Victorian Poetry


Victorian poetry refers to the verses composed during the region of Queen Victoria in English (1837-1901). This period was marked by tremendous cultural upheaval. There were a drastic change and development in the form of literature, art and music. Although Victorian Poetry was quite different from that of the preceding era, yet there were some similarities that existed between the two periods.

  1. Questioning the Established Rule of Church
  2. Interest in myths and mysteries.
  3. Scepticism and Doubtfulness.
                      Characteristics
                                 

Realism

The Victorian Poetry was quite realistic in nature and quite less idealised as compared to the Romanic Poets who were idealists and believed in Art for the Art Sake. Nature, that was everything for the Romantics lost that idealised position in the Victorian era and became just a source of leisure and inspiration for the poets

Pessimism

As already discussed, Victorians were quite realistic and thus were more concerned about the reality rather than the ideal world. Due to the industrial revolution and advancement in science and technology, there was a drastic increase in the city population that gave rise to slums, poverty, unemployment, corruption diseases, deaths etc.

Questioning to God

It was an important feature of Victorian poetry. The development of empirical science, rationalism and radicalism led the people to give up religious thoughts and be more sceptic. Moreover, corruption in the Church, defining the morality of Priests, etc also led the people to question the religious institutions.

Sense of Responsibility

The Romantics believed in “return in nature”. A number of the Romantics did not like the city life and instead of giving voice to the victims of industrialisation, they left the city life. On the other hand, Victoria poets took the responsibility of social reform and gave voice to the commoners by living with them.

Morality

Though morality saw a steep decline in the Victorian Era, a number of poets tried to retain it by encouraging the people to be honest and noble.


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