age critics also appeared, who delved into the Bible only to raiss
During, the early part of the 19th
religion existed in harmony with eachcentury,
other.
science and
Science was
question marks about several of its aspects. One of these wa
David Frederick Strauss, who in his Life of Jesus (183)
believed to be in the interest of divine
revelation. doubts about the reliability of the New Testament
However, as new scientific
development of Biblical criticismdevelopments
came into
and the
being, man's
Feuerbach's Essence of Christianity (1854)
of God was created by man to expressargued that the ie
faith in Godand religion began tobe the divine with
a crisis of faith. In questioned
1859, Charles Darwin published leading to himself. Doubt became the order of the day in Victonadl
book, The Origin of Species, in which he laid his England. It was no longer a religious sin; it becanme a
af evolution.
Darwin' s out the theory keeping in mind the rapid developments of the age. necessi
a lower species' was
proposition"that
created by some higher power, man actually
seen Contrary to the
as
instead of being
evolved from Victorian Poetry
Bible (which taught that man was teachings the
of Poetry written in England during the reign of Queern Victoria
created in God's image). (1837-1901) may be referred to as Victorian poetr
Darwin also argued that species with
useful England, during this time, was undergoing a tremendous
the environment are more
likely to surviveadaptations to
produce cultural
and
progeny than
Darwinian
those with and
theories contradictedlesstheuseful adaptations.
upheaval; the accepted forms of literature, art
music had undergone a radical change. The Romantic
Christianity and many other
faiths, notion, central Movement, which Renaissance,
had
God given place in the natural order.that man had aspecial often portrayed the preceded
to the Victorian
as a human pursuit of knowledge and poe
beautifulthing.
e ktorion Poetry (837-1901)
287
Ronanticism
Victorian poets continued nmány
era's main thennes, such Early Victorian Phase
valorisation of
as religious The Early Victorian period was a period of turbulence,
the artist as genius; but
also developed a distinct marked by economic, political and social difficulties.
|totian pocts used imagery
sensibility. Most
and the senses t0 Important events during this phase were the Chartist
scenes of struggles between religion and Movement and Repeal of the Corn Laws. This period also saw
about nature and romance, which
ideas large scale expansion of railways. Literature of this period
reader into the minds and hearts of focused on the concerns of the new emerging middle and
the
the Victorian age, even today.
of
working class. IS Mill and Thomas Carlyle are writers that
iming ofthe past was a nmajor part of Victorian belong to this phase.
iteraturewith an interest in both classical and medieval Mid Victorian Phase
hxeratureo f England. The Victorians loved the heroic, The second phase of Victorian age was a period of econormic
hnairousstories of knights of old and they hoped to prosperity and colonial expansion. Contrary to the first
ngain
someofthat noble, courtly behaviour and impress
phase,this was amuch stable stage. This phase witnessed the
peopleeboth at home and in the
unthe ewider empire. Great Exhibition of 1851, the first international exhibition of
Therewasalot of radical social change and as such many manufactured products.
nesofthis time didn't like the romanticised version of It was organised by Henry Cole and Prince Albert and held in
Kze:.The Victorian poetry is, thus, divided into two a purpose-built Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London. This
maitngroupss of poetry: The high Victorian poetry and the phase of Victorian age saw the appearanceof scientific works
Pre-Raphaelite poetry. such as Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species (1859) and The
Comic verse abounded in the Victorian era. Magazines Descent of Man (1871)which challenged long held religious
mh as Punch magazine and Fun magazine teemed with assumptions. Works of Charles Dickens and George Eliot
humorous invention and were aimed at a belong to this phase.
the
ael-educated readership. The most famous collection of Late Victorian Phase
Vicorian comic verse is the Bad ballads. The third phase of Victorian period was a period of
The writers of this period are known for their interest in scepticism, when people began to question Britain'sEmpire
serbal embellishment, mystical interrogation, brooding building activities. An important topic of debate during this
skepticism, and whimsical nonsense. The most prolific phase was the proposed Home Rule for Ireland.
and well-regarded poets of the age include Alfred Lord Literature of this period was marked by the Decadent
Tennyson, Robert Browning, Elizabeth Barret Browning, Movement, who aspired to set literature and art free from the
Matthew Arnold and Oscar Wilde. materialistic pre-occupations of industrialised society.
Writers associated with this movement were Oscar Wilde,
One of the most significant accomplishments of the
Arthur Symons and Ernest Dowson. These writers took acue
VIctorian era is the appearance of female poets. There from French writers such as Baudelaire and Gautier and
Were few fermale poets before, as poetry was considered to showed interest in perversity, ennui boredom art for art's
be predominantly male occupation. Despite these views, sake, transgressive modes of sexuality, artificiality and decay.
Works of such poets as Elizabeth Browning, Christina
KOssetti and the Bronte sisters became famous during the Characteristics of Victorian Poetry
Victorian age. the
The main characteristics of Victorian age can be understood under the

