Overview
This outstanding, modestly priced anthology presents over 170 poems by the major poets of the period, including Alfred, Lord Tennyson; Robert Browning; Elizabeth Barrett Browning; Arthur Hugh Clough; Edward FitzGerald; Matthew Arnold; Dante Gabriel Rossetti; Christina Rossetti; Coventry Patmore; George Meredith; William Ernest Henley; Algernon Charles Swinburne; Gerard Manley Hopkins; Rudyard Kipling; and many others.
Carefully selected to include the works most often studied in literature courses, high school through college, this anthology is ideal for classroom use, independent study, and personal perusal. An introduction and brief biographical notes on the poets are included.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780486112633 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Dover Publications |
| Publication date: | 02/03/2012 |
| Series: | Dover Thrift Editions: Poetry |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 256 |
| File size: | 2 MB |
| Age Range: | 14 - 18 Years |
Read an Excerpt
English Victorian Poetry
An Anthology
By Paul Negri
Dover Publications, Inc.
Copyright © 1999 Dover Publications, Inc.All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-486-11263-3
CHAPTER 1
ALFRED, LORD TENNYSON (1809-1892)
Considered by some to be the greatest poet of the Victorian period, Tennyson was in his lifetime certainly the most popular. One of twelve children, Tennyson was the son of a clergyman, who tutored him in classical and modern languages. He attended Cambridge, but was forced to leave in 1831 due to family and financial difficulties. Returning home, he continued to write verse, his early volumes in the 1830's receiving generally adverse criticism. Persevering, however, he developed and refined his technique, gaining stature throughout the 1840's, and achieved full critical recognition with the publication of In Memoriam in 1850, at which time he was appointed poet laureate, succeeding Wordsworth. He was made a peer in 1884.
The Kraken
Below the thunders of the upper deep,
Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea,
His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep
The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee
About his shadowy sides; above him swell
Huge sponges of millennial growth and height;
And far away into the sickly light,
From many a wondrous grot and secret cell
Unnumbered and enormous polypi
Winnow with giant arms the slumbering green.
There hath he lain for ages, and will lie
Battening upon huge sea worms in his sleep,
Until the latter fire shall heat the deep;
Then once by man and angels to be seen,
In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.
Mariana
'Mariana in the moated grange.'
Measure for Measure.
With blackest moss the flower-plots
Were thickly crusted, one and all;
The rusted nails fell from the knots
That held the pear to the gable-wall.
The broken sheds look'd sad and strange:
Unlifted was the clinking latch;
Weeded and worn the ancient thatch
Upon the lonely moated grange.
She only said, 'My life is dreary,
He cometh not,' she said;
She said, 'I am aweary, aweary,
I would that I were dead!'
Her tears fell with the dews at even;
Her tears fell ere the dews were dried;
She could not look on the sweet heaven,
Either at morn or eventide.
After the flitting of the bats,
When thickest dark did trance the sky,
She drew her casement-curtain by,
And glanced athwart the glooming flats.
She only said, 'The night is dreary,
He cometh not,' she said;
She said, 'I am aweary, aweary,
I would that I were dead!'
Upon the middle of the night,
Waking she heard the night-fowl crow;
The cock sung out an hour ere light;
From the dark fen the oxen's low
Came to her; without hope of change,
In sleep she seem'd to walk forlorn,
Till cold winds woke the gray-eyed morn
About the lonely moated grange.
She only said, 'The day is dreary,
He cometh not,' she said;
She said, 'I am aweary, aweary,
I would that I were dead!'
About a stone-cast from the wall
A sluice with blacken'd waters slept,
And o'er it many, round and small,
The cluster'd marish-mosses crept.
Hard by a poplar shook alway,
All silver-green with gnarled bark:
For leagues no other tree did mark
The level waste, the rounding gray.
She only said, 'My life is dreary,
He cometh not,' she said;
She said, 'I am aweary, aweary,
I would that I were dead!'
And ever when the moon was low,
And the shrill winds were up and away,
In the white curtain, to and fro,
She saw the gusty shadow sway.
But when the moon was very low,
And wild winds bound within their cell,
The shadow of the poplar fell
Upon her bed, across her brow.
She only said, 'The night is dreary,
He cometh not,' she said;
She said, 'I am aweary, aweary,
I would that I were dead!'
