Arthur Hugh Clough, born in Liverpool on 1 January 1819 and dead in Florence on 13 November 1861, occupies an unusual and compelling place in nineteenth-century English poetry. He was a Victorian poet, but he often sounds impatient with the assurances conventionally associated with Victorian verse: confidence in progress, confidence in religious doctrine, confidence in moral formulas, and confidence that elevated poe…
“Ignorance is a poor kind of innocence. The world is wiser than the wise, and as innocent as the innocent; and it has long been found out what is the best way of taking things.”
Neighbourhood:
Death & Mortality, Love Poets, Pre-Raphaelite Poets, Social Justice Poets, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Spirituality, Wonder, Longing
Charles Stuart Calverley burst onto the Victorian literary scene like a sudden shaft of sunlight piercing the solemn clouds of high-minded poetry. Born in an age that prized ponderous epics and moralizing odes, he carved out a niche as the undisputed master of light verse, parody, and scholarly wit. His poems danced with verbal dexterity, skewering pretension while celebrating the simple joys of tobacco, beer, and sc…
“Master, they do tell me that some people think it is a squirrel.”
Neighbourhood:
Light Verse Poets, Love Poets, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Irony, Joy, Tenderness
