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(1837-1901)
The literary scene
rather than of thought: he describes the impact of the physical
world on the senses. Tennyson’s poetry, with its languid melody and
sensuality, leads to Aestheticism in the last part of the century. In
Italy, Giovanni Pascoli felt its influence.
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
The Pre-Raphaelite
Brotherhood was founded by a group of artists and poets in 1848.
They advocated a return to the purity of late Medieval Italian art,
before the stylization that set in with Raphael and his followers.
Their watchword was “Back to nature!”, by which they meant a
return to the simplicity tempered with
mysticism
of the Middle
Ages, when
spiritual values
were held high and mechanization
had not yet destroyed individual creativity.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
(1828-82),
Christina Georgina Rossetti
(1830-94),
William
Morris
(1834-96), and
Algernon Charles Swinburne
(1837-
1909) were its most important members. These poets’ works were
very different, but their common starting point was a profound
dissatisfaction with current standards of taste, and an inspiration
that can be defined as
spiritual sensuality
.
The Aesthetic Movement.
Aestheticism spread over Europe during
the last part of the 19th century, and became a cultural force in
Britain particularly in the 1890s. Its major representative on the
theoretical side was
Walter Pater
(1839-94), the author of an essay on
Aesthetic Poetry
(1868) and of
Studies in the History of the Renaissance
(1873), where he states that the only way to combat the meaninglessness
of existence is to live hedonistically, devoting oneself to pleasure.
The culmination of Aestheticism in Victorian England was reached with
the figure and works of the Irish-born
Oscar Wilde
(
➤
p. 95
). He was
a great wit, a brilliant talker and he became an authority on matters of
fashion and taste among London’s high society. On the artistic side he
enjoyed a parallel reputation as the
leader of the Aesthetic Movement
.
Wilde’s best poem, however,
The Ballad of Reading Gaol
(1898) shows
no traces of Aestheticism but derives from a tragic experience: Wilde’s
imprisonment in Reading jail.
S
tudy queStionS
1
Whom were the early Victorian poets influenced by?
2
Why didn’t they believe in a life vision?
3
What is a dramatic monologue?
4
What is the subject matter of Browning’s dramatic
monologues?
5
In what way did his poetry influence modern
literature?
6
What kind of verse did Tennyson produce?
7
Why is Tennyson’s Ulysses typical of his poetry?
8
What did his poetry lead to?
9
What is the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood? Who were
its main representatives?
10
Who was the leader of the Aesthetic Movement in
England?
Monna Vanna
(1866), by Dante
Gabriel Rossetti,
oil on canvas,
Tate Gallery,
London.
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001-027_The Victorians.indd 21
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