Victorian Women Poets: An Annotated Anthology

Victorian Women Poets: An Annotated Anthologybegins with an engaging introduction covering areas such as the subject-matter, sexual politics, the contemporary reception of the poems and modern feminist theories of the poetry. Poems from thirteen poets are then presented, ranging from the well-known - Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Christina Rosetti - to non-canonical women writers. There are notes throughout which provide the reader with background information on the work and that put the poetry in the context of the period. This anthology of more than 170 poems will be welcomed by a wide range of readers including those interested in poetry, Victorian literature or women writers. Included is poetry from: Felicia Hemans (1793-1835); Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861); Emily Pfeiffer (1827 - 1890); Christina Rossetti (1830-1894); Augusta Webster (1837-1894); Adah Isaacs Menken (1839-1868); Mathilde Blind (1841-1896); 'Michael Field'Katherine Harris Bradley (1846-1914) & Edith Emma Cooper (1862-1913); Constance Naden (1858-1889); Rosamund Marriott Watson (1860-1911); Mary Elizabeth Coleridge (1861-1907); May KendallEmma Goldsworth (1861-1943); Amy Levy (1861-1889).

Virginia Blain is a Professional Fellow in the English Department at Macquarie University in Sydney.

Acknowledgements

xi

Introduction

1

(1)

The current status of Victorian women poets

1

(1)

The basis of the present selection

2

(1)

Felicia Hemans as the first `Victorian' poet

3

(2)

The professionalisation of the woman poet

5

(2)

Changing poetic tastes and styles

7

(1)

Anxiety of genre

8

(2)

`Femininity' and sexual difference

10

(1)

The `poetess' and the woman poet

11

(3)

The challenge of the new sciences to religious orthodoxy

14

(1)

Humour and dreams in women's poetry

15

(1)

Note on the text of this anthology

16

(3)

THE POETS

Felicia Hemans (1793-1835)

19

(23)

Epitaph on Mr W---

22

(1)

The Wife of Asdrubal

23

(3)

Properzia Rossi

26

(5)

Joan of Arc in Rheims

31

(3)

The Homes of England

34

(2)

The Palm-tree

36

(1)

Casabianca

37

(2)

Woman and Fame

39

(1)

To a Wandering Female Singer

40

(2)

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861)

42

(43)

A Thought for a Lonely Death-bed

45

(1)

The Lady's `Yes'

46

(1)

The Cry of the Children

47

(6)

Bertha in the Lane

53

(8)

Loved Once

61

(2)

The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim's Point

63

(9)

Hiram Powers' `Greek Slave'

72

(1)

A Man's Requirements

73

(2)

A Curse for a Nation

75

(4)

A Musical Instrument

79

(2)

Mother and Poet

81

(4)

Emily Pfeiffer (1827-1890)

85

(26)

Nathaniel to Ruth

88

(3)

`Peace to the odalisque, whose morning glory'

91

(1)

Among the Hebrides

91

(1)

To Nature I

92

(1)

To Nature IV

93

(1)

To a Moth that Drinketh of the Ripe October I

93

(1)

To a Moth that Drinketh of the Ripe October II

94

(1)

Aspiration I

95

(1)

A Chrysalis

95

(1)

Studies from the Antique

96

(2)

Kassandra I

96

(1)

Kassandra II

97

(1)

Klytemnestra I

97

(1)

The Fight at Rorke's Drift

98

(4)

The Bower among the Beans

102

(1)

The Cruse of Tears. A Russian Legend

103

(1)

Mid-ocean

104

(1)

The Witch's Last Ride

105

(4)

Any Husband to Many a Wife

109

(1)

The Sonsy Milkmaid

110

(1)

Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)

111

(33)

Goblin Market

114

(17)

A Birthday

131

(1)

My Dream

132

(2)

Maude Clare

134

(2)

Song

136

(1)

A Better Resurrection

136

(2)

The World

138

(1)

Old and New Year Ditties 3

138

(2)

Long Barren

140

(1)

Autumn Violets

141

(1)

Two Thoughts of Death

141

(1)

In an Artist's Studio

142

(2)

Augusta Webster (1837-1894)

144

(23)

Passing Away

147

(1)

Medea in Athens [extract]

148

(6)

A Castaway [extract]

154

(4)

Where Home Was

158

(2)

The Flood of Is in Brittany

160

(3)

From Mother and Daughter. An Uncompleted Sonnet-Sequence

163

(4)

II

163

(1)

VI

163

(1)

VII

164

(1)

XI

164

(1)

XVI

165

(1)

XX

165

(1)

XXVII

166

(1)

Adah Isaacs Menken (1839?-1868)

167

(18)

Judith

170

(4)

Myself

174

(3)

Genius

177

(3)

Aspiration

180

(1)

A Memory

181

(1)

Answer Me

182

(3)

Mathilde Blind (1841-1896)

185

(23)

Manchester by Night

188

(1)

Haunted Streets

188

(1)

Motherhood

189

(1)

On a Forsaken Lark's Nest

190

(1)

The Red Sunsets, 1883

190

(1)