All day within the dreamy house,
The doors upon their hinges creak'd;
The blue fly sung in the pane; the mouse
Behind the mouldering wainscot shriek'd,
Or from the crevice peer'd about.
Old faces glimmer'd thro' the doors,
Old footsteps trod the upper floors,
Old voices called her from without.
She only said, 'My life is dreary,
He cometh not,' she said;
She said, 'I am aweary, aweary,
I would that I were dead!'
The sparrow's chirrup on the roof,
The slow clock ticking, and the sound
Which to the wooing wind aloof
The poplar made, did all confound
Her sense; but most she loathed the hour
When the thick-moted sunbeam lay
Athwart the chambers, and the day
Was sloping toward his western bower.
Then said she, 'I am very dreary,
He will not come,' she said;
She wept, 'I am aweary, aweary,
O God, that I were dead!'
The Lady of Shalott
PART I
On either side the river lie
Long fields of barley and of rye,
That clothe the wold and meet the sky;
And thro' the field the road runs by
To many-tower'd Camelot;
And up and down the people go,
Gazing where the lilies blow
Round an island there below,
The island of Shalott.
Willows whiten, aspens quiver,
Little breezes dusk and shiver
Thro' the wave that runs for ever
By the island in the river
Flowing down to Camelot.
Four gray walls, and four gray towers,
Overlook a space of flowers,
And the silent isle imbowers
The Lady of Shalott.
By the margin, willow-veil'd,
Slide the heavy barges trail'd
By slow horses; and unhail'd
The shallop flitteth silken-sail'd
Skimming down to Camelot:
But who hath seen her wave her hand?
Or at the casement seen her stand?
Or is she known in all the land,
The Lady of Shalott?
Only reapers, reaping early
In among the bearded barley,
Hear a song that echoes cheerly
From the river winding clearly,
Down to tower'd Camelot;
And by the moon the reaper weary,
Piling sheaves in uplands airy,
Listening, whispers "T is the fairy
Lady of Shalott.'
PART II
There she weaves by night and day
A magic web with colors gay.
She has heard a whisper say,
A curse is on her if she stay
To look down to Camelot.
She knows not what the curse may be,
And so she weaveth steadily,
And little other care hath she,
The Lady of Shalott.
And moving thro' a mirror clear
That hangs before her all the year,
Shadows of the world appear.
There she sees the highway near
Winding down to Camelot;
There the river eddy whirls,
And there the surly village-churls,
And the red cloaks of market girls,
Pass onward from Shalott.
Sometimes a troop of damsels glad,
An abbot on an ambling pad,
Sometimes a curly shepherd-lad,
Or long-hair'd page in crimson clad,
Goes by to tower'd Camelot;
And sometimes thro' the mirror blue
The knights come riding two and two:
She hath no loyal knight and true,
The Lady of Shalott.
But in her web she still delights
To weave the mirror's magic sights,
For often thro' the silent nights
A funeral, with plumes and lights
And music, went to Camelot;
Or when the moon was overhead,
Came two young lovers lately wed:
'I am half sick of shadows,' said
The Lady of Shalott.
PART III
A bow-shot from her bower-eaves,
He rode between the barley-sheaves.
The sun came dazzling thro' the leaves,
And flamed upon the brazen greaves
Of bold Sir Lancelot.
A red-cross knight for ever kneel'd
To a lady in his shield,
That sparkled on the yellow field,
Beside remote Shalott.
The gemmy bridle glitter'd free,
Like to some branch of stars we see
Hung in the golden Galaxy.
The bridle bells rang merrily
As he rode down to Camelot;
And from his blazon'd baldric slung
A mighty silver bugle hung,
And as he rode his armor rung,
Beside remote Shalott.
All in the blue unclouded weather
Thick-jewell'd shone the saddle-leather,
The helmet and the helmet-feather
Burn'd like one burning flame together,
As he rode down to Camelot;
As often thro' the purple night,
Below the starry clusters bright,
Some bearded meteor, trailing light,
Moves over still Shalott.
His broad clear brow in sunlight glow'd;
On burnish'd hooves his war-horse trode;
From underneath his helmet flow'd
His coal-black curls as on he rode,
As he rode down to Camelot.
From the bank and from the river
He flash'd into the crystal mirror,
'Tirra lirra,' by the river
Sang Sir Lancelot.
She left the web, she left the loom,
She made three paces thro' the room,
She saw the water-lily bloom,
She saw the helmet and the plume,
She look'd down to Camelot.
