THE VICTORIAN POETS

1
THE VICTORIAN POETS

• Paradox and Progress
• 1832-1901

2
THE VICTORIAN POETS

• Period of growth and change, domestic reform
• lives of working class improved
• Reform Bill of 1832
• prosperous times 1848-1870
• growing literacy (compulsory education)
• Queen Victoria 1837-1901

3
Victorian Society

• Stuffy, prudish reputation (Hello, Freud! ?)
• Elaborate code of respectability, decorum and
  morality
• Response to political turmoil of previous decades
• Believed life would be improved if it were more
  refined and rationally organizedPROGRESS
• Traditional gender roles
• Great emphasis on personal relationships
  (marriage)

4
Poetic concepts

• Realism capture every day life
• focused on effects of Industrial Revolution
• social problems brought to public attention
• Psychological Realism inner realities of the
  mind
• a blend of Romanticism and realism
• Naturalism nature and society are indifferent to
  human suffering
• Loved heroic, chivalrous tales of honor
• reclaiming of the past

5
CENTRAL POETS

• Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)
• Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
• Robert Browning (1812-1889)
• Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)
• Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)
• Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)