VICTORIAN POETRY

Poetry became more concerned with SOCIAL REALITY

leading to:

majestic poetry celebrating the MYTH OF THE GREATNESS OF ENGLAND

DISBELIEF and ANTI-MYTH poetry trying to solve the ethical problems raised by progress

IMAGE OF THE POET

a prophet

a philosopher

someone who could

find the romantic side of modern life

be optimist

reconcile faith and progress

OUTSTANDING POETS

Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Gerard Manley Hopkins

Robert Browning

Matthew Arnold

Alfred Tennyson

DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE

LOVE SONNETS

UNCONVENTIONAL RHYTHM

DISSATIFACTION OF HIS TIME

DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE

a narrative poem in which a character addresses one or more non-speaking listeners

similar to Elizabethan SOLILOQUY

the character is experiencing a moment of crisis

the reader infers the poet's thought because he does not coincide with the character

absence of a unique truth (the speaker must be judged only on his own words)

argumentative tone to reveal the character's thoughts

interest in hyman psychology

it opens new possibilities for poetry in the Modern Age

Porphyria's Lover