The Oxford Handbook of Victorian Poetry

'I am inclined to think that we want new forms . . . as well as thoughts', confessed Elizabeth Barrett to Robert Browning in 1845. The Oxford Handbook of Victorian Poetry 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, offering focused, nuanced engagements with the pleasures and challenges offered by particular styles of thinking and writing. 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: the places in which poems were encountered; the poetic representation and embodiment of various sites and spaces; the location of the 'Victorian' alongside other territories and nationalities; and debates about the place - and displacement - of poetry in Victorian society. This Handbook is designed to be not only an essential resource for those interested in Victorian poetry and poetics, but also a landmark publication--provocative, seminal volume that will offer a lasting contribution to future studies in the area.

Matthew Bevis, University Lecturer and Fellow in English, Keble College, University of Oxford

Matthew Bevis is a University Lecturer and Fellow in English at Keble College, Oxford. He is the author of The Art of Eloquence: Byron, Dickens, Tennyson, Joyce (OUP, 2007) and Comedy: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2012). He is the editor of Some Versions of Empson (OUP, 2007).

Introduction: At Work with Victorian Poetry, Matthew Bevis
Form
2.NBNBNBNBNBNB. Rhythm, Michael Hurley
3.NBNBNBNBNBNB. Beat, Derek Attridge
4.NBNBNBNBNBNB. Address, Robert Douglas-Fairhurst
5.NBNBNBNBNBNB. Rhyme, Matthew Campbell
6.NBNBNBNBNBNB. Diction, Garrett Stewart
7.NBNBNBNBNBNB. Syntax, Isobel Armstrong
8.NBNBNBNBNBNB. Story, Herbert Tucker
Literary Landscapes
9.NBNBNBNBNBNB. Victorian Poetry and The Classics, Isobel Hurst
10.NBNBNBNB. Victorian Medievalisms, Matthew Townend
11.NBNBNBNB. Victorian Miltons, Erik Gray
12.NBNBNBNB. Victorian Shakespeares, Bharat Tandon
13.NBNBNBNB. The Romantic Bequest: Arnold and Others, Michael O Neill
14.NBNBNBNB. American Intersections: Poetry in the United States 1837-1901, Elisa New
15.NBNBNBNB. The Poetry of Modern Life: On the Pavement, Peter Robinson
16.NBNBNBNB. Modernist Victorianism, Adam Piette
17.NBNBNBNB. Dispatched Dark Regions Far Afield and Farther : Contemporary Poetry and Victorianism, David Wheatley
Readings
18.NBNBNBNB. Rhyme, Rhythm, Violence: Elizabeth Barrett Browning on Slavery, Caroline Levine
19.NBNBNBNB. Tennyson: Echo and Harmony, Music, and Thought, Ruth Padel
20.NBNBNBNB. Browning's Balancing Acts, Ross Wilson
21.NBNBNBNB. Edward Lear and 'The fiddlediddlety of representation', Hugh Haughton
22.NBNBNBNB. Crime and Conjecture: Emily Bronte's PoemsNBNBNB, Michael Wood
23.NBNBNBNB. Arthur Hugh Clough: The Reception and Conception of Amours de Voyage, Adam Phillips
24.NBNBNBNB. Matthew Arnold, Out of TimeNBNBNB, Jane Wright
25.NBNBNBNB. Modern Men and Women: Meredith's challenge to Browning, Andrew Elfenbein
26.NBNBNBNB. Raising The Dead: Dante Gabriel Rossetti's Willowwood sonnetsNB, J. B. Bullen
27.NBNBNBNB. Christina Rossetti: Ravens, Cockatoos and Range, Constance Hassett
28.NBNBNBNB. William Barnes: Views of Field Labour in Poems of Modern Life, Marcus Waithe
29.NBNBNBNB. Dreaming Reality: The Poetry of William Morris, Clive Wilmer
30.NBNBNBNB. City of Pain: The Poetry of James Thomson, Mark Ford
31.NBNBNBNB. Augusta Webster: Time and The Lyric Ideal, Emily Harrington
32.NBNBNBNB. Swinburne: The Insuperable Sea, Simon Jarvis
33.NBNBNBNB. Hardy's Imperfections, Seamus PerryNBNB
34.NBNBNBNB. Hopkins's Beauty, Martin Dubois
35.NBNBNBNB. Michael Field (Katherine Bradley & Edith Cooper): Sight and Song and Significant Form, Linda K. Hughes
36.NBNBNBNB. Alice Meynell, Again and Again, Meredith Martin
37.NBNBNBNB. Housman's DifficultyNB, Janet Gezari
38.NBNBNBNB. Rudyard Kipling plays the Empire, Peter Howarth
39.NBNBNBNB. Victorian YeatsNB, Peter McDonald
40.NBNBNBNB. The Passion of Charlotte Mew, Tim Kendall
NBThe Place of Poetry
41.NBNBNBNB. MarketplacesNBNBNB, Samantha MatthewsNB
42.NBNBNBNB. Inner Space: Bodies and MindsNBNBNB, Stephanie Kuduk Weiner
43.NBNBNBNB. Outer Space: Physical ScienceNBNBNB, Anna Henchman
44.NBNBNBNB. City and StreetNBNBNB, Rolf Lessenich
45.NBNBNBNB. In The Artist's StudioNBNBNB, Catherine Maxwell
46.NBNBNBNB. On Not Hearing: Victorian Poetry and MusicNBNBNB, Francis O GormanNBNB
47.NBNBNBNB. Church Going, Kirstie Blair
48.NBNBNBNB. Irish Poetry in the Victorian AgeNB, Justin Quinn
49.NBNBNBNB. Empire and Orientalisms, Joe Phelan
50.NBNBNBNB. Comic Verse, James Williams
51.NBNBNB. 'The song-bird whose name is Legion': Bad Verse and its Critics, Danny Karlin