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Victorian poetry includes British and Irish works from Queen Victoria’s reign, characterized by sentimentality, chivalrous themes, and a shift away from Romanticism. Notable poets include Tennyson, the Brownings, and the Rossettis. The era’s literature is diverse and influenced by industrialization and technological breakthroughs. Victorian poetry is seen as a bridge between Romanticism and Modernism.
Victorian poetry refers to British poetic works composed during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901). It should be noted that Irish works are included in the category of British poetry. The literature of this era is exceptionally diverse, which can in part be explained by the growing industrialization and diverse technological breakthroughs. Therefore, Victorian poetry cannot be said to represent a single artistic movement, but the works of this period show a growth away from Romanticism and foreshadow Modernism.
In general, classical Victorian compositions are exceptionally verse-oriented, display a certain sentimentality, and often play on chivalrous themes. Poets of this time often composed epic poems and dramatic monologues. The sonnet form was also frequently used.
Some Victorian poems reflect the philosophical changes that took place in the 19th century. While Romanticism was concerned with the spirit of man, Victorian poems are sometimes described as more skeptical, clinical and scientifically grounded, or deeply sentimental. The shift from Romanticism to Victorianism is also evidenced in a disdain for free verse and a return to tightly structured and elaborately rhymed poetry.
The poet who most could be described as classically Victorian is Alfred, Lord Tennyson, who was for many years Poet Laureate of England. Famous works by him include The Charge of the Light Brigade and Ulysses. Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, married poets, each produced what are considered outstanding works by critics. His dramatic monologues include My Last Duchess; although her work is extensive, she is probably best known for her collection Songs from the Portuguese. Dante and Christina Rossetti are also often included as authors of classic examples of Victorian poetry.
The works of writers such as William Butler Yeats, Gerard Manley Hopkins and Matthew Arnold reinforce the argument that Victorian poetry is exceptionally diverse. Hopkins adopted classical Romantic themes of spirituality in his work with verse structure and word choice strongly influencing modern poetry. Yeats’s early works are somewhat similar to other Victorians, but his later works are often described as much more textured and more thematically complex. Arnold’s Dover Beach is thought to evoke modern, and especially existentialist, philosophy in its description of lost faith.
In general, the poetic works of this period are held in lower esteem than his novels, which had become an increasingly preferred literary form. Novelists of this period included Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy and the Brontë sisters. Emily Brontë was also a poet and Oscar Wilde, a late writer in this period, composed novels, poems and plays. Yeats also wrote several plays, especially on Irish political themes, and Hardy was a popular poet, as well as writing plays such as Tess of the d’Urbervilles.
Some literary critics believe that the best way to characterize Victorian poetry is to see it as diverse and not possessing a single poetic bent. If anything, it could be argued, it is the bridge from Romanticism to Modernism. In other words, it is the path poets have traveled to get from Wordsworth’s Ode: Intimations of Immortality to TS Eliot’s The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.
