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.