Great Victorian Poets - Volume 2

19th Century England was a nation coming to terms with its rise as an industrial superpower. Many of the social problems associated with this and the new social formations provided inspiration to our three Great Victorian poets. Dante Gabriel Rossetti and the rest of the Pre Raphaelites looked backwards for the supposedly rural idylls and chivalry of past times. Robert Browning whose dramatic verse and dramatic monologues reflected the nations desire for grand themes. Elizabeth Barrett Browning poems reflected the concern with social reform and the position of women in this new order. All three poets sought to make sense of the Victorian age that was filled with hypocrisy, paradox and double standards. All three although conservative in character, were outsiders to this world and offered viewpoints that questioned the status quo.