Out flew the web and floated wide;
The mirror crack'd from side to side;
'The curse is come upon me,' cried
The Lady of Shalott.
PART IV
In the stormy east-wind straining,
The pale yellow woods were waning,
The broad stream in his banks complaining,
Heavily the low sky raining
Over tower'd Camelot;
Down she came and found a boat
Beneath a willow left afloat,
And round about the prow she wrote
The Lady of Shalott.
And down the river's dim expanse
Like some bold seer in a trance,
Seeing all his own mischance—
With a glassy countenance
Did she look to Camelot.
And at the closing of the day
She loosed the chain, and down she lay;
The broad stream bore her far away,
The Lady of Shalott.
Lying, robed in snowy white
That loosely flew to left and right—
The leaves upon her falling light—
Thro' the noises of the night
She floated down to Camelot;
And as the boat-head wound along
The willowy hills and fields among,
They heard her singing her last song,
The Lady of Shalott.
Heard a carol, mournful, holy,
Chanted loudly, chanted lowly,
Till her blood was frozen slowly,
And her eyes were darken'd wholly,
Turn'd to tower'd Camelot.
For ere she reach'd upon the tide
The first house by the water-side,
Singing in her song she died,
The Lady of Shalott.
Under tower and balcony,
By garden-wall and gallery,
A gleaming shape she floated by,
Dead-pale between the houses high,
Silent into Camelot.
Out upon the wharfs they came,
Knight and burgher, lord and dame,
And round the prow they read her name,
The Lady of Shalott.
Who is this? and what is here?
And in the lighted palace near
Died the sound of royal cheer;
And they cross'd themselves for fear,
All the knights at Camelot:
But Lancelot mused a little space;
He said, 'She has a lovely face;
God in his mercy lend her grace,
The Lady of Shalott.'
The Lotos-Eaters
'Courage!' he said, and pointed toward the land,
'This mounting wave will roll us shoreward soon.'
In the afternoon they came unto a land
In which it seemed always afternoon.
All round the coast the languid air did swoon,
Breathing like one that hath a weary dream.
Full-faced above the valley stood the moon;
And, like a downward smoke, the slender stream
Along the cliff to fall and pause and fall did seem.
A land of streams! some, like a downward smoke,
Slow-dropping veils of thinnest lawn, did go;
And some thro' wavering lights and shadows broke,
Rolling a slumbrous sheet of foam below.
They saw the gleaming river seaward flow
From the inner land; far off, three mountain-tops,
Three silent pinnacles of aged snow,
Stood sunset-flush'd; and, dew'd with showery drops,
Up-clomb the shadowy pine above the woven copse.
The charmed sunset linger'd low adown
In the red West; thro' mountain clefts the dale
Was seen far inland, and the yellow down
Border'd with palm, and many a winding vale
And meadow, set with slender galingale;
A land where all things always seem'd the same!
And round about the keel with faces pale,
Dark faces pale against that rosy flame,
The mild-eyed melancholy Lotos-eaters came.
Branches they bore of that enchanted stem,
Laden with flower and fruit, whereof they gave
To each, but whoso did receive of them
And taste, to him the gushing of the wave
Far far away did seem to mourn and rave
On alien shores; and if his fellow spake,
His voice was thin, as voices from the grave;
And deep-asleep he seem'd, yet all awake,
And music in his ears his beating heart did make.
They sat them down upon the yellow sand,
Between the sun and moon upon the shore;
And sweet it was to dream of Fatherland,
Of child, and wife, and slave; but evermore
Most weary seem'd the sea, weary the oar,
Weary the wandering fields of barren farm.
Then some one said, 'We will return no more';
And all at once they sang, 'Our island home
Is far beyond the wave; we will no longer roam.'
(Continues...)
Excerpted from English Victorian Poetry by Paul Negri. Copyright © 1999 Dover Publications, Inc.. Excerpted by permission of Dover Publications, Inc..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Table of Contents
Alfred, Lord TennysonThe Kraken
Mariana
The Lady of Shalott
The Lotos-Eaters
Ulysses
Tithonus
Locksley Hall
Break, Break, Break
Sweet and Low
The Splendor Falls
Tears, Idle Tears
Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal
The Charge of the Light Brigade
Flower in the Crannied Wall
Crossing the Bar
From In Memoriam A. H. H.