Victorian of poetry. thus, marks an important era in following heads

history poetry, providing the link between the
Movement Realism
Romantic Movement and the Modernist
IteRaphaelitism) of the 20th century. The Victorian poetry was quite realistic in nature and quite
less idealised as compared to the Romanic poets who were
idealists and believed in Art for the Art's Sake. Nature, that
Inree Phases of the Victorian Age idealised
The Victorian period is often divided into three main was everything for the Romantics, lost that source of
and late position in the Victorian era and became just a
phases- eary (1837-1848); mid (1848-1870) leisure and inspiration for the poets.
(1870-1901).
 288 UGC NET Tutor
Focus on Masses Use of Sensory Devicos
andt
he Romantic poetry minly foused on nral an rustie lie.
It is no way related to the ity lite 0n the other hand,
tetorian poets uscd languace as well as themes comnon to
the citv life and thus wote about the mases and or he
The poets of the precediny
Iloweve, the Vietorians also
describe
Nclence.
ued
the abstract scenes of chaos Imagery
masse
Sentimentality
Pessimism The Victorians wrote about artistie
As alreadv discussed, Victorians were quite realisthe and
thus were more oncemed about the reality rather than the
way to deeper
sentiments.
(realo, thy
inmaginations throuyh,
ideal world. Due to industrial revolution and advancement
in sciene and technolorv, there was a drastic increase in Humour
the citv population that gave rise to slums, poverty. Anumber of poets wrote humoroUS
and
unemploVment, corupution diseases, deaths etc. Thus,
Victorian Poctr which focused on the pains and sufferings
e.g. Bad Ballads.
winsal y

of commoners had anote of pessimism. Dramatic Monologue

Adramatic monologue is along speccht
Science and Technology differs from soliloquy which means theby a ingle peru
The advancement in Science and inventions was
welcomed by a character in a play. On the expression of
other
by the Victorian poets. It made them believe that a man
can monologue is a kind of lyric which was usedhand.
find all solutions to his problems and sufferings. They made by Robert Browning, andanpr
their readers believe that they should use science for their
betterment.
Questioning to God Poets of the Victorian
It was an important feature of Victorian poetry. The
development of empirical science, rationalism and
radicalism led the people to give up the religious thoughts
Age
and be more sceptic. Moreover, coruption in Church,
defining the morality of Priests, etc also led thethepeople to
Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-1892
question the religious institutions. English poet AIfred Tennyson was born in Somer
A Sense of Responsibility Lincolnshire, England in 1809. He was the fourth ot
The Romantics believed in 'return to nature'. Anumber of children of a clergyman George and his wife, Elizat
theRomantics did not like the Tennyson. Tennyson's father had a family history of me
city life and instead of giving illness. T'ennyson studied at Louth Grammar Scho
vojce to the victims of
life. On the other hand,industrialisation, they left the city later joined Trinity College,Cambridge. It was at Cambr
Victorian poets that he developed an intense friendship with Arthur Hla
responsibility of social reform and gave voicetookto the the
commoners by living with them.
Literary Career and Works
Morality Tennyson and Hallam were part of aliterary group a
Though morality saw a steep decline in the apostles. This group provided Tennyson the contid
number poets tried to
of Victoran era, a he needed as a young poet. Tennyson's first collectio
to be honest and noble. retain it by encouraging the people poems Chiefly Lyrical was published in 1830.1832 This

Interest in Medieval Myths and followed

volume
by a second volume called the Poems in
ird
The Victorians showed great Folklore received unfavourable reviews, though hisdeat
Literature. They loved mythical lavour towards Medieval Hallam continued Hallam's sudden
and it.he began writing th
to promote
and chivalrous anecdotes 1833 jolted Tennyson
Medieval Knights, Courtly Love ete, Besides being
contrary to that of
Romantics as the
This interest is
latter loved Memoriam, an
closest friend, elegy. for his lost friend.
to his Sister
myths and legends. classical Hallam was engaged for
10ve
Tennyson.
since Hallam'Tennyson
s death. did not publishanything
 victorian,Poetry (1837-1901) 289
,

hms (1842), marked a change in Tennyson's Pobert Browning (1812-1889)

