The Oxford Handbook of Victorian Poetry

Abstract

This Handbook is the largest and most comprehensive collection of essays on Victorian poetry and poetics yet published. It provides a closely-read appreciation of the vibrancy and variety of Victorian poetic forms, and attends to poems as both shaped and shaping forces. The volume is divided into four main sections. The first section on 'Form' looks at a few central innovations and engagements ('Rhythm', 'Beat', 'Address', 'Rhyme', 'Diction', 'Syntax', and 'Story'). The second section, 'Literary Landscapes', examines the traditions and writers (from classical times to the present day) that influence and take their bearings from Victorian poets. The third section provides 'Readings' of twenty-three poets by concentrating on particular poems or collections of poems, and the final section, 'The Place of Poetry', conceives and explores 'place' in a range of ways in order to situate Victorian poetry within broader contexts and discussions.