poetry victorian context

Question 1

What is the structure of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s The Kraken?

Answer 1

A sonnet with an extra line

Question 2

What did Victorians like to use the sea for?

Answer 2

Its power and mystery

Question 3

What was the first sea-based influence for Victorian folklore and superstition?

Answer 3

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

Question 4

What did Tennyson become?

Answer 4

Poet Laureate

Question 5

How were Victorians influenced by the Romantics?

Answer 5

Fascination with the unknown and the sublime

Question 6

What sector were Victorian discoveries taking place in?

Answer 6

Science

Question 7

What is the format of My Last Duchess?

Answer 7

Dramatic Monologue

Question 8

What does R Browning critique in MLD?

Answer 8

Objectification of women
Abuse of power

Question 9

Where is MLD set?

Answer 9

Renaissance Italy

Question 10

Why were the Victorians fascinated with Renaissance Italy?

Answer 10

They were patrons of the arts

Question 11

Who was the real duke in MLD?

Answer 11

Duke of Ferrara
Alfonso 2 d’Este

Question 12

Who was the Duke in MLD first wife and when did she die?

Answer 12

Lucrezia di Cosmo de Medici
3 years into the marriage

Question 13

How old were the Duke and first Duchess?

Answer 13

He was 25
She was 14

Question 14

Who did the Duke want as his next wife?

Answer 14

The daughter of The Holy Roman Empire

Question 15

What were R Browning’s social beliefs?

Answer 15

Feminist and critical

Question 16

How old was Emily Bronte when she composed Spellbound?

Answer 16

19

Question 17

What was Bronte’s character like?

Answer 17

Stubborn and secretive

Question 18

What was Bronte’s pseudonym?

Answer 18

Ellis Bell

Question 19

What factors make Bronte’s work Romantically influenced?

Answer 19

Emotive, love, nature, imagination and death

Question 20

What was Bronte’s fantasy land?

Answer 20

Gondal

Question 21

Where was Bronte happiest?

Answer 21

Secluded Yorkshire

Question 22

Why didn’t Bronte fit the ideal Victorian woman?

Answer 22

She had a head for logic and capability for argument

Question 23

What format is Remembrance by Emily Bronte?

Answer 23

An elegy

Question 24

Who are the subjects of Remembrance

Answer 24

Queen Rosina Alcona
King Julius Brenzaida

Question 25

What was significant about the title Remembrance?

Answer 25

A common title amongst male writers of the time (Byron, Shelley)
Placed her in discourse with men

Question 26

What was common at the time of Emily Bronte’s writing?

Answer 26

Untimely and early death

Question 27

What was Bronte’s father and where did they live?

Answer 27

Vicar
Haworth Parsonage

Question 28

How old was Christina Rosetti when she wrote Song?

Answer 28

18

Question 29

What did Rosetti focus her works on?

Answer 29

Mortality, religious devotion, complexities of women’s lives in conservative Victorian society

Question 30

What was Rosetti diagnosed with? And what was the effect of this?

Answer 30

Graves Disease
She was a vivacious child but a formal and controlled adult

Question 31

What did Rosetti fear about herself?

Answer 31

She would die an early death

Question 32

What were Rosetti’s religious beliefs?

Answer 32

High Church Anglican

Question 33

What happened to Rosetti when she was 14?

Answer 33

Nervous breakdown meaning she became home educated

Question 34

Why did Rosetti break off an engagement?

Answer 34

He became a Roman Catholic

Question 35

What poem is about Judgement Day?

Answer 35

The Kraken

Question 36

What is judgement day?

Answer 36

Christ judges every person and separates the believers from the non-believers

Question 37

What was Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s childhood like?

Answer 37

Sickly child
Controlling father

Question 38

Who ‘saved’ E Browning from her life?

Answer 38

Robert Browning

Question 39

What did Elizabeth and Robert Browning do?

Answer 39

Elope
Had a miracle child at 40 (Elizabeth)

Question 40

What is the structure of sonnet 43? What does this show?

Answer 40

Petrarchan Sonnet
Strong love