TheSuCCSs of this volume established him as a
and he also started receiving a Victorian poet Robert Browning, considered the master
government
later. His poem, The Princess, a Medley of dramatic monologue, was born in Camberwell,
vcars

the subject of women's higher cducation was England in 1812. Browning's father was a well-paid clerk
I847. In 1850. his most well for the Bankof England, while his mother Sarah was an
published. known poem, In accomplished pianist. Browning was mostly self-taught
and utilised his father's huge library which contained
him to the notice of Queen Victoria and he more than 6000 books. At the age of 16, he attended the
Wordsworth as the Poet Laureate of
he also got married to Emily Sellwood,England.
to whomThehe University College in London, but a year later he grew
kren engaged earlier. In 1884, Tennyson accepted a dissatisfied and left it to pursue learning at his own pace.
became Alfred Lord Tennyson. Literary Career and Works
Hisotherworks include Maud and Other Poems (his first Browning started writing poetry at the age of 12. In
Lasreatevolume, which included two of his famous public 1833,Browning anonymously published his first major
utterances-Ode on the. Death of the Duke of
Wellington and Charge work, Pauline and in 1840 he published Sordello. On
Brigade, 1855), The Idylls of the King encouragement by the actor William Macready,.
MalersLe Morte d'Arthur, 1859) and the plays; (retelling
Queen Maryof Browning tried writing for the stage, but did not prove
Harold (1876) and Becket (1879). Ulyesses is also one of successful. However, writing for the stage helped him
hismainpoems. develop his form of the dramatic monologue-a literary
Tennysondied Haslemere, England on 6th October, 1892 form in which a character, addressing a silent audience at
was buriedin Westminster Abbey. a critical moment, reveals his own character.
In 1844, Browning read Elizabeth Barrett's Poems arnd
Major Works finally met her in 1845. She was an invalid sufering
Poems, Chiefy Lyrical (1830) from a lung ailment since her adolescence and living in
Poems (1832) the care of an extremely protective father. Despite her
Poems,2 volumes (1842) health issues they got married in l846, against the
The Princess: A Medley (1847) wishes of Barrett's father and settled in Florence.
In Memoriam (1850) Browning wrote little during his married life. After
Ode on the Death of the Dukeof Wellington (1852) Elizabeth Barrett's death in 186l, he moved to London
Maud and Other Poems (1855) with his son and began to publish his poetry.
láyils of the King (1859)
Browning's most famous works are his Dramatic Lyrics
Enoch Arden etc (1864) x (containing his popular poems My Last Duchess and
The Holy Grail and Other Poems (1869) 5
Quen Mary: ADrama (1875) Porphyria's Lover; 1842), Dramatic Romances (containing
The Lost Leader and The Laboratory: 1845), Dramatis
Harold(1876) Personae (containing Caliban upon Setebos and Rabbi Ben
Becket (1879) Ezra; 1864) and Men and Women (containing Fra Lippo
Demeter and Other Poems (1889)
Ihe Death of Oenone. Akbar's Dream and Other Poems (1892) Lippi and The Last Ride Together, 1855). Some of his
famous poems from various poetic works are. My last
9In Memoriam Duchess, Soliloque of the Spanish Cloister, HomeThoughts,
enyson's poem, In Memoriam is an elegiac tribute to his friend from Abroad, The Bishop orders his Tomb, Fra-Lippo Lippy.
Aur Henry Hallam, who died in 1833 at the age of 22. AToccata of Galluppi's and Memorabilia etc.
poem was written over the course of 17 years (1833-1849)
and was finaly published in 1850. The Ring and the Book (1868) is considered to be
In Memoriam is a mammoth work that includes 133 poems Browning's most celebrated achievement that
established his popularity. It is a verse novel that is based
inclucing the prologue and the epilogue).
hi Moem shows Tennyson battling with the issue of mortality, on a sensational Roman murder trial in 1698. It is
trying to come to terms with his friend's death and gradually centred on Pompilia- a beautiful young woman, who is so
acoepting it.
The poem Concludes with an epilogue, an epithalamion on the unhappy in her mariage to Count Franceschini, an older
O0casion of the wedding 1842. and cruel nobleman, that she prevails upon a young
of Tennyson's sister Emilia in
priest to help her return to her parents' home.
290 UGC NET
The count finds them, has Pompilia sent to a convent and "Half-flush that dies along her
Tutor Er
banishes the priest.forWhen
the count arranges Pompilia returns
the assassination
to her parents,
of Pompilia and her
parents The count is arested. tried and executed.
Was courtesy, she thought and c
for calling up that spot of joy. She
Aheart-how shall |
say?-too
Too easily impressed, she liked
thcauseroat"Senguchf
had

