Unit 6-Victorianism

VictorianismAlfred Lord Tennyson’s “Ulysses”

Emily Dickinson’s “A Bird Came Down the Walk”

Thomas Hardy’s “The Darkling Thrush”

Course Title: Poetry Course Code & NO.: LANE 447Course Credit Hrs.: 3 weekly Level: 7th Level Students

Instructor: Dr. Noora Al-MalkiCredits of images and online content are to their original owners.

This Presentation

• Discusses characteristics of Victorian poetry.• Presents a survey of the poetry written by

some of the major Victorian poets (British & American) of the 19th C.

• Focuses on the presentation of themes related philosophical/psychological representation of human nature and nature.

Dr. Noora Al-Malki 2012 [email protected] 2

Victorianism


1830-1900

Victorianism


•rapid and unpredictable change (progress)•economies of Europe expanded and accelerated•emergence of “middle class,” •scientific advancements vs. church law•poverty (working classes)•women had no rights

http://www.english.uwosh.edu/roth/VictorianEngland.htmhttp://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/victorian/welcome.htmhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_era

1830-1900

Victorianism


1830-1900

Victorian Poetry


1830-1900

Romantic poetryVictorian poetry

Escapist – Abstract realistic & down to earth

Interest in nature & imagination utilitarian (practical)

Subject matter: personal – expression of inner emotions

Subject matter: social

Style: simplicity of languages, clarity of images

Style: inventiveness and experimentation with different styles to achieve psychological realism

http://www.bachelorandmaster.com/literaryterms/victorian-poetry.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_literature

Victorian Poets


1830-1900

Alfred Lord Tennyson- Simple economy of verse- reclaimed the past

Thomas Hardy (basically novelist) - key forerunner of the Modernist Movement in literature- created desolate, hopeless worlds where life had very little meaning- questioned the relevance of modern institutions, in particular organized religion- unusual use of language

Robert and Elizabeth Browning (a couple)

Emily Dickinson (American Romantic)

Lord Tennyson


)1809–1892(

Ulysses


Ulysses


First true Dramatic Monologue addressed to an unknown audience

Dramatic monologues are a way of expressing the views of a character and offering the audience greater insight into that character's feelings.

Origins: Greek (Homer’s Iliad & Odyssey) Italian (Dante’s Inferno) Subject: Ulysses (The Greek Odysseus) desire to roam the world and not be put down by his old age. It represents the chivalourous spirit."To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield".

Ulysses


Ulysses

It little profits that an idle king, By this still hearth, among these barren crags, Match'd with an aged wife, I mete and dole Unequal laws unto a savage race, That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me. I cannot rest from travel; I will drink Life to the lees. All times I have enjoy'd Greatly, have suffer'd greatly, both with those That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when Thro' scudding drifts the rainy Hyades Vext the dim sea. I am become a name; For always roaming with a hungry heart Much have I seen and known,-- cities of men And manners, climates, councils, governments,

Ulysses


Myself not least, but honor'd of them all,-- And drunk delight of battle with my peers, Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy. I am a part of all that I have met; Yet all experience is an arch wherethro' Gleams that untravell'd world whose margin fades For ever and for ever when I move. How dull it is to pause, to make an end, To rust unburnish'd, not to shine in use! As tho' to breathe were life! Life piled on life Were all too little, and of one to me Little remains; but every hour is saved >From that eternal silence, something more,

Ulysses


A bringer of new things; and vile it were For some three suns to store and hoard myself, And this gray spirit yearning in desire To follow knowledge like a sinking star, Beyond the utmost bound of human thought. This is my son, mine own Telemachus, to whom I leave the sceptre and the isle,-- Well-loved of me, discerning to fulfill This labor, by slow prudence to make mild A rugged people, and thro' soft degrees Subdue them to the useful and the good. Most blameless is he, centred in the sphere Of common duties, decent not to fail In offices of tenderness, and pay

Ulysses


Meet adoration to my household gods, When I am gone. He works his work, I mine. There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail; There gloom the dark, broad seas. My mariners, Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me,-- That ever with a frolic welcome took The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed Free hearts, free foreheads,-- you and I are old; Old age hath yet his honor and his toil. Death closes all; but something ere the end, Some work of noble note, may yet be done, Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods. The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks;

Ulysses


The long day wanes; the slow moon climbs; the deep Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends. 'T is not too late to seek a newer world. Push off, and sitting well in order smite The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths Of all the western stars, until I die. It may be that the gulfs will wash us down; It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles, And see the great Achilles, whom we knew. Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho' We are not now that strength which in old days Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are,-- One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

Ulysses


1- Trace the representation of the hero in Tennyson’s “Ulysses”. Take note of how the form (Dramatic monologue) helps in uncovering such representation.

