Victorian The Age 1830-1901
Repressed, prudish, kinky argument and persuasion Socioeconomic changes. Consumerist, materialist culture Discourse more accessible. Middle brow conformist culture. Writing in the rise of the middle class Mood of incremental change. Effort to define poetry Rise of the dramatic monologue (Robert Browning) Obsessed with mourning. Rules about dress, notes, post-mortem photos, deathmasks Major historical events 1830- first Reformed Parliament 1832- Reform Bill vote extended to lower middle class. Britain as world power 1837- The Great Exposition glass palace. Show off nat'l pride and power. Scientific advancement. 1859 Darwin's Origin of Species Tennyson, Lord Alfred 1809-1892 Popular. Unstable family life. Intellectual (brotherhood "Apostles") Lady of Shalott Based on Arthurian material. 4 parts Archetype of the traditional female weaver Invocation of the myth. Art as imitation. Mimetic. Desire interrupts the poem. Detached relationship imperiled. Intrusion of desire into activity of representation. Lady in her isolation figure of the artist. Ballad form narrative. Regular rhyme. Refrain. Lady of shallot. Camelot. 9 line stanza: 4 a rhyme. 1 b. 3 c rhyme. 1 b. Ulysses Post Homeric, post heroic, post epic. Distinction from Homeric version of Ulysses Alienation from system in which he finds himself Evocation of images. Unforeseeable future, destination. Effective prolongation. Dramatic monologue a poem in which the voice of a historical figure or fictional character speaks, unmediated by the narrator, to an implied silent audience Blank verse unrhymed iambic pentameter. "Yet all experience is an arch wherethrough/ Gleams that untraveled world whose margin fades/ Forever and forever when I move." "Though much is taken, much abides." "We are not now that strength which in old days/ Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are--/ One equal temper of heroic hearts,/ Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will/ To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield" In Memoriam (see typed notes. Friday 28 september 2007)
The Victorian Age 1830-1901
Mill, John Stuart 1806 1873 Liberalism and utilitarianism Brought up to be utilitarian but ideas applied to liberalism Utilitarianism greatest good for the greatest number. Maximize pleasure. Recovers from breakdown (at 21) by reading Wordsworth What is Poetry? 1833 Mill's concerns as a pol thinker. How poetry affects greater good. Definition of poetry. Theatrical, dramatic, metaphors. Citizens' relationship to theatrical life. See something of self related through play Poetry undertaken in solitude. Necessary condition Discussion of lyric poetry primarily Social critique. Citizens reading & writing poetry creates solitude Poetry creates room for individual Poetry as the natural fruit of solitude and meditation Eloquence natural fruit of intercourse with the world Essay of aesthetics criticizing playing to an audience Values society that makes room for individuality Poetry and eloquence are both alike the expression or utterance of feeling: but, if we may be excused the antithesis, we should say that eloquence is heard; poetry is overheard. Eloquence supposes an audience. The peculiarity of poetry appears to us to lie in the poets utter unconsciousness of a listener. Poetry is feeling confessing itself to itself in moments of solitude, and embodying itself in symbols which are the nearest possible representations of the feeling in the exact shape in which it exists in the poets mind. Eloquence is feeling pouring itself out to other minds, courting their sympathy, or endeavoring to influence their belief, or move them to passion or to action." "A poet may write poetry, not only with the intention of printing it, but for the express purpose of being paid for it. That it should be poetry, being written under such influences, is less probable, not, however, impossible; but no otherwise possible than if he can succeed in excluding from his work every vestige of such lookings-forth into the outward and every-day world, and can express him emotions exactly as he felt them in solitude, or as he is conscious that he should feel them, though they were to remain for ever unuttered, or (at the lowest) as he knows others that feel them in similar circumstances of solitude. But when he turns round, and addresses himself to another person; when the act of utterance is not itself the end, but a means to an end--viz., by the feelings he himself expresses, to work upon the feelings, or upon the belief or the will of another; when the expression of his emotions, or of his thoughts tinged by his emotions, is tinged also by that purpose, by that desire of making an impression upon another mind--then it ceases to be poetry, and becomes eloquence."
The Victorian Age 1830-1901
Browning, Robert 1812-1889 Influence greatest on British and American 20th century poetry. Inspired by Byron. Percy Bysse Shelley Developed dramatic monologue form. Attraction to Italy as site of birthplace of classical forms. Connection to liberal democratic effort of Italians. Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister features grotesque in style. Not smooth/transparent use of latin terms, expressions speaker: monk in Spanish cloister dislikes Brother Lawrence colloquial language. Stanzas evoke difference scenes of monastic life Relevant to Oxford/Tractarian movement in England Criticized Broad Church tendencies of Anglican Church Concerns of Reform Act of 1832 Prominent figure: John Henry Cardinal Newnan (1801-1890) Satirization of religious hypocrisy 8 line tetrameter (4) stanza lyrics broken up into symmetrical stanzas My Last Duchess envious jealous male speaker takes place in Ferrara (Italy). Analogy-collection of art to collection of women objects of exchange Conversation between men about their power and patriarch Threatened hierarchy and masculinity. (smile/smiling) Monologue. Blank verse. Pentameter couplet. Formality befits Duke's status. Stress formality and elegance. Allusion to heroic couplet. "This grew; I gave commands;/ Then all smiles stopped together." The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed's Church satirization of the church and hypocrisy bishop holds on to material life even in preparation for death bishop is speaking to nephews- sons of his mistress ambiguous sensuality to the very thing criticized/analyzed ecphrasis a work of visual art is represented in literary work "And as she died so must we die ourselves,/ And thence ye may perceive the worlds a dream./ Life, how and what is it? As here I lie/ In this state chamber, dying by degrees,/ Hours and long hours in the dead night, I ask/ ,,Do I live, am I dead?" Peace, peace seems all."
The Victorian Age 1830-1901
Arnold, Matthew 1822-1888 Third of the most prominent Victorian poets More known as best Victorian critic 1849- The Strayed Reveler 1851- became school inspector informs social criticism. Sharp critic of provincialism, Philistinism The Scholar Gypsy 1853 derived from well known story by Joseph Granville published 1661 Vanity of Dogmatizing the shepherd= literal shepherd. Participation in the pastoral speaker inscribing himself into the pastoral scene dwelling on landscape/ traces of scholar gypsy imagination follows. Plays on landscape brings past and present together genius- spiritual force that inspires Roman (genius loci) inspiration of a place SG represents sharp contrast to the strange disease of modern life Spirit of SG to remain a spirit mysterious and elusive Functions of Criticism at the Present Time Difference between the critical power and the creative power Gives priority/higher rank to the creative power The relationship between the two differs from age to age Necessity of criticism when creative powers wane Epoch of concentration (criticism) v epoch of expansion (creativity) Stresses French Revolution, aftermath, and what English could learn Protestant Reformation. Renascence. Movements of an intellectual rather than practical French-people of ideas. English-practice (practical) English curiosity denotes triviality. Anti-intellectual disposition. Advocates wider, more cosmopolitan culture--free intellect "<<See book for important quotes>>" Dover Beach Written on the occasion of Arnold's honeymoon Sight of sea offers reflections on current historical contexts Ocean as a metaphor for the passage of time Laments Victorian age. Lack of certitude...Happiness. Speaker: self. Not alone. Wife is audience (note final stanza)