1. VICTORIAN POETRY POETRY WAS A LUCRATIVE LITERARY ENTERPRISE DURING THE VICTORI- AN AGE, OFTEN SELLING AS WELL AS THE BEST-SELLING FICTION.

2. VICTORIAN POETRY (cont.) POETRY MATTERED, AND LONG NAR- RATIVE POEMS WERE PARTICULARLY POPULAR.

3. ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON THE MOST POPULAR POET OF HIS DAY & POET LAUREATE AFTER WORDS- WORTH, HIS FAME WAS ENHANCED BY HIS COLORFUL APPEARANCE.

5. TENNYSON (cont.) TENNYSON WROTE IN A DIGNIFIED BLANK VERSE THAT HE WORKED HARD TO DEVELOP, AND HE WAS ESPECIALLY INSPIRED BY THE CLASS- ICAL PAST.

6. TENNYSON (cont.) HIS MIND WAS DRAWN TO STATES OF WEARINESS & MELANCHOLY ISOLA- TION THAT WERE A COUNTERPOINT TO THE ENERGY & DYNAMISM OF THE AGE.

7. ROBERT BROWNING INFLUENCED BY PERCY SHELLEY, AT AGE 14 HE BECAME AN ATHEIST & A LIBERAL, THOUGH HE LATER GREW AWAY FROM BOTH.

9. BROWNING (cont.) EARLY IN HIS CAREER HE WAS MUCH LESS APPRECIATED AS A POET THAN HIS WIFE, ELIZABETH BARRETT, BUT BY THE 1860S HE WAS CONSIDERED THE RIVAL OF TENNYSON.

10. BROWNING (cont.) BROWNING IS ESPECIALLY REGARD- ED FOR HIS INNOVATIONS IN THE DRAMATIC MONOLOGUE, IN WHICH THE WORDS OF A SPEAKER OTHER THAN THE POET MUST BE ANALYZED TO DETERMINE THE POET’S MEAN- ING.

11. BROWNING (cont.) UNLIKE TENNYSON’S SMOOTH, POL- ISHED, ELEVATED VERSE, HIS STYLE IS VERY UN-VICTORIAN, BEING DIS- CORDANT, COLLOQUIAL, & FULL OF UNEXPECTED JUXTAPOSITIONS.

12. BROWNING (cont.) THOUGH SEEMINGLY UNLIKE OTHER VICTORIAN POETS, HE HAS MUCH IN COMMON W/ PROSE WRITERS OF THE DAY IN HIS EMPHASIS ON THE GROTESQUE & ON REVEALING THE COMPLEXITY OF HUMAN MOTIVES & THE WORKINGS OF THE MIND.

13. BROWNING (cont.) PROBABLY HIS MOST VICTORIAN QUALITY IS HIS EXUBERANCE & ENERGY.

14. MATTHEW ARNOLD IN ADDITION TO HIS LITERARY CA- REER, ARNOLD SPENT 35 YRS. AS AN INSPECTOR OF SCHOOLS, WHICH HE SAW AS IMPORTANT WORK DEALING W/ HIS COUNTRY’S GREATEST NEED— A SOUND SYSTEM OF EDUCATION FOR THE MIDDLE CLASS.

16. ARNOLD (cont.) OF HIS 40-YEAR LITERARY CAREER, THE 1850S WERE DEVOTED PRIMARI- LY TO POETRY. OFTEN AT HIS BEST WHEN WRITING ABOUT NATURE, HE USUALLY RECORDS HIS OWN EXPER- IENCES, FEELINGS OF LONELINESS & ISOLATION, SADNESS & DESPAIR, AND SO FORTH.

17. A. E. HOUSMAN WHILE EMPLOYED FOR 10 YRS. AS A PATENT OFFICE CLERK, HOUSMAN STUDIED THE GREEK & ROMAN CLASS- ICS, EVENTUALLY BECOMING A PRO- FESSOR OF LATIN AT CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY.

19. HOUSMAN (cont.) HIS MOST FAMOUS WORK IS A SHROP- SHIRE LAD (1896), A SERIES OF SPARE, NOSTALGIC VERSES EXPLORING SUCH THEMES AS THE BEAUTY OF NATURE, UNREQUITED LOVE, THE TRANSIENCE OF YOUTH, GRIEF, & DEATH.

20. HOUSMAN (cont.) BECAUSE OF ITS NOSTALGIC DEPIC- TION OF BRAVE ENGLISH SOLDIERS, THE BOOK GAINED GREAT POPULAR- ITY DURING WORLD WAR I.

21. GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS A CATHOLIC PRIEST & ONE OF THE GREATEST VICTORIAN POETS, HE IS KNOWN FOR HIS EXPERIMENTS W/ LANGUAGE & RHYME & ESPECIALLY “SPRUNG RHYTHM.”

23. HOPKINS (cont.) IN SPRUNG RHYTHM, LINES HAVE A SET NUMBER OF STRESSES, BUT THE NUMBER & PLACEMENT OF THE UN- STRESSED SYLLABLES VARIES GREAT- LY.

24. HOPKINS (cont.) REGARDED AS A PIONEER OF MOD- ERN LITERATURE, HIS POEMS WERE NOT PUBLISHED UNTIL ALMOST 30 YEARS AFTER HIS DEATH.

25. LEWIS CARROLL THE PSEUDONYM OF CHARLES L. DODGSON: MATHEMATICIAN, ANGLI- CAN DEACON, PIONEERING PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER, & AUTHOR OF ALICE IN WONDERLAND & THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS, WHICH INCLUDED SOME CLASSIC EXAMPLES OF NON- SENSE VERSE.