selves in what we call "lyrical drama," that is, poems in dramatic form which express the ideas, moods, emotions, and reflections of the author rather than tell a story through the speech of characters for presentation on a stage before an audience. Only one real tragedy that is truly dramatic and at the same time of literary value was written, Shelley's The Cenci, a dark and terrible story of cruelty and crime in the Italian Renaissance. SUMMARY 1798-1832 I. Poetry a. Lyrical poetry 1. Sonnet Wordsworth, Keats 2. Song Scott, Shelley 3. Reflective lyric Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley, Landor 4. Ode Wordsworth, Keats 5. Elegy Shelley b. Narrative poetry 1. Tale Wordsworth, Coleridge, Scott, Byron, Shelley, Keats 2. Literary ballad Scott c. Descriptive poetry Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Keats d. Didactic poetry 1. Satire Byron 2. Reflective epic II. Prose a. Essay Lamb, Hazlitt, De Quincey b. Criticism Wordsworth, Coleridge, Hazlitt c. Biography De Quincey, Southey III. Novel a. Novel of manners Jane Austen b. Historical novel Scott IV. Drama a. Lyrical drama Shelley, Byron b. Tragedy Shelley THE DEVELOPMENT OF FORMS IN ENGLISH LITERATURE FROM 1832 TO 1880 By 1832 the great writers of the romantic period either were dead or were no longer doing important work. A new generation was rising which was to continue the literary traditions of the romantic period, but which was to be interested in new ideas and new ways of life. The year 1832 saw the passage of the great Reform Bill which was the first step in the progress of England toward its modern democratic government. Within comparatively few years more changes were to come in English life than had come since the Renaissance. The modern factory system with its many social and economic problems; the inprovement in means of travel, such as the steamship and the railway; improved methods of communication, such as the telegraph and the modern postal system; the vast increase in wealth; the exploration of the dark places in the world and the settlement of many of them by Europeans; the growth of new states, such as Germany, Italy, and Japan; the rise of the United States to world power; the preparation for war on a tremendous scale; and the spread of education-all these and a score of other forces were about to make a profound change in men's views of life. In a few short years still another great literary period, usually called from the fact that it coincided with the long reign of Queen Victoria-the "Victorian period," was under way. Poetry The greatest development continued to be in the field of poetry. Here as elsewhere in Victorian literature the development was in subject matter rather than in form. The sonnet, for instance, could be written no more perfectly than it had been written by Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, and Keats, but it could be used to express a wider range of subjects. Almost all the poets of the new day wrote some sonnets, though the best known are by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) whose Sonnets from the Portuguese revived the love sonnet with a new sincerity and depth; and by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) whose House of Life, inspired directly by the Italian sonnets of the Renaissance, contains some of the most glowing love poetry in English literature. The song, too, appears with continued power in the work of Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892) whose poems, by their sweetness, grace, and music, made him the most popular and most honored poet of the nineteenth century. His songs in The Princess: "Tears, idle tears," "Sweet and low," and "The splendor falls on castle walls," not only were great lyrics, but achieved a popularity which truly great lyrics have never since achieved. The songs of Robert Browning (1812-1889) waited longer for recognition, but in time were valued at their true worth. "The year's at the spring" from Pippa Passes, and Cavalier Tunes have not only grace and charm, but a fire and energy of which Tennyson was not capable. As poets demanded more and more freedom than could be secured in rigidly restricted patterns, the ode continued to be treated more and more freely. Indeed the name itself became less popular. Tennyson's Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington with its martial rhythms and its dignified thought and form is in the best traditions of the free ode. Elegiac poetry is well represented in the works of Tennyson and of Matthew Arnold (1822-1888). A large part of Tennyson's fame rested on his great elegy In Memoriam, written in memory of his friend Arthur Henry Hallam. This elegy, which is a collection of lyrics on varied thoughts about life and death, is one of the really great English elegies. To the readers of the nineteenth century its author seemed a great teacher expressing in plaintive, courageous, mournful, and triumphant verse their religious hopes, fears, doubt, and faith. Matthew Arnold's elegy Thyrsis was written in memory of his friend, the poet Arthur Hugh Clough. It is noble, serious, and well sustained as are most of Arnold's poems, presenting with grave nobility his questionings of the religious beliefs of his time. The reflective lyric, as in the romantic period, is by far the most important form of lyrical poetry. Here again Tennyson, Browning, and Arnold are the great masters. Tennyson's mind was deeply stirred by the many changes which he saw in the course of his long life. He attempted to carry on the noblest traditions of poetry, to keep abreast of the new interests of science and democracy, and to retain a calmly assured faith "that somehow good Will be the final goal of ill." Possessed as he was with a sure command of technical form, it is little wonder that such poems as Ulysses, Tithonus, and Crossing the Bar seem likely never to lose their calm and glowing beauty. Browning was a man of quite different stamp. At the end of his life he wrote of himself: “One who never turned his back but marched breast forward, Never doubted clouds would break, Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, In this spirit of triumphant optimism, though in verse which was often obscure and harsh, he set out to express his reflections on the great problems of life which all men must face. In Rabbi Ben Ezra he expresses his conviction that "Our times are in His hand Who saith, 'A whole I planned, see all, nor be afraid!"" In Prospice he expressed his faith in immortality; in Love Among the Ruins he sings the overwhelming importance of true love; and in The Statue and the Bust he affirms: "the sin I impute to each frustrate ghost Is the unlit lamp and the ungirt loin, Matthew Arnold is the poet of religious doubt and of moral strength. In Dover Beach he feels that religious faith |