Thomas Hood
The Song of the Shirt
The Bridge of Sighs
Time of Roses
The Death-bed
Edward Lear
How Pleasant to Know Mr. Lear
The Jumblies
Robert Browning
My Last Duchess
Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister
Porphyia's Lover
"How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix"
The Lost Leader
Home-Thoughts from Abroad
The Bishop Orders His Tomb at Saint Praxed's Church
Meeting at Night
Parting at Morning
Fra Lippo Lippi
A Toccata of Galuppi's
The Last Ride Together
Adrea del Sarto
Rabbi Ben Ezra
Caliban upon Setebos
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Sonnets from the Portuguese
I I thought once how Theocritus had sung
V I lift my heavy heart up solemnlym
XIV If thou must love me, let it be for nought
XX Belovèd, my Belovèd, when I think
XXI Say over again, and yet once over again,
XXII When our two souls stand up erect and strong,
XXXV If I leave all for thee, wilt thou exchange
XLI I thank all who have loved me in their hearts,
XLIII How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
XLIV Belovèd, thou hast brought me many flowers
Grief
To George Sand: A Desire
To George Sand: A Recognition
A Musical Instrument
Edward FitzGerald
From The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyám
Emily Brontë
Stars
Remembrance
Song
The Prisoner: A Fragment
Hope
How Clear She Shines
The Old Stoic
The Night-Wind
No Coward Soul Is Mine
Arthur Hugh Clough
Say Not the Struggle Naught Availeth
The Latest Decalogue
Matthew Arnold
Dover Beach
To a Friend
The Foresaken Merman
Lines Written in Kensington Gardens
The Buried Life
The Scholar Gipsy
To Marguerite
The Last World
Coventry Patmore
Departure
The Toys
A Farewell
Magna Est Veritas
Woman
Thoughts
The Kiss
Auras of Delight
George Meredith
Lucifer in Starlight
Seed-Time
From Modern Love
I By this he knew she wept with waking eyes:
II It ended, and the morrow brought the task.
III This was the woman; what now of the man?
V A message from her set his brain aflame.
XVI In our old shipwrecked days there was an hour,
XXXIV Madam would speak with me. So, now it comes:
XLV It is the season of the sweet wild rose,
XLVI At last we parely: we so strangely dumb
XLIX He found her by the ocean's moaning verge,
L Thus piteously Love closed what he begat.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
The Blessèd Damozel
The Choice
The Woodspurge
Penumbra
The Sea-Limits
From The House of Life
A Sonnet
III Love's Testament
IV Lovesight
XI The Love-Letter
XIX Silent Noon
XXVII Heart's Compass
XLIII Love and Hope
XLVIII Death-in-Love
XLIX Willowwood 1
L Willowwood 2
LI Willowwood 3
LII Willowwood 4
XCVII A Superscription
CI The One Hope
Christina Rossetti
A Triad
A Birthday
Remember
After Death
An Apple Gathering
Winter: My Secret
"No, Thank You, John"
Song
A Portrait
Lewis Carroll
Jabberwocky
The Walrus and the Carpenter
James Thomson
The Bridge
Midsummer Courtship
Art
In the Room
William Morris
The Message of the March Wind
Summer Dawn
Shameful Death
The Sailing of the Sword
Love Is Enough
Algernon Charles Swinburne
The Garden of Proserpine
Hymn to Proserpine
Chorus from 'Atalanta'
Super Flumina Babylonis
Love and Sleep
Child's Song
A Ballad of Life
A Ballad of Death
Gerard Manley Hopkins
God's Grandeur
The Starlight Night
Spring
The Windhover
Pied Beauty
Duns Scotus's Oxford
Felix Randal
As Kingfishers Catch Fire
Spring and Fall
(Carrion Comfort)
No Worst, There Is None, Pitched Past Pitch of Grief
Tom's Garland
I Wake and Feel the Fell of Dark, Not Day
Thou Art Indeed Just, Lord, If I Contend
William Ernest Henley
Invictus
On the Way to Kew
Oscar Wilde
Hélas!
Impression du Matin
E Tenebris
Impressions
1. Les Silhouettes
2. La Fuite de la Lune
The Harlots House
Symphony in Yellow
Francis Thompson
The Hound of Heaven
Rudyard Kipling
Danny Deever
Gunga Din
The Widow at Windsor
If-
Recessional
The Female of the Species
Ernest Dowson
Non Sum Qualis Eram Bonae Sub Regno Cynarae
To One in Bedlam
A Last Word