Reading Victorian Poetry

Reading Victorian Poetry “Richard Cronin’s exceptionally fine book carries out just what its title promises – reading. The pleasure of his adroit, meticulously imaginative insights into verbal and metrical effects is constant … One of the best general readings of Victorian poetry in the last ten years.” Victorian Studies “Reading Victorian Poetry will make an excellent introduction to Victorian poetry and gives a good account of a number of key issues.” English Studies Reading Victorian Poetry offers close readings of poems from the Victorian era, carefully selected by the author to reflect the breadth and diversity of nineteenth-century poetry. Richard Cronin’s outstanding consideration of a wide range of poets reflects the unusual diversity of Victorian poetry, which includes, amongst others, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Christina Rossetti, D.G. Rossetti, and Gerard Manley Hopkins. The book investigates key concerns of the era in which poetry was ousted by the novel from the culturally central position that it had enjoyed for centuries. The result is an important and exciting contribution to the understanding of nineteenth-century poetry, and a crucial resource for anyone interested in Victorian literature.

Acknowledgments ix 1 Introduction: The Victorian Poetry Palace 1 2 The Divided Self and the Dramatic Monologue 27 3 Victorian Metrics 65 4 Short Poems, Long Poems and the Victorian Sonnet Sequence 89 5 Victorian Poetry and Translation 114 6 Victorian Poetry and Life 141 7 Poetry and Religion 174 8 Conclusion: The 1890s 196 Bibliography 220 Index 229