English Literature

Question: What are the main characteristics of Victorian poetry? Why Tennyson called as the Pre-romantic poet of Victorian age?

Answer: The Victorian Age is one of the most important ages in the history of English literature. The age is mainly depends on novels but in the age there are some significant poetry has been established. Alfred lord Tennyson is the most important figure among other Victorian poets. He is also known as the Pre-romantic poet of Victorian age. Now we discuss about the main features of Victorian poetry.

The most important and obvious characteristic of Victorian Poetry was the use of sensory elements. Most of Victorian Poets used imagery and the senses to convey the scenes of struggles between Religion and Science, and ideas about Nature and Romance, which transport the readers into the minds and hearts of the people of the Victorian age, even today. Lord Alfred Tennyson lives up to this expected characteristic in most of his works. One notable example is the poem Mariana, in which Tennyson writes.

Another characteristic was the sentimentality. Victorian Poets wrote about Bohemian ideas and furthered the imaginings of the Romantic Poets. Poets like Emily Bronte, Lord Alfred Tennyson prominently used sentimentality in their poems.

During the Victorian era, however, there was a lot of radical social change and as such, many poets of this time didn't like the romanticized version of society. The Victorian poetry is, thus, divided into two main groups of poetry: The High Victorian Poetry and The Pre-Raphaelite Poetry. Tennyson's "Song: 'The winds, as at their hour of birth" and Browning's "Fra Lippa Lippi" is the example of high Victorian poetry. "By the North Sea" by Chalres Swinburne is a example of Pre-Raphealite poetry.

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