Poetry Styles of the Victorian Period

The Victorian Period (1833-1901) brought about the expansion of Britain’s booming economy. In Britain, around the beginning of the Victorian Period, the consequence of industrialism brought much unrest across the land. The factories were notorious for their horrible working conditions, and the common workers’ housing was atrocious. Victorians were struggling with religious, philosophical, and social ramifications (854-856). The complex background to what was happening in Britain at the time led to a new and interesting literature period.

There happened to be three influential types of literature during the Victorian Period. The first of these types was Realism. “When Victorian writers confronted the rapid technological and social changes amidst which they lived . . .” (857) realism evolved. Realism centered on “ordinary people facing the day-to-day problems of life, and an emphasis that reflected the trend toward democracy and the growing middle-class audience for literature” (857). The second type of literature that began to show up in the Victorian Period was Naturalism. Naturalism “sought to put the spirit of scientific observation to literary use” (857) by including lots of details into literary works. This literature type appeared to contradict Romanticism and painted “nature as harsh and indifferent to the human suffering it caused” (857). Thirdly, the Victorian Period brought about the Pre-Raphaelites literature. Pre-Raphaelites didn’t accept “real” life and instead found spiritual inspiration in “medieval Italian art, . . . before the time of the painter Raphael (1483-1520)” (858).

The Victorian Period of literature brought about many poets and poems. The poetry of the Victorian Period mostly dealt with...

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...assing on my daily trot. I am sorry, but I quite forgot It was your resting-place” (974). This poem dealt with the Realism of the Victorian Period because this was an ordinary person after death wondering what ordinary person was digging on her grave. There was nothing special about the people in this poem and this was sort of a figurative “day-to day” problem because people do wonder about who would think about them after they die. “Ah, Are You Digging on My Grave” also had Naturalism aspects in it. Nature is portrayed as harsh and indifferent about human suffering in this poem because the dog gave no care about its owner and only cared about its bone.

Overall the Victorian Period was an interesting literary portion of time. It brought about many works of poetry that deal with characteristics of Realism and Naturalism in the authors’ own respective ways.