Languages
Stephanie Lipka
Victorian Poetry High and Low - Sammlung
von Thesenpapieren
Anthology
Victorian Poetry High and Low
WS 2001-2002
Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster
Sammlung von Thesenpapieren
Gesamtnote: noch gut (2,3)
Inhalt
Sitzung
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
Thema der Sitzung
Victorian Poetry in a Nutshell?
Predecessors
Religion and Doubt
Catholicism
Catholicism High and Low, Now and Then
Medieval
Arnold and his Sidekick
Orientalism
War and the Army (I)
War and the Army (II)
Light Verse
Dialect
The Industrial Muse
Music Hall
Shakespeare
Famous Last Words
Seitenzahl
01
04
07
10
12
14
17
19
21
24
26
29
32
35
37
39
Stephanie Lipka
6. Fachsemester
LA Sekundarstufe II/I
Literaturwissenschaftliches Hauptseminar
Victorian Poetry High and Low
WS 2001-2002
“Victorian Poetry in a Nutshell?”
15/10/ 2001
Stephanie Lipka
1. Who is this woman?
Browning, Robert, “My Last Duchess“ (1842)
In this poem, we are confronted with an almost traditional catalogue of beauties. There is a
man – presenting the listener/reader his love. He speaks of her charming smile, her naïve
attitude towards gestures and presents; but in his words there is also a hint of jealousy.
In this respect, the poem appears cruel. The speaker does not accept his wife or mistress the
way she is – but he mentions her disposition to smile with a bitter note of regret and mistrust.
This mistrust even seems to have lead to severe measures: “I gave commands,” he says, with
the result that “all smiles stopped together”.
We do not know what he means by these “commands”. He might have begged her to stop
smiling at other men or he might actually have given orders to kill the woman.
From an amateur psychologist’s point of view, the phrase “looking as if she were alive” leads
to the conclusion of manslaughter or murder. The same can be said about the proud way in
which the speaker presents the picture of the dead duchess. The speaker seems still captured
by her charms. He appears sad about her death, but the way in which he tells her story makes
the reader/listener grow more and more uncomfortable. The idea of murder out of jealousy or
some other strong passion, formed before, gains substance. As far as people are concerned, it
would be interesting to have a closer look at the two characters mentioned in the poem: “Fra’
Pandolf and Claus of Innsbruck. Who are they? What is their connection with the duchess?
When did they live?
It would also be interesting to find out what the speaker means when he says, “we’ll go down
together”.
All in all, the poem appears realistic and makes the reader (or at least me, personally) want to
know more about this duchess.
Victorian Poetry High and Low
1
Browning, “My Last Duchess,” Tennyson, “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” Arnold, “Dover Beach”
2
2. The Great Scheme of Things
Arnold, Matthew, “Dover Beach” (1867)
“Dover Beach” appears as a piece of natural poetry. It is written in a more ‘modern’ way than
“My Last Duchess” because it focuses (methaphorically) on a natural event rather than on a
human being. And still, it is a love poem, a poem full of feeling and emotion.
“Only, from the long line of spray where the sea meets the moon-blanch’ed land, Listen! You
hear the grating roar of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling, at their return, up the
high strand, begin, and cease, and then again begin, with tremulous cadence slow, and bring
the eternal note of sadness in.”
He who ever heard the clicking sound of pebbles being washed away and turned over
and over again by the tide, will understand the meaning of these words. It is a sound most
unique – on the one hand seemingly peaceful where the pebbles click against each other under
water, on the other hand most violent where the sea clashes and bursts against the shoreline,
cliff-like where she has washed away the stones. It is a natural show that makes you feel
small, and at the same time (strangely enough) free. It makes you think about a struggle of
pebbles – an army of stone – against the sea, a fight without a winner. The sea will turn the
pebbles over and over again. And it makes you think of a force leading mankind. No matter
what we do, something or someone will be guiding all our deeds, and in the great scheme of
things it does not matter what we do, how hard we struggle because we are all like the
pebbles.
The speaker must feel similar as he addresses his girlfriend or wife (“love”): “Let us be true”.
He feels that he is powerless when it comes to emotion: she might change. Something might
change her – and he tries to keep her, struggling for words, but only saying that things are not
what they seem.
It would be interesting to look at other poems by Arnold to see of they deal with other natural
forces and to compare them. One could also choose other poems of this kind – by female
poets to compare different perceptions of nature.