How is love presented in Victorian Love Poetry

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Ben Benmore

How Is Love Presented In Victorian Love Poetry

     Victorian poems show love to be very strong and overpowering. This is expressed in many different ways, they include negative imagery and, on the other hand, positive imagery. In Victorian times, there was a much suppressed attitude. This was because Queen Victoria was in mourning from the death of her husband, Albert, due to typhoid. The country became very solemn from this so people started to express their feelings through poetry. The country had strong morals on issues such as family values, polite manners and religion. The characteristics of Victorian values included thrift, hard work and morals, with a love of home and its comforts. Romance and realism, sentiment and common sense were a Victorians view of the family.

     The studied poems are “First Love” by John Clare, “How Do I Love Thee?” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “A Birthday” by Christina Rossetti, “A Woman to her Lover” by Christina Walsh and “When We Two Parted” by Lord Byron. John Clare describes his first ever experience of romantic love, Elizabeth Barrett Browning describes all the different ways in which she loves someone, Christina Rossetti describes romantic love, Christina Walsh describes how love has made her miserable and what her lover can do to make it better and, unlike Christina Rossetti, Lord Byron describes love very negatively. Different events in the poet’s lives might have influenced the way in which they write about love. In John Clare’s early adult years, whilst working as a pot-boy in a public house, he fell in love with a local farmer’s daughter, Mary Joyce. Her father forbade her from ever meeting him and this could have influenced the way he wrote about love as he describes these first feelings in “First Love”. He could have written other poems about the fact that he was not allowed to meet her and questioned the reasons that they were not allowed to meet. When Elizabeth Barrett met Robert Browning, their courtship and marriage was carried out secretly, as was the composition of her poems. This may have influenced the way she wrote about love because of her personal experiences. Christina Rossetti had a very sad life; her family had financial difficulties when born due to her father’s deteriorating mental and physical health and she suffered a nervous breakdown at 14 followed by bouts of depression. During this time her, her mother and sister were intrigued by the Anglo-Catholic movement, this played a large part in her life as in her late teens she became engaged to James Collinson and later Charles Cayley, these relationships both ended due to religious reasons and she lived with her mother all her life. This could have contributed to the influence and the way she wrote about love because of her close family and traumatic past. While at Burgage Manor with his mother, Byron cultivated several important friendships with Elizabeth Pigot and her brother, John. Then, at College, he fell deeply in love with a fifteen year old choirboy, John Edleston; he later died and in his memory composed a series of elegies, Thyrza. He had many affairs after college: with Nicolò Giraud, a boy who taught him Italian, Lady Caroline Lamb, with whom he broke off the relationship, his half-sister, Augusta Leigh and  Lady Caroline’s cousin, Anna Isabella Milbanke to name a few. These facts could all have influenced his way to write about love, because of his extravagant ways and scandalous affairs.

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    Attitudes towards love and relationships were very different from today. Victorian society was very respectful and etiquette was important. It was necessary for a single woman to know who she could and couldn’t speak to; a proper introduction was usual and it was not polite to dance with a complete stranger. Young ladies were constantly chaperoned. To be seen in public alone with a man who was not family would most certainly ruin her reputation. Gentlemen had to decide whether or not they could smoke or have a glass of sherry in front of a lady. Also whether ...

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