Romanticism in Victorian Poetry: A Reading of the Major Poets

The prolonged history of English literature is demarcated in different ages with a view to comprehending literary and cultural atmosphere of the time. However, the literary influence of one particular age does not stop at the last year of the age, rather it continues. Hence, it can be said that Victorian poetry was highly influenced by the Romantic trends in English literature. All the major Victorian poets were immensely motivated by the seminal Romantic poets. In this respect, it deserves mention that following T. S. Eliot’s notion of tradition the Victorians were influenced by their predecessors and they turned their own works to suit their own purposes. However, while being influenced they have nevertheless retained their originality, maturity and craftsmanship. The paper is an attempt to look and enquire into the discourse of similarity and differences that one finds between these two major trends in English literature- Romanticism and Victorianism. While drawing the parallels one also finds the changes in tone implicit in Victorian poetry which is an outcome of the socio-historical and political environment of the period. The research paper unearths these discourses through the comparative analysis of canonical poems of these two periods