Browning'
finally leadstoinfluences grew of during
the founding the
fthe Browning:
late 60s and 70s and
society in 1881 She looked on and her looks whate'er
went
ewas awarded honorary deerees by Oxford University in
T882 and the University of Einbureh in 1884. Browning
Sir, twass all one! My
favour at her
The dropping of the daylight in thebreast,
Wact
everyihora
died in Venice on 12th The bough of cherries some
December, l889. officious
Broke in the orchard for her, the forl
whitero
Major WNorks She rode with round the1
Pauline:A Fragment of a Confession (1833)
Paracelsus (1835)
terrace--alapprovil andng eacr
Would draw from her alike the
Or blush, at least. She thanked
Strafford (play) (1837)2
Sordello (1840)
SomehovW--| know not how--as if
My gift of a
men,- goocSpeerr
she rankedbur
Bells and Pomegranates Number I: Pippa Passes (play) (1841) nine-hundred-years-old
With anybody's gift. Whod stoop to name
Bells and Pomegranates Number II: King Victor and King This sort of trifling? Even had you skillblarne
Charles (play) (1842) A In
Bells and Pomegranates Number III: Dramatic Lyrics
Bells and Pomegranates Number IV: The Retum(1842)
speech--(whichThave
Ouite clear to such an one not)--to make your w
and say, "Just this
of the "Or that in you disgusts me;
Druses (play) (1843) "Or there exceed the
here you miss.
Bells and Pomegrarnates Number V: ABlot in the
Herself be lessoned so,mark'-and
Scutcheon if she let
(play) (1843) nor plainly set
Bells and Pomegranates Number VI: Her wits to yours, forsooth and
(play) (1844) Colombe's Birthday --E'en then would be some made exCUse
Bells and Pomegranates Number VIl: Never to stoop. stooping, and Ichoose
and Lyrics (1845) Dramatic Romances
Men and Women (1855) My Last Duchess
Dramatic Personae (1864) This poem is based on (1842): Summary
The Ring and the Book (1868-69) the Duke of Ferrara, historical events involving Alfor
who lived in the 16th centur T
G My Last Duchess Duke is the speaker of the
poem. He tells us he
Ferrara entertaining an emissary who has come to negotiat
That's my last Duchess painted on the wall, Duke's marriage (he has recently been
Looking as if she were alive. Icall daughter of another powerful family. Aswidowed to
he shows
That piece a wonder, now: Fr visitor through his palace, he stops before a
Worked busily a day and therePandolf' s hands late Duchess, apparently ayoung and portratTheotD
she stands.
Willt please you sit and look at her? Isaid begins reminiscing about the portraitlovely
sessions.girl.then ab
"Fra Pandolf" by design, for the Duchess herself. His
never read
Strangers like you that pictured musings give wav toshea diatrir
tirade on her disgraceful behaviour:
The depth and passion of its countenance, with everyone and he claims
did not appreciate his gitt o
But to myself they turned earnest glance,
The curtain I have drawn for(since none puts by
you,
And seermed as they would ask but)
nicertainty
ne-hundred-years-ol
continues, d
the reader name'
realises
As his
with ever-more
that the Duke in fact caused the Duchess'e
monolo
chill

How such a glance came me, if they durst.

