Back to: History of English Literature All Ages – Summary & Notes
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Early Victorian Poets
The Early Victorian Poetry or the High School Poetry does not have the topic “The Love and Worship of Nature” as the Romantics had in their poetry. It is because the Romantics loved nature and it was shown through their poems adoring and blessing nature as if it were God. Early Victorian Poets are as follows:
- Robert Browning: He was the lover of music. He was the first to write Dramatic Monologue. He was an undying optimist. His important works are My Last Duchess, A Death to the Desert, Men and Women, The Last Ride Together etc.
- Lord Alfred Tennyson: Tennyson stood as the summit of poetry in England. For nearly half a century, he was not only a man and a poet but also the voice of people, expressing their doubt and faith, grief and triumph in his works. His important poems are The Princess, The May Queen, Crossing the Bar etc.
- Mathew Arnold: He was a poet as well as a critic. His important works are Rugby Chapel, Thyrsis, Scholar Gypsy, Dover Beach, Soharab and Rustom, Shakespeare (A Sonnet) etc.
- Arthur Hugh Clough: He is famous for his poem The City of Dreadful Night.
- Edward Fitzgerald: He is mainly famous for his verse translation of Persian work Rubaiyat of Umar Khayyam. His pessimism was inherent in his acceptance of life’s purposelessness.
Later Victorian Poets
The Pre-Rephaelite was a movement. It began in 1848 A.D. by three painters including D.B. Rossetti. It aimed at a return to older principles in painting, but as Rossetti and other followers like William Morris and Swinburne were also gifted writers, they aimed to bring a change in a literary manner as well.
Female Poets
One of the important features of the Victorian Period is the interest of female poets in Literature. Although there were few female poets before, yet males were the major composers of this genre. Important Victorian Poets include Elizabeth Browning (wife of Robert Browing), Christina Rossetti, and the Bronte sisters etc
