Victorian and Modernist Women’s Poetry

This field was scarcely perceived to exist in the 1960s and 1970s--those who
wished to present women’s poems in classes were forced to teach the subject
from handouts (gathering selections from the available anthologies published in
the 1970s, Ann Stanford’s Women Poets in English, 1972, and Louise
Bernikow’s The World Split Open, 1974). In the 1970s I naively started a card
file of all Victorian women poets in the British Library Catalogue, and by the
time I realized my mistake we had already reached 3000 entries by the letter C.

Thus despite relative educational disavantages, it is clear that middle-class

women published in great numbers. And working-class women published also,
though most often in periodicals and collections; even so, despite early
disclaimers and their omission from most anthologies of Chartist and working-
class verse, at least fifty managed to publish books.

Early criticism of these poets was apologetic (e. g. Margaret Homans, author of
one of the first books in the 1970s putatively on women’s poetry, postulated that
an anxiety of influence prevented their writing [Dorothy Wordsworth] or
writing anything of full significance [Elizabeth Barrett Browning], surely an
insult to the many nineteenth-century women who, anxiety or no, managed to
write good verse). Then came a period in which critics such as Angela Leighton
and Isobel Armstrong attempted to lay out categorizations to counter the
stereotype that women’s poetry was sentimental (as opposed to, say,
disinterested or detached)--and to explore the ways in which this poetry might
have differed from that of male poets of the period.

How is women’s poetry different, if at all?

It’s difficult to proclaim separate categories, for if one were to laim that women’s
poetry was less political, there would be the counterexamples of Elizabeth
Barrett Browning and Mathilde Blind, and women’s poetry’s strong emphasis on
gender politics.
What about the claim that women’s poetry was less doctrinally abstract? Here I
think this may be so--contrast Christina Rossetti with the more orthodoxly
religious poetry of the period, say Gerard Manley Hopkins’s “The Wreck of the
Deutschland.” But then men wrote devotional verse too, e. g. J. H. Newman’s
“Lead Kindly Light.”
If one wished to claim that women were less likely to write long historical
poems, one would find counterexamples in Mathilde Blind (“The Heather on
Fire,” “The Death of Oran”) and Catherine Dawson Scott.
Is there a female equivalent of the medieval Idylls of the the King? Only to a
limited degree--Christina Rossetti wrote a few quasi-medieval poems, and
arguably her “Monna Innominata” is a setpiece response to medieval poetic
conventions. However there do seem to be fewer Arthurian poems, and
somewhat fewer medieval ones.
If one were to claim that women poets were less interested in scientific issues,
there would be the counterexamples of Blind, Constance Naden, and May
Probyn.
And if one were to claim that they wrote less on classical themes, there would be
several counterexamples in Augusta Webster (“Circe”), Amy Levy (“Xantippe”),
and Michael Field.
One could posit that women poets tend less to dramatize the “I” voice, but then
EBB and Edith Sitwell have strong voices.

Some possible patterns:

Women poets evince concern with family and social relations, direct
participation in and commentary on modern society (as defended by EBB in
Aurora Leigh, bk. V).

In this choice there are parallels with the Spasmodics, male poets of the 40s and
50s whose work centered on sensational modern-life dramas (with topics such
as parenting or the failure of love, e. g. “Monna Innominata”). However it has
been plausibly claimed that Elizabeth Barrett Browning evinced “spasmodic”
traits in her bold imagery, metrics and themes.
Women wrote many dramatic monologues (Augusta Webster, Christina
Rossetti, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Amy Levy, Edith Sitwell), but then it was
an age of such monologues--Tennyson, Robert Browning, Morris. Usually the
writer women monologist uses a mask to increase our sympathy for the
otherwise shunned or unorthodox (EBB, “Runaway Slave”), though some
instances of Browningesque irony and oblique condemnation appear also (as
aspects of Webster’s and Levy’s monologues).

Women were lyricists and sonneteers (in a period of great sonnets, Dante
Gabriel Rossetti, Gerard Manley Hopkins, George Meredith, the former
influenced by EBB)

In a period of great epics--by Tennyson, Browning, Morris, and Arnold, among

many others--there were also a few female epics, Aurora Leigh, of course, but
others by Catherine Dawson Scott, Mathilde Blind, and Mary Smith, and many
classical verse dramas by the Fields.)

Women poets, as others of the period, wrote blank verse and odes, and later at
the turn of the century and later tended toward variable stanzaic forms with
some rhyme as these became common (Charlotte Mew).
Women poets manifest considerable concern with social marginality and
excluded groups (Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Amy Levy, Mary McPherson,
Mathilde Blind, Ruth Pitter).

They often present themes of silencing and obscurity (Emily Bronte, Amy Levy,
“A Minor Poet,” Christina Rossetti, EBB’s Aurora Leigh, Alice Meynell and
women modernists)

The often engage the social world directly, and comment on specific events
(Alice Meynell’s “Sunderland Children,” “St. Catherine of Siena,” poets of the
30s). The working-class women poets respond even more directly and literally--
many wrote newspaper poems which evinced the fascination of literacy.

Thus the works of Victorian women poets blended social and psychological
perceptions, forming meditations on the psychological effets of the social world.

Nonetheless some poets were more concerned with the inner life--e. g., Emily
Bronte, Charlotte Mew.
Many held levelling and equalitarian views--e. g. Ruth Pitter.