there; so, not the first demise.
Are you to turn and ask thus. Sir,
Her husband's presence twas not My Last Duchess comprises rhyming pentameterlines
Of joy into the Duchess only, called that spot lines do not employ end-stops; rather, thev
cheek: perhaps gTammati
Fra Pandolf chanced to say
"Her
"Over my lady's wrist too much mantle laps enjambment-that
units do not
is,
serntences
conclude at the
and other
endof
lrd
or "Paint
Must never hope to reproduce the faint necessarily
Onsequently, the rhymes do not create aseing
when they come, but rather remain a subtledriving
behind the Duke's compulsive revelations.
 VietoionPoetry
ne
(1837-1901)
291
hikc uitea
pertonner: he
, bptheicalsituations andmimics other's
uses the forcevojces.
of his
make
Literary Career and Works
to horrifying information seem Arnoldwas appointed as private secretary to Lord Lansdowne
Indeccd
the poem provides a merely in 1847. Lansdowne helped
monologue: the speaker is classic example of a him in securing an inspectorship
yal.
clearly of schools in 1851. This new position
audience is suggested but distinct from provided him
measure of financial security and enabled him to marry with a
the revelation of the never appearS in Fanny
Lucy Wightman,the daughter of a judge. Armold's first book
primary aim. Duke's character is of poetry, The Strayed Reveller: And Other Poems, was published
andthe anonymously in 1849. This was followed by Empedocles on
o ArOWning
amatic Monologue x
Etna (1852) and Poems (1853), which established his
reputation as a poet. Some of his famous poems from various
dramatic monologue as a poetic form poetic works are: Desire, Dream, A Summer Night. Consolation.
Robert Browning achieved its first
The
dstnctionin the works of The Scholar Gipsy and Dover Beach etc. In 1857, Arnold was
rowning's poems-My Last Duchess and
areconsideredtot be the models Porphyria's Lover
for this form. appointed as 'Professor of Poetry' at Oxford and served this
n M
Last Duchess, the Duke is position for two consecutive terms of 5 years.
emissary for a second wife. negotiating
Even though, it is
with an
Hewas the first professor to deliver lectures in English instead
s taking about theduchess
character of his last wife, the duke whoto
of Latin. Arnold's career as a literary critic began in the late
the messenger, one can derive lots of facts about his own
cter through the manner, in which he speaks and sixties. He published his Lectures on Translating Homer in 1861,
the
wayin which he describes his wife. He is revealed to be an followed by Last Words on Translating Homer in 1862, Essays on
sntionally cold, calculating, materialistic and haughty man. Criticism in 1865 and Culture and Anarchy in 1869. Arnold died
Dophyria's Lover, the speaker describes the act of on 15th April, 1888, at the age of 65, in Liverpool, England.
mrdering the woman he loved. During the course of
anaining his reasons for the crime, the speaker reveals Major Works
himself to be a jealoUs, possessive and psychopathic lover.
Acoording to David Daiches, Browning's dramatic Poetry
monologues are written to Project with an almost quizzical Alaric at Rome: APrize Poem (1840)
violence, a certain kind of personality, a certain Cromwell: A Prize Poem (1843)
1emperament, a way of looking at life, even a moment of The Strayed Reveller and Other Poems (1849)
hstory realised in the self-revelation of a type". They are 'set
peces in which a fuly known character' is 'set sharplybefore Empedocles on Etna and Other Poems (1852) x