2- Write a short note on how “Ulysses” perceives his family.

Emily Dickinson(1830–1886)


-one of the most original 19th Century American poets-She used unconventional broken rhyming meter - She had a peculiar way of using dashes and random capitalization- creative use of metaphor

This Is My Letter To The WorldThis is my letter to the world,That never wrote to me,--The simple news that Nature told,With tender majesty.Her message is committedTo hands I cannot see;For love of her, sweet countrymen,Judge tenderly of me!

In the Garden


A bird came down the walk: He did not know I saw; He bit an angle-worm in halves And ate the fellow, raw.

And then he drank a dew From a convenient grass, And then hopped sidewise to the wall To let a beetle pass.

He glanced with rapid eyesThat hurried all abroad,--They looked like frightened beads, I thought;He stirred his velvet head

In the Garden


Like one in danger; cautious,I offered him a crumb,And he unrolled his feathersAnd rowed him softer home

Than oars divide the ocean, Too silver for a seam, Or butterflies, off banks of noon, Leap, plashless, as they swim.

In the GardenExplication


"bizarre little narrative"

This is the finest example of Dickinson’s nature verse, for it perfectly juxtaposes elements of superficial gentility against the inner barbarity that characterizes the workings of the world. The narrator chances to see a bird walking along a pathway, but just as the scene appears perfect, the bird seizes upon a worm, bites it in two, and devours it. The bird drinks some dew on nearby grass (note the alternate for a drinking “glass”), then graciously steps aside, right to a wall, to allow a beetle to pass.

In the GardenExplication


The bird, like one fearful of being caught in an unacceptable action, glances around quickly with darting eyes.“Cautious” describes both the demeanor of the bird and that of the observing narrator. Both feel threatened, the bird of the possible consequences of its savagery, the narrator because she is next on the bird’s path. She “offered him a Crumb,” not because she admires the bird but out of fear and expediency. The bird, sensing that it has escaped any potentially harmful consequences for what it has done, struts a bit as “he unrolled his feathers” and “rowed him softer home—.” Ironically, its walk is too casual, softer than oars dividing a seamless ocean or butterflies leaping into noon’s banks, all without a splash. Behind its soft, charming, and genteel facade, nature is menacing, and its hypocritical attempts to conceal its barbarism make it more frightening.http://salempress.com/store/pdfs/dickinson.pdf

Thomas Hardy1840-1928


-Novelist & poet- ironic poems- nature as setting and as inspiration for poetry

Darkling Thrush


I leant upon a coppice gate When Frost was spectre-gray, And Winter's dregs made desolate The weakening eye of day. The tangled bine-stems scored the sky Like strings of broken lyres, And all mankind that haunted nigh Had sought their household fires.

The land's sharp features seemed to be The Century's corpse outleant, His crypt the cloudy canopy, The wind his death-lament. The ancient pulse of germ and birth Was shrunken hard and dry, And every spirit upon earth Seemed fervourless as I.

Darkling Thrush


At once a voice arose among The bleak twigs overhead In a full-hearted evensong Of joy illimited; An aged thrush, frail, gaunt, and small, In blast-beruffled plume, Had chosen thus to fling his soul Upon the growing gloom.

So little cause for carolings Of such ecstatic sound Was written on terrestrial things Afar or nigh around, That I could think there trembled through His happy good-night air Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew And I was unaware.

Darkling Thrush


- "The Darkling Thrush" was originally called "The Century's End, 1900” because it was written on the Eve of the 20th C.

-It describes an encounter with a frail bird which sings and awakens the speaker to new possibilities.

-Apparently, the speaker is an aged and tired persona.

-The setting of the poem during winter also testifies to the old, dying age.

- Thematically, the poem explores the signs of progress into the 20th C which were frightening as well as promising for Hardy.

“In the Garden” VS. “The Darkling Thrush”


Compare and contrast the representation of nature in Dickinson’s “In the Garden” and Hardy’s “The Darkling Thrush”

Unit 6-Victorianism

Education

noora almalkicredits

poetry course code

human nature

victorian poets1830

lord tennyson18921809

course credit

course title

human thought