A Winter Landscape

191

(1)

From Love in Exile

192

(2)

I

192

(1)

II

193

(1)

IV

193

(1)

The Message

194

(8)

Many Will Love You

202

(1)

A Fantasy

203

(2)

Scarabaeus Sisyphus

205

(1)

Mourning Women

205

(1)

Noonday Rest

206

(2)

`Michael Field' [Katharine Harris Bradley (1846-1914) and Edith Emma Cooper (1862-1913)]

208

(27)

From Long Ago

211

(9)

XIV

211

(1)

XXIV

212

(1)

XXXIII

212

(1)

XXXIV

213

(2)

XXXV

215

(1)

LII [Tiresias]

215

(3)

LXV

218

(2)

L'Indifferent

220

(1)

La Gioconda

221

(1)

`Thanatos, thy praise I sing'

221

(1)

`A girl'

222

(1)

`It was deep April, and the morn'

223

(1)

Irises

224

(1)

Cyclamens

224

(1)

Constancy

224

(1)

Tiger-lilies

225

(1)

Renewal

226

(1)

A Flaw

226

(1)

Onycha

227

(1)

A Palmipsest

227

(1)

Second Thoughts

228

(1)

Wheat-miners

229

(2)

Will You Crucify Your King?

231

(2)

`Loved, on a sudden thou didst come to me'

233

(1)

Lovers

233

(1)

`Lo, my loved is dying, and the call'

234

(1)

Constance Naden (1858-1889)

235

(22)

The Sister of Mercy

238

(1)

The Pantheist's Song of Immortality

239

(1)

Love Versus Learning

240

(2)

Moonlight and Gas

242

(1)

The Two Artists

243

(2)

Love's Mirror

245

(1)

Evolutional Erotics

246

(9)

Scientific Wooing

246

(3)

The New Orthodoxy

249

(2)

Natural Selection

251

(2)

Solomon Redivivus, 1886

253

(2)

The Pessimist's Vision

255

(1)

Poet and Botanist

256

(1)

Rosamund Marriott Watson (1860-1911)

257

(26)

Old Pauline

260

(1)

Ballad of the Bird-bride

260

(4)

Betty Barnes, the Book-burner

264

(1)

Of the Earth, Earthy

265

(1)

Aubade

266

(1)

An Enchanted Princess

267

(1)

The Moor Girl's Well

268

(3)

A Ballad of the Were-wolf

271

(2)

Vespertilia

273

(3)

Hic Jacet

276

(1)

A Midnight Harvest

277

(1)

Serenade

278

(1)

Die Zauberflote

279

(1)

A Ruined Altar

280

(1)

The White Lady

281

(2)

Mary Elizabeth Coleridge (1861-1907)

283

(25)

To Memory

286

(1)

The Other Side of a Mirror

287

(1)

Master and Guest

288

(1)

`He came unto His own, and His own received Him not'

289

(1)

`True to myself am I, and false to all'

290

(1)

Our Lady

291

(1)

Doubt

292

(1)

The Witch

293

(1)

Awake

294

(1)

Marriage

294

(1)

On a Bas-relief of Pelops and Hippodameia

295

(1)

In Dispraise of the Moon

295

(1)

Wilderspin

296

(2)

Death

298

(1)

Pride

299

(1)

Wasted

300

(1)

`The fire, the lamp, and I, were alone together'

300

(1)

September

301

(1)

The White Women

301

(2)

`O Earth, my mother! not upon thy breast'

303

(1)

No Newspapers

303

(1)

A Clever Woman

304

(1)

Alcestis to Admetus

304

(1)

Solo

305

(1)

Sadness

305

(1)

Words

306

(1)

`Some in a child would live, some in a book'

307

(1)

May Kendall [Emma Goldworth] (1861-1943)

308

(23)

Lay of the Trilobite

311

(3)

Ballad of the Ichthyosaurus

314

(3)

The Philanthropist and the Jelly-fish

317

(1)

Woman's Future

318

(2)

Ballad of the Cadger

320

(2)

The Last Performance

322

(1)

Church Echoes

323

(2)

Vicar's Daughter

323

(1)

Charity Child

324

(1)

Tramp

324

(1)

Failures

325

(1)

The Sandblast Girl and the Acid Man

326

(3)

Underground

329

(1)

In the Toy Shop

330

(1)

Amy Levy (1861-1889)

331

(25)

Run to Death

334

(2)

Sinfonia Eroica

336

(1)

Magdalen

337

(3)

Christopher Found

340

(4)

To Lallie

344

(2)

A London Plane-tree

346

(1)

Ballade of an Omnibus

346

(1)

London Poets

347

(1)

In the Mile End Road

348

(1)

The Old House

349

(1)

Captivity

349

(2)

Cambridge in the Long

351

(1)

Oh, is it Love?

352

(1)

The First Extra

352

(1)

Philosophy

353

(1)

A Ballad of Religion and Marriage

354

(2)

Bibliography

356

(21)

Index of Titles and First Lines

377

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Victorian Women Poets: An Annotated Anthology

Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials