Victorian Poetry Introduction PDF

INTRODUCTION TO VICTORIAN POETRY WEEK VIII Dr. Zübeyir SAVAŞ FLOW OF THE LESSON ➡“THE LOST BOWER” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning ➡“THE DESERTED GARDEN” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning ➡GENDER RELATIONS IN VICTORIAN ENGLAND  ELIZABETH BAR...

INTRODUCTION TO VICTORIAN POETRY WEEK VIII Dr. Zübeyir SAVAŞ FLOW OF THE LESSON ➡“THE LOST BOWER” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning ➡“THE DESERTED GARDEN” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning ➡GENDER RELATIONS IN VICTORIAN ENGLAND  ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING ➡Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) is an inspiring figure who made a name for herself in poetry despite not having a formal education or being included in the traditional literary circles of her time. She was deeply passionate about reading and learning. Although her father did not believe in conventional schooling for girls, he allowed her to join her brother Edward’s lessons with his tutor, Mr. McSwiney. Because of this, Elizabeth learned many languages, including Greek, Latin, Hebrew, French, German, Italian, and Portuguese, all on her own without attending a regular school. Her determination and love for knowledge helped her carve out a significant place in the world of poetry.  ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING ➡In the Victorian era, women often faced pressure and restrictions from a male-dominated society, making it difficult to express their thoughts and creativity. Despite these challenges, many women sought to break free from these traditions and show that being a poet is not determined by gender. They believed that anyone, regardless of whether they were male or female, could write beautifully. To support this idea, these women worked to redefine what it meant to be a woman, expressing their unique voices and viewpoints through the characters and themes in their poems.  ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING ➡This portrait features an enthusiastic maid and explores the life of a woman who faced significant challenges due to a spinal injury and breathing problems, which kept her bedridden for a long time. Despite these obstacles, she managed to get married and give birth to a child. The publication of her poetry collections, "Seraphim and Other Poems" in 1838, followed by "Poems of 1844" six years later, reflected her creativity during a difficult period of illness. Elizabeth Barrett Browning, the poet, showcased her unique voice and individuality in the literary world during this time. ➡One of her earlier poems, "The Deserted Garden," was part of the first collection, while "The Lost Bower," from the second collection, builds on themes from the first poem. Both works highlight her desire to pursue a career as a poet while navigating the expectations placed on women. In these poems, nature is not just a backdrop but a powerful tool for expressing her personal will and aspirations.  ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING ➡"The Deserted Garden," published in 1838 in a collection called "Seraphim and Other Poems," is related to another poem titled "The Lost Bower." Both poems revolve around the idea of finding a hidden, peaceful place. In "The Lost Bower," the setting is inspired by the lovely home where the poet Elizabeth Barrett spent her childhood. This spot is in the woods near her family's garden, set against the beautiful Malvern Hills.  ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING ➡“When the little Elizabeth was some three years of age, the family removed to Hope End, where all her thoughtful childhood was passed. Hope End was in a pleasant corner of Herefordshire and the fantastic house, with its mimic domes and minarets, stood embowered in a grove of gnarled oaks like an Eastern palace set in the rural fields of England [...] At fifteen her sensitive nature seemed to have drunk deeply of the exquisite romance of the scenes in which she lived. At that age she had written verse upon which already was the true stamp of genius. (Lilian Whiting 4-5)  ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING ➡The quietness of her life, combined with the limitations of her health and the calm environment of the countryside, allowed her to spend a long time studying without interruptions. Even though her family moved from their home in Hope End to Sidmouth in 1832 and then to London in 1835, the memories of the beautiful Herefordshire landscape remained powerful in her mind.  “THE LOST BOWER” and “THE DESERTED GARDEN” Bower (noun): a pleasant place in the shade under trees or climbing plants in a wood or garden/ yard ➡The poem “The Lost Bower” is about a child discovering a secret bower. At this point, the two keywords are a child, which gives a hint about the setting, and a bower, which functions as a metaphor for the poetic world. The description of the environment in the first place is a beautiful piece of nature that can give a poet a chance to imagine, create and write. It is “green the land” where “The sheep are cropping/ The slant grass and daises pale/ And five apple-tress stand dropping” (VII). With the hope of becoming a poet, the child turns her focal point from the beauty of nature to what it can offer herself as a poetic inspiration. While it can provide the male ones with beautiful fairies as an oracle, she wonders what she can find as a female who wishes on a poetic quest. As stated in the poem, it gives Bond Rinaldo a chance to meet her lovely lady Rosalinda, and Chaucer imagines “ladies fair and fell” (XIV-XV). Thus, the child tries to find the footsteps of the “old singers” for “courage from their songs” (XVI) to struggle with the challenges appearing on her way to the realm of poetry:  “THE LOST BOWER” and “THE DESERTED GARDEN” ➡Oh, a lady might have come there, Hooded fairly like her hawk, With a book or lute in summer, And a hope of a sweeter talk,- Listening less to her own music than for footsteps on the walk! (XXII)  “THE LOST BOWER” and “THE DESERTED GARDEN” ➡She questions, “Where is no foot of human creature/ How could reach a human hand?