the reader', Poems: A New Edition (1853)
Poems: Second Series (1855)
Merope: ATragedy (1858)
New Poems (1867)
Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) > AEmpedocles on Etna: ADramatic Poem (1900)
British poet and critic Matthew Arnold was born at Prose
tadeham on the Thames in London in l822. He was the
son of Thomas Arnold, the famous headmaster of Rugby England and the Italian Question (1859)
On Translating Homer: Three Lectures Given at Oxford (1 861 )
School) who was celebrated in the novel Tom Brown's
Essays in Criticism (1 865)
Schokays. His mother, Mary Penrose Arnold was the Culture and Anarchy: An Essay in Political and Social Criticism
daughter of an Anglican clergyman. (1869)
As a child, Arnold attended the Reverend John On the Modern Element in Literature (1869)
Buckland's Preparatory School. Later, he studied at Literature and Dogma: An Essay towards a Better
Kkugby School and Balliol College, Oxford. After Apprehension of the Bible (1873)
Completing his graduation at Oxford, he returned to the The Hundred Greatest Men: Portraits of the One Hundred
Rugby School and worked as a teacher of classics. In
1845, he was honoured with a Fellowship at Oriel
Greatest Men of History (1879)
On the Study of Celtic Literature (1883)
Discourses in America (1885)
College, Oxford. He pursued his studies there with John
Keble and John Henry Newman. Education Department (1886)
 Eng reurn partiha
h moderr spear\ o
rerma7 pvi Caili T
extinguisnesbeing
hum
full. shore.
Aegean to another
fighting
have ony
inspiring
sight
(arnors house, bv sadness
Greece. about
the thatthe faiththe next He an people
of
Summary I the
hismost
the near
the,
town which
aural Stanza 'Sea
Tutor France pebbles the plays main suggests stanza, them.
onlv particularly
poem to
heaven. a
in
together the involvement.
humanextinguishes.
nost
length
thatoi night,
painted a
face inside
as calm of
side,for firstnote
suddenly ancient
on poem's
at
too, from
of
sits
one
no
the
almost
Seems
nature,once France
NET lon is
short One of arnd imagery his once,
who
final to before
is decline is of smoothed
comment
Arnold's poems thehere coast English thethe'eternalsound wite
Phrases
tide
beauty
full of or tinge-it the ,quailty begins
(1867): relatively volatile Woman
Channel
quiet
of finishes: to the
belovedtrue
battlefield
deity
speaks ofuntouched innate
a
UGC in theis France visual roar' sanme Faith/VWasthe the out
has that
is an back to The be everyone
to other declined
declinea sea the 'grating it
introduces likethisIn always world streak anyhumanist
romantic
Matthews
Beach manages on world thisby shore." diction} his laid
the he and accident reflection
its his andwithEnglish in on trades He flashes
the When
lights society to
waves. heard insipired of laments addresses is the a absolute
darknenss. Instead,it
dcspite However,
thatdark
sits and lightfocuses the
music
the Sea theythat fact makes linkingdecisions tying any over
of has
mystery
Beach many uncertain, the the He the
stanza three Earth's
from
that definite no that true an
Dover
Arguably Beach awaythe of
describing
the Sophocles The melancholythatworld in is from light is
themes oversee tranquil.
speaker is also problems, expressing
was misery.
Stanza round speaker directly however, religious.
his without
is reflectionspeaker's
Dover Dover They by fading asking it
like out
miles
out next and
with: since Whatthat a guided It absent the beauty.
the has way. life

