The Oxford Handbook of Victorian Poetry (Oxford Handbooks)

Description

'I am inclined to think that we want new forms . . . as well as thoughts', confessed Elizabeth Barrett to Robert Browning in 1845. The Oxford Handbook of Victorian Poetry provides a closely-read appreciation of the vibrancy and variety of Victorian poetic forms, and attends to poems as both shaped and shaping forces. The volume is divided into four main sections. The first section on 'Form' looks at a few central innovations and engagements--'Rhythm', 'Beat', 'Address', 'Rhyme', 'Diction', 'Syntax', and 'Story'. The second section, 'Literary Landscapes', examines the traditions and writers (from classical times to the present day) that influence and take their bearings from Victorian poets. The third section provides 'Readings' of twenty-three poets by concentrating on particular poems or collections of poems, offering focused, nuanced engagements with the pleasures and challenges offered by particular styles of thinking and writing. The final section, 'The Place of Poetry', conceives and explores 'place' in a range of ways in order to situate Victorian poetry within broader contexts and discussions: the places in which poems were encountered; the poetic representation and embodiment of various sites and spaces; the location of the 'Victorian' alongside other territories and nationalities; and debates about the place - and displacement - of poetry in Victorian society. This Handbook is designed to be not only an essential resource for those interested in Victorian poetry and poetics, but also a landmark publication--a provocative, seminal volume that will offer a lasting contribution to future studies in the area. Cover......Page 1 VICTORIAN POETRY......Page 4 Copyright......Page 5 Acknowledgements......Page 6 Contents......Page 8 Illustrations......Page 12 Notes on Contributors......Page 14 1. Introduction: At Work with Victorian Poetry......Page 22 PART I FORM......Page 38 2. Rhythm......Page 40 3. Beat......Page 57 4. Address......Page 77 5. Rhyme......Page 95 6. Diction......Page 114 7. Syntax......Page 133 8. Story......Page 151 PART II LITERARY LANDSCAPES......Page 168 9. Victorian Poetry and the Classics......Page 170 10. Victorian Medievalisms......Page 187 11. Victorian Miltons......Page 205 12. Victorian Shakespeares......Page 222 13. The Romantic Bequest: Arnold and Others......Page 238 14. American Intersections: Poetry in the United States 1837–1901......Page 256 15. The Poetry of Modern Life: On the Pavement......Page 275 16. Modernist Victorianism......Page 294 17. ‘Dispatched Dark Regions Far Afield and Farther’: Contemporary Poetry and Victorianism......Page 312 PART III READINGS......Page 328 18. Rhyme, Rhythm, Violence: Elizabeth Barrett Browning on Slavery......Page 330 19. Tennyson: Echo and Harmony, Music and Thought......Page 344 20. Browning’s Balancing Acts......Page 358 21. Edward Lear and ‘The fiddlediddlety of representation’......Page 372 22. Crime and Conjecture: Emily Brontë’s Poems......Page 391 23. Arthur Hugh Clough: The Reception and Conception of Amours de Voyage......Page 406 24. Matthew Arnold, Out of Time......Page 421 25. Modern Men and Women: Meredith’s Challenge to Browning......Page 437 26. Raising the Dead: Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s ‘Willowwood’ Sonnets......Page 450 27. Christina Rossetti: Ravens, Cockatoos, and Range......Page 466 28. William Barnes: Views of Field Labour in Poems of Rural Life......Page 481 29. Dreaming Reality: The Poetry of William Morris......Page 496 30. City of Pain: The Poetry of James Thomson......Page 513 31. Augusta Webster: Time and the Lyric Ideal......Page 528 32. Swinburne: The Insuperable Sea......Page 542 33. Hardy’s Imperfections......Page 557 34. Hopkins’s Beauty......Page 570 35. Michael Field (Katharine Bradley & Edith Cooper): Sight and Song and Signifi cant Form......Page 584 36. Alice Meynell, Again and Again......Page 600 37. Housman’s Diffi culty......Page 612 38. Rudyard Kipling Plays the Empire......Page 626 39. Victorian Yeats......Page 642 40. The Passion of Charlotte Mew......Page 661 PART IV THE PLACE OF POETRY......Page 674 41. Marketplaces......Page 676 42. Inner Space: Bodies and Minds......Page 694 43. Outer Space: Physical Science......Page 711 44. City and Street......Page 730 45. In the Artist’s Studio......Page 747 46. On Not Hearing: Victorian Poetry and Music......Page 766 47. Church Going......Page 783 48. Irish Poetry in the Victorian Age......Page 804 49. Empire and Orientalisms......Page 821 50. The Jokes in the Machine: Comic Verse......Page 838 51. ‘The song-bird whose name is Legion’: Bad Verse and its Critics......Page 855 Index......Page 874