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Unit 20: The Victorian Age (Pre-Raphaelite Poetry)

which like that of the compatriot painters of the same age, was marked by sensuousness, devotion Notes
to detail, and realism. A kind of mysticism and love of symbolism also characterised their work.
Next, there was Spenser whose poetry in its symbolism, sensuousness, and mystical overtones is
near Pre-Raphaelite poetry. Last but not least was the poetry of nineteenth century English romantic
poets, particularly Keats. Saintsbury in A History of Nineteenth Century Literature considers Pre-
Raphaelitism a direct and legitimate development of the Romantic Revival in England. Coleridge’s
supematuralism, Keats’s sensuousness, Shelley’s mysticism, Wordsworth’s concern for “the meanest
flower that blows”-all merge into the poetry of the Pre-Raphaelites. The Pre-Raphaelites’ insistence
on realism has to be taken with a grain of salt. In poetry, at last, they were as keen escapists as most
of the Romantics themselves had been. A critic observes: “Despite their professed aim of realism,
the Pre-Raphaelite poet tended ultimately toward the creation of a poetic realm in which
medievalism, musicality, and vague religious feeling combined to achieve a narcotically escapist
effect.” Lastly we may mention Tennyson himself, the metrical artist and connoisseur of sounds.

Self Assessment
Fill in the blanks:
1. The ...................., which was initiated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti in the mid-nineteenth
century, was originally not a literary but an artistic movement.
2. Dante Gabriel Rossetti desired to see it taken back to the realism, sensuousness, and devo-
tion to detail which characterize the art of the Italian painters before .................... .
3. Rossetti and some other members of the .................... were both painters and poets.
4. The qualities which distinguished pre-Raphaelite painting also characterized .................... .
5. Saintsbury in a history on nineteenth century literature considers Pre-Raphaelitism a
direct and legitimate development of the .................... in England.

20.3 Salient Features of Pre-Raphaelites

20.3.1 Break with Tradition
Pre-Raphaelite poetry broke with the set tradition of poets like Tennyson. The Pre-Raphaelites
revolted against the over-concern of poets like Tennyson with contemporary socio-political
problems. Consequently, none of the Pre-Raphaelites concerns himself with sordid realism and
the mundane issues of his day, but escapes to a dream world of his own making.

20.3.2 Medievalism

This dream-world is often provided by the middle Ages which had, even before the Pre-Raphaelites,
exercised a strong hold on the minds of some Romantics like Coleridge, Keats, and Scott. Medieval
Italy, being the land of artists before Raphael, held for them a very special attraction. The
medievalism of the Pre-Raphaelites had “a subtle something” which differentiates it from that of
the Romantics before them. Saintsbury observes in this context: “The return of this school was to
a medievalism different from the tentative and scrappy medievalism of Percy, from the genial but
slightly superficial medievalism of Scott, and even from the more exact but narrow and distinctly
conventional medievalism of Tennyson.” Some Pre-Raphaelites, such as Hunt and Millais the
painter, were somewhat sceptical of medievalism but Rossetti and Morris, in particular, felt a
compulsive fascination for the romance, chivalry, gorgeousness, mystery and supernaturalism of
the middle Ages. Many of Rossetti’s poems (like The Blessed Damozel and Sister Helen) are
redolent of the spirit of the middle Ages. “As a medievalist,” says Compton-Rickett in A History
of English Literature: “Rossetti is obviously in congenial surroundings for the mingled warp of
sensuousness and super sensuousness, so characteristic of the middle Ages, suited to a nicety his
peculiar genius.” However, it was Rossetti alone who, among the members of the original
Brotherhood, exalted medievalism to a cult. Later, Morris also came under the medieval spell.

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