Poemsof shortly
Victorianof
1851. as on
portrayed from
demonstrates
death region poet
in hadmeditative Arthur Macmillan's basedson
written poem, classical long-lost
figure
the
Famousafter the Dover who friend, is poem
with probably the student,
a poem, Hercules
poem
years the
of is the Arnold's in his
narrative
doals to setting Itaypsies,
to published of fling,
made Oxfordmuch this killing land, shore
20This
was a lightstand,
Arnold's
over fathe.
poem
the in
of 1866Clough, a Rustum,
is
bay. air! and drear
Arnold t wte his theEngland moon-blanched Earth's
old theowes death
witten his thisfarthhis England.
first Thyrsis-a
shepherd
poet. it
1853, andcombat.
tranguil
night back, begin, bring brought furled.
vearamong
disappeared was of
coast flow sea. roar, edges
Thomas
fo 1867 of and that the mythology the drawstrand, and round
in legend northern girdle withdrawing
was regard loss South-Eastern
of Description he 17 poem on It publishedsingle of theis spray roar
fair French again it and thought, vastworld.
Ciough slovwin.
poem
Description
father,
in ot
Published vist a elegy in
Theocrtus Magazine herocin lies cliffsin sweet waves andebb
andbright the
Arnoid's problen about pastoral out linethe of grating high then sadness
a an Hugh Persian
Sohrab moon
tonight, the the cadence (E)gean turbid a distant full downthe
Thts atter tis Firstthe vast,window,rneets thetheand sound breath
hts is
Dover
Beach theon gone, long the the a of
and whichup cease of
Sophocles
long
ago we
of hearlong, wind,shingles
Gypsy caimfutl,straits,
is thesea hear return,trermulous
A themisery; this at folds
note the
the Faith the
Rugby
Chape! the
andGlimmering mind too, onlyrmelancholy,
to
fromtheyoupebblesand eternal on by
Brief Dover
Beach Scholar Sohrab
and
is is the
sea tide Gieams to
in
hurman
the
it of once, nowl Retreating,
nightnaked
292 Upon Corne WhereListen! theirBegin, it his alsoHearing Sea
Poem Thyrsis Rustum TheThe Only, With Heard like the
The Of At The Into Find TheWas Lay But And
Of Its Of
 Famouss
1al'S
|A Critical Work
narchy 293
sNN ISshedin
1869,
of England's Amold's Barrett's
social þhi lOso phic al essay argues for their Sonnets fron the
courtship Portugueseher were written during
ideol
"the study ofo gy. Arnol d and expressed
pertection, wicont th rasts culture 'Portuguese
Portuguese'poetthe title was a referencelovetofor16thBrowming.
Od England"sthen
of of
the reasontthat new
comesdemOCr
self.' seeks to cultivate
t tuanar
re iscinspired
from theacy.'bestCulselfl' hy, the for his wife. Elizabeth
Camoens and to Browning's century.
things as they are. the 'tree play' of rather than long blarnk Barrett's most
verse nickname
Aurora Leigh (1 known
considered to be novel, work is her
to see
human sOciety into
three main thought, the a
Prelude (1850) andwoman' s version of 856) This work is
mslreS
and the
ars a's, the Populace.
The classes: Barbarians, Aurora Leigh, whotellslives the story of the Wordsworth's
in Englandyoung poet,
The
Philistines
aAe the working
are
represent
classes,
Barbari
the ans class
middle represenfand thethe unsympathetic aunt after the death with an
The mother and English father. of her Italian
by Barbarians are confident of
and are
charact erised
The Philistines sOcietyindiviwhich
touch with the rest of
dualism. However, they
of
thwarted by the male dominance
poems also dealt with the
Barrett shows her heroine
of her age.
AYalpat
are they
were Barrett's
theme of social injustice.
mmaking and are
oblivious to assOciated with businessonce an of her poems, Casa Two
German. The
developed. This classthird
culture. The
class,the Populace isword
and
Philisstilltine notis Congress, dealt with theGuidi Windows arnd Poems Before
Italian fight for
istines. Culturee
is mosty rawand
and Anarchy is alsoexploited the Barbarians and
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning died in independence.
teohrase'sweetness and light', first famous
for its 1861. Florence on 29th une.
Batie of the Booksl
Sweetness coined by Jonathan popularisation
Swift in The
of
wSdom that cuture ádds to life) and Light stands for
beauty and Sonnets
Howdo I
from the Portuguese
love thee? Let me
Ilove thee to the depth and count the ways.
breadth and hight
sizabeth
806-1861)
Barrett Browning My soul can reach,
when
For the ends of being and feeling
ideal
out of signt
|love thee to the level of every grace.
Fnlish poet Elizabeth Barrett
Browning was born at Coxhoe Most quiet need, by sun and day's
freely, as men strivecandle-light.
Hal Durham, England in |lovethee
Ailären borm to Edward 1806. She was the eldest of twelve for right:
Ilove thee purely, as
Moulton
Clarke. Her father made most of hisBarrett and Mary Graham | love thee with the
they turn from praise.
considerable fortune from passion put to use
lamaican sugar plantations and in 1809 he bought
In my old griefs and with my
childhood's faith.
500-acre estate near the Malvern Hills. Hope End, a Ilove thee with a love I
Elizabeth Barrett seemed to lose
privileged life in the country. She did not receive any led a With my lost saints. Ilove thee with the
breath,
education and was educated at home with her formal Smiles, tears,of all my life; ands if God choose,
siblings.
Tead voraciously and by the age of 8 had learned to Barrett Ishall but love thee better after death.
in the original Greek. read Homer
Major Works
Literary Career and Works The Battle of Marathon; A Poem (1820)
An Essay on Mind, with Other Poems (1826)
Fier first narrative poem The Battle of Marathonwas
1820. printed in Miscellarneous Poems (1833)
However,
at the age of 15, Barrett was struck with a
nervous ailment, which plagued her for the rest of her life. This
The Seraphim and Other Poems (1838)
Poems (1844)
was believed to from a fall she had while saddling a ADrama of Exile; and other Poems (1845)
pony. Barrett's second have arisencollection An Essay on Mind and Other Poems: New Edition (1850)
Poems was published anonymously in ]826. Her first major The Poems of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1850)
colwhileccth ionwasof published
poems was entitled The Seraphim and Other Poems,
in 1838. Her first collected edition
Sonnets from the Portuguese (1850)
Casa Guidi Windows: A Poem (1851)