/ And if this be work of nature/ Why has nature turned so bland” (XXXI). However, she soon realises that she is all alone; there is no one in the bower and there is no female footstep on the way. As Deborah Byrd informs and conveys, Barrett Browning herself believed that England had produced no “poetess before Joanna Baillie (1762-1851) - poetess in the true sense,” and she regarded no nineteenth-century woman poet as highly as she did Wordsworth, Byron, Browning and Tennyson. (Byrd 203)  “THE LOST BOWER” and “THE DESERTED GARDEN” ➡Her desire for high cultural visibility as a woman poet and for recognition as a working intellectual appears in her decision to be the “fairy” of the bower when she understands that the ‘bower’ of poetry is a “lost” and there is no muse for a woman poet: Henceforth, I will be the fairy Of this bower built by one; I will go there sad or merry, With each morning’s benison, And the birds shall be my harpers in the dream-hall I have won. (XLIX)  “THE LOST BOWER” and “THE DESERTED GARDEN” ➡Nevertheless, “The next morning, all had vanished” (L). The reason for the disappearance of the bower can be interpreted as the doubled role of the women poets. She wished to embody two different roles at once: to be both the one who inspires poetry and the one who is inspired by it, both the lover and the one being loved, both the poet creating the words and the muse that provides the ideas. She wanted to be both the brave hero on a quest and the magical figure the hero was searching for. In the end, however, she struggles to truly fulfil these dual roles, leading to a sense of loss in the way the traditional tale expects her to be both.  “THE LOST BOWER” and “THE DESERTED GARDEN” ➡In a nutshell, she is afraid that in the relationship between the poet and nature central to Romanticism, a woman can take only female nature's role, not the poet’s. From this point of view, the poem stands as the rejection of a female poet who is obliged to imitate their male counterparts and be devoid of poetic inspiration. For a female poet whose aim is to replace her place from a beautiful object to a creative subject, the bower is closed and does not even exist: Till another open for me In God’s Eden-land unknown, With an angel at the doorway, White with gazing at his Throne; And a saint’s voice in the palm trees, singing- ‘All is lost...and won!’ (LXXIV)  “THE LOST BOWER” and “THE DESERTED GARDEN” ➡Since no one can play two roles simultaneously, the character is not included in the bower, a unique imaginary space for creating poetry. However, she still holds onto her desire to be a poet. In summary, one of the critical ways Barrett Browning expresses and examines her changing thoughts and emotions about how women relate to the world of poetry is through her writing about nature.  “THE LOST BOWER” and “THE DESERTED GARDEN” ➡“Barrett Browning was fascinated by the mysteries of consciousness and the power of the mind in meditation [...] As much as the young Robert Browning and more than Tennyson, Elizabeth Barrett was drawn to major Romantic poetical forms such as the lyrical drama and the visionary poem incorporating an internalized quest romance. And more than either of the two poets she clearly regarded as her greatest rivals; her writings reflect the continuing attraction of Romantic Prometheanism, the Romantic cult of transcendent artistic genius, Romantic tropes of the sublime and the revisionary struggle with Milton and Dante. Barrett Browning clearly subscribed to many Romantic ideologies, as McGann and others have defined them. But she was also led to question many of these, given the critical distance fostered by her gender” (Stone 10-11).  “THE LOST BOWER” and “THE DESERTED GARDEN” ➡Despite facing many challenges because of her gender, she chose to embrace her identity as a woman rather than pretending to be a man. However, she never appreciated being labelled a "woman poet" by her critics; instead, she preferred to be recognized simply as a poet of faith. By navigating the male-dominated world of poetry, she forged a unique voice and path for future generations of female poets, something she felt was lacking during her own journey.  IN A NUTSHELL “THE LOST BOWER” ➡Themes In Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s poem “The Lost Bower,” a central theme is the feeling of nostalgia, or a deep longing for the past. The speaker looks back on her childhood and fondly remembers a special place called the bower, which represents joy and a safe escape from the difficulties of life. As she grows older, she realises that this beloved place is gone and that she can never return to those happy times. The poem captures this feeling of nostalgia through vivid images, like the “roses of the bower” and the “dewy grass,” which bring back memories of that pleasant time. Another critical theme in the poem is about loss and how everything changes. The speaker feels sad as she acknowledges that nothing in life stays the same forever. Just like the bower, everything is affected by the passage of time and eventually fades away. This sense of loss is expressed through the poem's language and tone, conveying sadness and yearning. Overall, “The Lost Bower” is a touching poem that reflects on the feelings of nostalgia, the pain of loss, and how time changes everything.  IN A NUTSHELL “THE DESERTED GARDEN” ➡Themes In "The Deserted Garden," Browning explores the ideas of childhood and memories. The poem begins with the speaker reflecting on her younger days. She remembers wandering freely in an empty garden, enjoying the simple pleasures of life without any adult responsibilities. In that particular place, she could read, drink from a clear spring, and admire the blooming flowers around her. Although she often thought about her past as a girl, she did not feel sad about it then. Now that she has grown up, she longs to return to that joyful time and the person she used to be. In that garden, she felt delighted and closer to a sense of peace than she realised.  FOR FURTHER READING ADAMS, Ruth. The Poetical Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1974. BYRD, Deborah. “Combating an Alien Tyranny: Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Evolution as s Feminist Poet.” Critical Essays on Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Ed. Sandra Donaldson. New York: G. K. Hall, 1999. MAGILL, N. Frank. Great Women Writers. London: Salem Press, 1994. Print. MERMIN, Dorothy. “Elizabeth Barrett Browning through 1844: Becoming a Woman Poet.” Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, vol. 26, Autumn, 1986. WHITING, Lilian. A Study of Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 1899. New York: AMS Press Inc., 1973.  THE END SEE YOU NEXT WEEK!