Alfred, Lord Tennyson  Victorian

Info

- sought anchorage for himself and his age in directions marked out by Carlyle (Horton 613)

- strove to be poet-mystic, modeling himself on Carlyle's "hero as Poet" (613)

- exquisite ear for sounds of language; gift for which his poetry is especially noted today (614)

- synthesis of Christian and Carlylean doctrine satisfied only those who understood it least (615)

- yields insights into the Victorian mind (615)

Works

- In Memoriam - most ambitious work

- "The Lady of Shalott"

- Idylls of the King

- "The Poet"

- Morte d'Arthur

- "Ulysses"

- "Crossing the Bar" - images death as return to sea; keeping with evolutionary theory (614-635)

Citation

Horton, Ronald A. British Literature for Christian Schools. Greenville, SC: Bob Jones University Press, 1992.

Thomas Hardy  Victorian

Info

- mission to disillusion the world (Horton 656)

- Anglican => agnostic (656)

- pessimistic novels and poems show eroding effect of Victorian rationalism on religious faith (656)

Works

- Far from the Madding Crowd - first successful novel

- The Return of the Native

- The Mayor of Casterbridge

- Tess of the D'Urbervilles

- Jude the Obscure

- "The Darkling Thrush" - lingering pain of rejecting Christianity

- "The Respectable Burgher" - identifies major cause of his religious unbelief and indifference: skepticism within the church

- The Three Strangers - belief in blind circumstance and conviction of higher morality of the natural conscience than of institutional law (656-659)

Citation

Horton, Ronald A. British Literature for Christian Schools. Greenville, SC: Bob Jones University Press, 1992.

Lewis Carroll  Victorian

Info

- aka Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Horton 647)

- reserved academic professional whose personality came to life when he was telling stories to children (647)

- poems in Alice books are almost all parodies of Victorian parlor songs and didactic verses (647)

Works

- Alice in Wonderland

- "The Mad Hatter's Song"

- "The Mock Turtle's Song"

- "Alice's Recitation to Herself"

- Through the Looking Glass

- "The White Knight's Song"

- "The White Queen's Riddle"

- "The Walrus and the Carpenter"

- "Child of the Pure Unclouded Brow" (648-655)

Citation

Horton, Ronald A. British Literature for Christian Schools. Greenville, SC: Bob Jones University Press, 1992.

Journal Entry (Please grade for March 30-April 5)

Christina Rossetti

Info

- England's greatest woman poet (644)

- debating Christian orthodoxy was "as useless as arguing about the air we breathe" (Horton 644)

- naive charm and careful workmanship stressed by pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (644)

- theme - painful submission to God's will; undercurrent of positive faith (644)

Analysis - "Uphill"

The poem "Uphill" is an allegorical conversation that represents the Christian life.  The traveler (the audience) asks questions, which the guide (the author, or God or Christ) answers.  The simple dialogue reflects the simplicity of the message of salvation.  The winding road symbolizes the Christian's life; it's an uphill battle against the flesh, yet the destination--heaven--lies at the end.  God will provide refuge from the darkness, which cannot detract from the illumination of God's Word.  Other believers ("those who have gone before") will offer additional support.  In the last exchanges of the last two stanzas, Rossetti emphasizes that salvation is free to anyone who asks and believes: "'May the darkness hide it from my face?'/They will not keep you standing at that door...'Will there be beds for me and all who seek?'/Yea, beds for all who come" (Horton 646).

The conversational structure of the poem effectively conveys a comforting tone.  The guide delivers clear, direct replies that are impossible to misunderstand.  Overall, Rossetti passes on the message of hope to those who are experiencing hardship.

Application

Though several biblical concepts permeate this poem, the underlying theme is Romans 8:28: "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."  Even when life throws hectic schedules, miscommunication, and other problems at me, I know that heaven is waiting at the end of the road.  Since Christ provided a place for me, I have a reason to keep moving.  God's Word is my sole source of comfort, but "Uphill" reinforces its message of encouragement.

Citation

Horton, Ronald A. British Literature for Christian Schools. Greenville, SC: Bob Jones University Press, 1992.

