Victorian Poetry

Designed for students, general readers, and teachers, this bibliography provides annotations to critical commentaries for more than eighty of the most read and most taught poems by major and minor Victorian figures. A brief introductory essay surveys the status of Victorian poetry as a discipline for study; provides information about periodicals or monograph series which routinely publish materials on Victorian poets and their works; and summarizes the contents of dozens of works offering useful introductions to the study of nineteenth-century English poetry. Separate chapters cover criticism of the works of individual poets, including Matthew Arnold, the Brownings, George Meredith, Christina Rossetti, and others. Included are summaries of monographs, chapters, and articles in volumes of collected essays. Annotations identify the central thesis of each entry, provide succinct identifications of the major critical approach taken by the author(s), and indicate, when appropriate, the presence of sources for additional study. An index is provided to assist in locating information about individual poems and authors.