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VICTORIAN POETRY. POETRY WAS A LUCRATIVE LITERARY ENTERPRISE DURING THE VICTORI-AN AGE, OFTEN SELLING AS WELL AS THE BEST-SELLING FICTION. VICTORIAN POETRY (cont.). POETRY MATTERED, AND LONG NAR-RATIVE POEMS WERE PARTICULARLY POPULAR. ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON.
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VICTORIAN POETRY • POETRY WAS A LUCRATIVE LITERARY ENTERPRISE DURING THE VICTORI-AN AGE, OFTEN SELLING AS WELL AS THE BEST-SELLING FICTION.
VICTORIAN POETRY (cont.) • POETRY MATTERED, AND LONG NAR-RATIVE POEMS WERE PARTICULARLY POPULAR.
ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON • THE MOST POPULAR POET OF HIS DAY & POET LAUREATE AFTER WORDS-WORTH, HIS FAME WAS ENHANCED BY HIS COLORFUL APPEARANCE.
TENNYSON (cont.) • TENNYSON WROTE IN A DIGNIFIED BLANK VERSE THAT HE WORKED HARD TO DEVELOP, AND HE WAS ESPECIALLY INSPIRED BY THE CLASS-ICAL PAST.
TENNYSON (cont.) • HIS MIND WAS DRAWN TO STATES OF WEARINESS & MELANCHOLY ISOLA-TION THAT WERE A COUNTERPOINT TO THE ENERGY & DYNAMISM OF THE AGE.
ROBERT BROWNING • INFLUENCED BY PERCY SHELLEY, AT AGE 14 HE BECAME AN ATHEIST & A LIBERAL, THOUGH HE LATER GREW AWAY FROM BOTH.
BROWNING (cont.) • EARLY IN HIS CAREER HE WAS MUCH LESS APPRECIATED AS A POET THAN HIS WIFE, ELIZABETH BARRETT, BUT BY THE 1860S HE WAS CONSIDERED THE RIVAL OF TENNYSON.
BROWNING (cont.) • BROWNING IS ESPECIALLY REGARD- ED FOR HIS INNOVATIONS IN THE DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE, IN WHICH THE WORDS OF A SPEAKER OTHER THAN THE POET MUST BE ANALYZED TO DETERMINE THE POET’S MEAN-ING.
BROWNING (cont.) • UNLIKE TENNYSON’S SMOOTH, POL-ISHED, ELEVATED VERSE, HIS STYLE IS VERY UN-VICTORIAN, BEING DIS-CORDANT, COLLOQUIAL, & FULL OF UNEXPECTED JUXTAPOSITIONS.
BROWNING (cont.) • THOUGH SEEMINGLY UNLIKE OTHER VICTORIAN POETS, HE HAS MUCH IN COMMON W/ PROSE WRITERS OF THE DAY IN HIS EMPHASIS ON THE GROTESQUE & ON REVEALING THE COMPLEXITY OF HUMAN MOTIVES & THE WORKINGS OF THE MIND.
BROWNING (cont.) • PROBABLY HIS MOST VICTORIAN QUALITY IS HIS EXUBERANCE & ENERGY.
MATTHEW ARNOLD • IN ADDITION TO HIS LITERARY CA-REER, ARNOLD SPENT 35 YRS. AS AN INSPECTOR OF SCHOOLS, WHICH HE SAW AS IMPORTANT WORK DEALING W/ HIS COUNTRY’S GREATEST NEED—A SOUND SYSTEM OF EDUCATION FOR THE MIDDLE CLASS.
ARNOLD (cont.) • OF HIS 40-YEAR LITERARY CAREER, THE 1850S WERE DEVOTED PRIMARI-LY TO POETRY. OFTEN AT HIS BEST WHEN WRITING ABOUT NATURE, HE USUALLY RECORDS HIS OWN EXPER-IENCES, FEELINGS OF LONELINESS & ISOLATION, SADNESS & DESPAIR, AND SO FORTH.
A. E. HOUSMAN • WHILE EMPLOYED FOR 10 YRS. AS A PATENT OFFICE CLERK, HOUSMAN STUDIED THE GREEK & ROMAN CLASS-ICS, EVENTUALLY BECOMING A PRO-FESSOR OF LATIN AT CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY.
HOUSMAN (cont.) • HIS MOST FAMOUS WORK IS A SHROP-SHIRE LAD (1896), A SERIES OF SPARE, NOSTALGIC VERSES EXPLORING SUCH THEMES AS THE BEAUTY OF NATURE, UNREQUITED LOVE, THE TRANSIENCE OF YOUTH, GRIEF, & DEATH.
HOUSMAN (cont.) • BECAUSE OF ITS NOSTALGIC DEPIC-TION OF BRAVE ENGLISH SOLDIERS, THE BOOK GAINED GREAT POPULAR-ITY DURING WORLD WAR I.
GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS • A CATHOLIC PRIEST & ONE OF THE GREATEST VICTORIAN POETS, HE IS KNOWN FOR HIS EXPERIMENTS W/ LANGUAGE & RHYME & ESPECIALLY “SPRUNG RHYTHM.”
HOPKINS (cont.) • IN SPRUNG RHYTHM, LINES HAVE A SET NUMBER OF STRESSES, BUT THE NUMBER & PLACEMENT OF THE UN- STRESSED SYLLABLES VARIES GREAT-LY.
HOPKINS (cont.) • REGARDED AS A PIONEER OF MOD-ERN LITERATURE, HIS POEMS WERE NOT PUBLISHED UNTIL ALMOST 30 YEARS AFTER HIS DEATH.
LEWIS CARROLL • THE PSEUDONYM OF CHARLES L. DODGSON: MATHEMATICIAN, ANGLI-CAN DEACON, PIONEERING PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER, & AUTHOR OF ALICE IN WONDERLAND & THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS, WHICH INCLUDED SOME CLASSIC EXAMPLES OF NON-SENSE VERSE.
