Victorian poetry

[British poetry written from 1837 to 1901 during Queen Victoria's reign over Great Britain]. Victorian poets used forms and themes of the romantic poets. They also wrote about intellectual and social changes in England due to rapid industrialization and a new theory of evolution. "The Origin of Species" [1859], written by Charles Darwin. Victorian poetry reflects the loss of faith that every species had been created separately by a devine act. 

Beginning of modern poetry

Symbolism developed in France during the second half of the 1800's. The symbolists believe that the true nature of things exists more in the mind than in appearances. Symbolist poets used images, symbols and the musical quality of words to suggest a connection between the visible and invisible worlds. Charles Baudelaire was the first major French symbolist poet. His collection of "Flowers of Evil" [1857] was one of the first works of symbolist poetry. American poets, Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson and the English poet Gerard Manley Hopkins [all lived in the 1800's], were inspirations to the poets of the 1900's. Whitman used everyday dialect in his poems, many were free verse form. His collection of "Leaves of Grass" [1855] is one of poetry's landmark works. Dickinson wrote imaginative and powerful poetry. Hopkins showed how sound patterns can unify a poem and how sound affects the imagination. Poetry of the 1900's is varied in style and form. Much of the poetry is free verse and moves with the varied rhythms of everyday speech. The imagists [a group of American and English poets who helped popularize the use of mixed rhythms]. Two of the most influential poets of the 1990's were William Carlos Williams of the U.S. and the American-born T.S. Eliot. Williams wanted poetry to be more like spoken language, so the rhythm of his verse were determined by the feelings and ideas of a poem vs. the traditional poetic forms. Eliot also veered from the conventional techniques. His epic poem "The Waste Land" [1922], is one of the most important works of modern poetry. It's jagged style and odd combinations of words, ideas and symbols set a new direction for poetry.

During the 1950's and 1960's, many poets used frankly autobiographical material in their works. American poets called beats condemned middle-class life and attacked what they believed to be social and political injustice. Two prominent beat poets were Allen Ginsberg and Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

Confessional poets wrote about intimate personal experiences, such as sexuality and mental illness. These poets are Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton of the U.S.

The World Book Encyclopedia [1999 Edition]

♦ Denotes info from D.L. Davis