Religion was often used as a critique of failures of society (Elizabeth Barrett

Browning, Christina Rossetti, later Edith Sitwell)

They share a marked coolness to war and patriotism--even EBB, a supporter of

European democratic revolutions, shows ambivalence about the human costs of
even a “just war” in her “Mother and Son”; Alice Meynell attacks those who
mandate and support wars in “Parentage”; and Edith Sitwell describes
sardonically the effets of war.
Women poets often recast traditional historical accounts or myths, as in
Webster’s “Circe” and “Medea,” and Amy Levy’s “Xantippe.”

Women poets were often influenced by popular genres. For example, several
participated in the art ballad tradition, among them Elizabeth Barrett Browning,
Rosamund Marriott Watson, Edith Sitwell, Charlotte Mew, and many modernist
vernacular poets in Scotland, such as Marion Angus and Violet Jacobs. In
addition, several women, such as Lady Constance Nairne, Lady Anne Lindsay
and Frances Tolmie, were noted rearrangers and collectors of ballads.

Their works are also related to the fiction of the period. There has been a recent
movement in Victorian criticism to see cross generic-features, and for women
poets this seems valuable--similar forms of sensation, crime, drama, and
narrative are present in the poetry, fiction and drama of the period. For
example, Aurora Leigh was influenced by Jane Eyre as well as the novels of
George Sand. Like the fiction of the period, women’s poetry is often oncerned
with fallen woman issue and thus the social definitions of women’s sexuality
(and later with the continuation of the double standard) and with violence
against women (“The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point,” Aurora Leigh).

Women poets were concerned with restrictions on women (“Xantippe”), or

condescension and exclusion from civil life (Meynell’s “Father of Women”).

During the early Victorian period women poets were reviewed in separate
sections of periodicals and newspapers, and judged by separately or on separate
grounds. Elizabeth Barrett Browning was among the first to break the pattern
and be reviewed in the main poetry columns, but the pattern continued to a
lesser extent throughout the 19th century and even into the 20th. Reviewers and
critics were preoccupied with whether the reviewed’s poetry was
womanly/feminine or “manly,” and with defining women’s poetry in terms of its
alleged limitations.

What was the relation of middle-class women’s poetry to working-class women’s

poetry?

Working-class women wrote more directly from an oral tradition (Mary

McPherson, Janet Hamilton); many wrote songs or recast ballads.
Working-class women were more concerned with domestic violence,
temperance, and self-help.
Working-class women were more concerned with the disruptive effects of
poverty on family life (“Oor Location”). They often wrote of the dislocation and
destruction of the family home and ties (Jane Stevenson, Elizabeth Cambpell,
Mary McPherson); these poems are arguably political in a deeper sense.

Are these poets feminist?

Attempts made to distinguish feminism from other strands of thought in

analyzing them fail. Certainly issues vary by the possibilities of their period and
social class.
EBB deals with the problems facing a woman writer in Aurora Leigh (external
and internal); Augusta Webster, Christina Rossetti and others portray the
anxiety caused by the social emphasis on youth and beauty for women.
The late century poets and modernists often express homoerotic sentiments--e.
g., Mary Coleridge, Amy Levy, Michael Field, Charlotte Mew, Sylvia Townsend
Warner and several of the modernists.

Women who married were still caustic about the institution itself (EBB, Augusta
Webster, Anna Wickham, Frances Cornford, Mina Loy).
Many of our poets were single (Christina Rossetti, Emily Bronte, Amy Levy,
Mary Coleridge, Charlotte Mew); they often reflect on or clebrate meditative
features of solitary life (Christina Rossetti, Mary Coleridge, Ruth Pitter)
They express solidarity with women in more threatened or humble
circumstances, or as in Christina Rossetti, grant women a major role in their
account of redemptive processes.

Are there changes between early Victorian and modern women’s poetry?
changes more in form than theme;
dramatic monologues continue, also sonnets;
sonnet sequence fades as the use of the modernist lyric and freer stanza
constructions gain favor;
continuing political and soial commentary is inspired by WWI and the Spanish
Civil War;
as time passes there seems to be even less warmth toward possibility of
romance--contrast EBB with Edith Sitwell or Mina Loy;
religion (tinged toward spirituality not doctrinal orthodoxy), is still used as a
critique of social failures (Stevie Smith), along with appeals to inner moral
standards;
modernists move toward a concern to protect nature, eco-spirituality.
The modernist women poets are travellers and observers, though they write
fewer systematically historical poems as in Pound--an exception is Edith Sitwell
and her use of historical monologues and myths.
They show a greater awareness of war, and the perceived alienation of
modernity has replaced class hierarchies as an overt theme. Not merely the
heedlessness of individual men and society are attacked (“A Castaway,” “The
Runaway Slave”), but even the notion of authentic loyalty seems under threat.

Whether or not there is less dramatization of “I” voice than in men--Edith

Sitwell assumes the voice or mask of declamatory sage or prophet--women
share alienation and irony with male poets of period.
Even the frequent religious tone seems a displacement from the hope of
improvement on earth through the realm of mystery and imagination, rather
than a sense of the possibilty of engagement.

These poets can be usefully approached through a neo-formalist approach,

which embeds a study of the linguistic and formal choices of these poets within
their social contexts.