The Victorian Era reading that we completed for class were really interesting, and quite different than the last 2 eras that we’ve read from. I was thinking about those similarities and differences between eras.

One of the main differences I’ve noticed for the Victorian Era writing is the subject and tone of the poetry. While Romantic Era writing was more hopeful and ‘angelic’, in a way, Victorian Era writing was more realistic and grim. Poets no longer wanted to create hopeful poetry for their audiences, and rather focused more on the feelings they had more than the feelings they wanted.

Another big difference I noticed was the actual content. Romantic Era poetry really seemed to focus on the nature side of things. Because of this love and admiration of natural, every poem felt like an out of body experience, in a way. There could be a mountain that made one feel excitement, or a meadow that made one feel calm. Victorian Era poetry was more down to earth and less ‘out of body’. The content of Victorian Era poetry tended to be more political, and mirror the events of the real world at the time. Victorian Era poetry also went into Arthurian legends a bit as well, which was never really brought up in the Romantic Era. Once again, the addition of these legends can mirror the political climate of the time, and other things that would be going on at the time of the poems.

Honestly, I sort of liked these Victorian Era poems a lot better than I liked the Romantic Era. Despite being more down to earth, there’s a much more adventurous feel to Victorian Era poems. Like Quinn has said many times, there’s a bit of a D&D feel to some of these poems, which is pretty rad.