1st Edition

The Major Victorian Poets: Reconsiderations (Routledge Revivals)

By Isobel Armstrong Copyright 1969
    334 Pages
    by Routledge

    346 Pages
    by Routledge

    First published in 1969, this edition collection brings together a series of essays offering a  re-evaluation of Victorian poetry in the light of early 20th Century criticism. The essays in this collection concentrate upon the poets whose reputations suffered from the great redirection of energy in English criticism initiated in this century by Eliot, Richards and Leavis. What theses poets wrote about, the values they expressed, the form of the poems, the language they used, all these were examined and found wanting in some radical way. One of the results of this criticism was the renewal of interest in metaphysical and eighteenth-century poetry and corresponding ebb of enthusiasm for Romantic poetry and for Victorian poetry in particular. Most of the essays in this book take as their starting point questions raised by the debate on Victorian poetry, both earlier in this century and in the more recent past. There are essays on the poetry of Tennyson, Browning and Arnold, on that of Clough, who until recently has been neglected, and Hopkins, because of, rather than in spite of, the fact that he is usually considered to be a modern poet. The volume is especially valuable in that it will give a clearer understanding of the nature of Victorian poetry, concentrating as it does on those areas of a poet’s work where critical discussion seems most necessary.

    1. Patterns of Morbidity: Repetition in Tennyson’s Poetry Martin Dodsworth  2. Feminism and Femininity in The Princess Bernard Bergonzi  3. Matter-Moulded Forms of Speech: Tennyson’s Use of Language in In Memoriam Alan Sinfield  4. The Lyric Structure of Tennyson’s Maud A. S. Byatt  5. Browning and the ‘Grotesque’ Style Isobel Armstrong  6. The Importance of Sordello Michael Mason  7. Browning’s ‘Modernity’: The Ring and the Book, and Relativism John Killham  8. The Ring and the Book: The Uses of Prolixity Isobel Armstrong  9. Matthew Arnold and the Passage of Time: A Study of The Scholar-Gipsy and Thyrsis Philip Drew  10. The Importance of Arnold’s Merope Gabriel Pearson  11. Clough’s Self-Consciousness Barbara Hardy  12. Amours de Voyage: The Aqueous Poem John Goode  13. G. M. Hopkins: Victorian A. R. Jones

    Biography

    Isobel Armstrong