Francis Thompson  Victorian

Info

- struggled to nurture religious faith in an era of gloom (Horton 680)

- devotional and literary-critical prose (680)

- suffered from addiction and depression

Works

- "The Hound of Heaven" - best-known poem

- masterfully recounts the pursuit of the sinner by God

- testifies to God's attending presence on the stone pavements and embankments its author knew so well (680)

Citation

Horton, Ronald A. British Literature for Christian Schools. Greenville, SC: Bob Jones University Press 1992.

Gerard Manley Hopkins  Victorian

Info

- finding at universities a cold climate for religious faith, took refuge in religious traditionalism (Horton 674)

- Anglican => Roman Catholic => Jesuit (674)

- poems marked by confident affirmation and anxious misgiving (674)

- often regarded as modern rather than Victorian poet (674)

- extreme condensation; startling comparisons; multiple meanings; strong stress meter; partial, internal, and run-on rhyme (674)

- oddity and poetic power appealed to rebellious postwar generation of writers who valued difficulty for its own sake (674)

Works

- "Pied Beauty" - praises God as Creator (674)

- "God's Grandeur" - justifies irregularity of author's style (674)

Citation

Horton, Ronald A. British Literature for Christian Schools. Greenville, SC: Bob Jones University Press, 1992.

Christina Rossetti  Victorian

Info

- England's greatest woman poet

- debating Christian orthodoxy was "as useless as arguing about the air we breathe" (Horton 644)

- naive charm and careful workmanship stressed by pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (644)

- theme - painful submission to God's will

- undercurrent of positive faith

Works

- Goblin Market and Other Poems

- "In the Bleak Mid-Winter"

- "Long Barren"

- "Uphill"

Citation

Horton, Ronald A. British Literature for Christian Schools. Greenville, SC: Bob Jones University Press, 1992.

Matthew Arnold  Victorian

Info

- Carlyle's chief successor in prescribing remedies for the ills of the age (Horton 642)

- society's main problem - replacing old faith with a religion more intellectually respectable and equally able to restrain and console; humanism based on "the best that has been said and thought in the world" (642)

- remedy - religion of culture (642)

Works

- Culture and Anarchy - states alternatives facing a religionless society at time of political upheaval: culture or anarchy

- "Dover Beach" - most successful poem; faithfulness is the only happiness (642)

Citation

Horton, Ronald A. British Literature for Christian Schools. Greenville, SC: Bob Jones University Press, 1992.

Robert Browning  Victorian

Info

- major writer who seemed least personally affected by religious skepticism of Victorian era (Horton 637)

- husband of Elizabeth Barrett - leading poetess of England; inferior only to Wordsworth and Tennyson (637)

- developed dramatic monologue - only one speaker's voice is heard (638)

- to reinforce rather than replace Christian faith (638)

- based belief in providence not on intuition but on evidences of divine love in the world, particularly love between human beings (638)

- theological vagueness and indirectness of expression (639)

Works

- Sordello

- Bells and Pomegranates

- "Home Thoughts from Abroad"

- Dramatis Personae

- "Prospice"

- The Ring and the Book

- "My Last Duchess" - one of his most famous dramatic monologues (638)

Terms

- soliloquy - speech addressed to audience by actor alone on stage

- dramatic monologue - poem consisting of speech by character (not author) addressing audience at critical moment in his life; focuses on character of speaker

Citation

Horton, Ronald A. British Literature for Christian Schools. Greenville, SC: Bob Jones University Press, 1992.

4th Quarter

Thomas Carlyle  Victorian

Info

- leading social writer of Victorian England (Horton 604)

- metaphors and allusions; picturesque eloquence obviously that of Scottish Presbyterian pulpit (604)

- couldn't escape impression that religion, though discredited by rationalism, offered the deeper truth (604)

- in transcendentalists found basis for denying rationalism and affirming purposiveness and the higher reality of the spirit (605)

- all history is "the biography of great men" (605)

Works

- Sartor Resartus - "the tailor retailored" (605)

- On Heroes, Hero Worship, and the Heroic in History - disbelief in heroes a symptom of spiritual disease (605)

- The Hero as Divinity

- The Hero as Poet

- Past and Present - Abbot Sampson; how great man can restore sick society (606)

Citation

Horton, Ronald A. British Literature for Christian Schools. Greenville, SC: Bob Jones University Press, 1992.