Romanticism in Victorian Age
Our text makes the claim that “all the Victorian poets show the strong influence of the Romantics, but they cannot sustain the confidence that the Romantics felt in the power of the imagination” (Greenblatt, 2012, p.1038). Exactly how is this observation reflected in the assigned readings from this week and last week? In other words, how do Victorian writers depart from Romanticism to promote their own philosophical tenants?
Examples are given to show that the Victorians rewrite lines of the Romantics but from a “distance.” Are there any examples where the Victorian poets get closer to a subject than a Romantic writer ventured toward?
Your initial post should be at least 500 words in length. Support your claims with examples from required material(s) and scholarly resources, and properly cite any references.
References
Bruns, G. L. (1975, October). The formal nature of Victorian thinking. PMLA, 90(5), 904-918. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/
Fallis, R. (1976). Yeats and the reinterpretation of Victorian poetry. Victorian Poetry, 14(2), 89-100. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org//
Rowlinson, M. (2005). Theory of Victorian studies: Anachronism and self-reflexivity. Victorian Studies, 47(2), 241-252. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/
Greenblatt, S., et al. (Eds.). (2012). The Norton anthology of English literature (9th ed., Vol.2). New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
The Victorian Age-
Elizabeth Barrett Browning-
“The Cry of the Children”
“Sonnets of the Portuguese”
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
“The Lady of Shalott”
“The Lotos-Eaters”
Robert Browning-
“Porphyria’s Lover”
“My Last Duchess”
Victorian Issues
Rudyard Kipling-
“The White Man’s Burden”
