Pre 1914 Love Poetry from the Victorian and Elizabethan Era

Pre 1914 Love Poetry from the Victorian and Elizabethan Era

Conventional females were considered to be second class citizens who

were expected to refrain in conveying their natural feelings and

emotions. Women were also socially neglected, as they were expected to

remain at home whilst their respective husbands ensured the upkeep of

the family by managing the family finances. The male population at

this point in time ignorantly viewed women as coy, innocent

characters, seemingly unaware that women had the same feelings and

emotions as themselves.

At the time in which poets like Robert Browning lived, the majority of

marriages were arranged. Property and power were two main factors

which influenced negotiations for marriage between the two families of

the bride and groom. As the bride was unable to provide land, she was

expected to take a substantial amount of money to the marriage, which

in turn, was given to the father of the groom. In this respect,

daughters were considered to be a financial burden on their parents,

hence their decision to get their daughter married into a wealthy

family as soon as they could.

During the Pre 1900 period of history, many Victorians had become

desensitised to violence, yet wouldn't allow their views on

controversial aspects of 'showbusiness' to be released into their

various social circles, in a bid to upkeep their public persona. In

public they were formal, and lived by a strict moral code, whereas

secretly, in the comfort of their own homes, they had become

fascinated by sexuality, violence and scandal.

Robert Browning was one of the great poets of the Victorian age.

Having been fortunate to experience the happiness of mutual love, he

wrote moving love poetry, ...

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...mood and negative language to reflect a

dark, unhappy mood.

'I met a lady in the meads...'

4.1

'On the cold hill's side...'

Stanza 9. Line 4

The poem is actually quite sad because the poet truly fell in love

with the faery and hoped his love was requited, but the faery was

infact taking him for a fool and did not really care about how much

she hurt the knight in the process of her fun and games. At the time

of writing the poem, Keats must have been feeling strong emotions to

link enchantment and magic to love and its effects on others.

The poems that we have studied were written in the Pre 1900s, and the

majority share the same conventions - jealous lovers, love triangles

and violence. Enthralling poems like these, along with plays of

similar plotlines, fed the hunger of the majority of Victorians for

more sexuality, violence and scandal.