2ppear
that attracteded uunderthethe attention 1844. It was this collection
title Poemsof infellow poet Robert Browning.
Two Poems (1854)
Aurora Leigh (1857)
This led to the beginning of a literary love affair, which Napoleon III in Italy and Other Poems (1860)
Poems before Congress (1860)
ulminated in marriage in 1846. Last Poems (1862)
 294 UGC NET Tutor
of the natural world The groups's
"Eng
Arthur Hugh Clough (1819-1861) by rejecting what it considered the intention
tngish poet Arthur Hugh (ough was borm in iverpoo in
t 9 He was the son of James Clough and Anne l'erfet
adopted by Mannerist artists who
Michelangelo) Its members believed the
mechanistic
suICCeeded
ough's father was a Liverpnol cotton menhant, who
immigrated with his famik toAmerica
elegant ompositions of Raphael
corrupting influence on the
in classical
academic particular had
In 1828, Clough was sent back to England to be educated. major Pre-Raphaclite poets were Dante
He entered Rugby School, where he formed a great Christina Rossetti, Williamn Morris
admiration for the headmastcr. Thonmas Arnold and Swinburne.) and Alzeror
developed a cose friendship with Thomas' son. Matthew Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Arnold.
Hugh won a scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford and (1828-1882)
later became a fellow of Oricl College. In 1850, Clough Victorian poet and painter Dante
became professoT of English Literature at University Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti in Gabriel Rosseti we
College. In 1852, Clough travelled to Boston and met later changed his name to Dante Gabriel London in 2
Waldo Emerson. Inspired by his friendship with Emerson, how Dante Alighieri served as a
he went to Harvard andlectured. On his return to England
in 1854, Clough married Blanche Smith. He pursued a
inspiration for his work) His father,
Giuseppe Rossetti was an Mtalian
contiGabriele
nuous sur
civil service career until his health failed in 1860. professor at King's College,political refugee
Frances Polidori was half Italian and half while
English
his
Literary Career and Works as a private teacher. Rossettidid his andn.
Clough's first published work, The Bothie of Day School in Portland Place and laterschooling from M.:
Tober-na-Vuolich, a narrative in hexameters, attended
College School. In 1842, Rossetti enrolled in the ar K
1848. This poem, which is the most popular appeared
in
of his works, Cary's Academy. He furthered his artistic
tells the story of Claude, a supercilious Oxford graduate, attending the royal Academy Antique educato.
who is initially contemptuous of Rome and of a School
However, he grew dissatisfied and left it in in
English woman he meets on the grand tour, young Mary Concentrate on his art.
Trevellyn.
This work was followed by Ambarvalia, a Literary
collection of | In 1848, Career and Works
lyrics, in 1849. His posthumous poems include when the Pre-Raphaelite movement was four
Amours de
Voyage, the dialogues Dypsichus and the tales Mari Magno. Rossetti produced his first important painting
Clough died in Florence in 1861. translation of Dante's Vita Nuova was also
October 1848\He exhibited his first major oil finisha
Girlhood of Mary Virgin at the Free Exhibition in painting
March
Around this time, Rossetti met Elizabeth Eleanor Sics
milliner's assistant. who becamà a model for many o
Pre-Rephaelite Poets
The Pre-Raphaelites were a loose
paintings and sketches They were engaged in l851. but
not marry until l860.
of Victorian and baggy collective
poets, painters, illustrators and Kossetti's most well known poem is The Blessed Da
whose tenure tasted from designers
J848 roughly the turn of
to artates the story of a young woman, who dies uney
century. Drawing inspiration from theat
literature, their works privileged atmosphere andart) and longsa very
visual
for
young age. Even after attaining heavenvblis
the love of her Earthly Companion. The poem u
over narrative, focusing on
medieval subËects, mood the physical and the spiritual and illustrates Rossetti's he
introspection, female beauty, sexual yearningnd artists in human love being one of life's greatest values. Rosser
states of
mid-century, the altered other works idclude: The
Pre-Raphaelite
popularise the notion of 'art for art's sake' helped to Sequence Early Italian Poets,
and House of Life. From the mid-l
Poems.
I860s. Ross
4S

Generally devoid of the

political edge that began paranoia.from Heeye began andsh
much Victorian art and
characterised
literature, Pre-Raphael signs ofsuffering trouble and insomnia
to spend more time
nevertheless incorporated
elements
realism in its attention to detail and
its
of 19th ite work country home of his
century and worked there. close friend Williamn Moris
andh

close
observation He died at 1882.
Burchington, Kent on 9th April,