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The Blind Girl (1856) by John Everett Millais depicts two itinerant beggars, presumed to be sisters, one of whom is a blind musician, her concertina on her lap. They are resting by the roadside after a rainstorm, before travelling to the town of Winchelsea, visible in the background.
The painting has been interpreted as an allegory of the senses, contrasting the experiences of the blind and sighted sisters. The former feels the warmth of the sun on her face, and fondles a blade of grass, while the latter shields her eyes from the sun or rain and looks at a double rainbow that has just appeared. Some critics have interpreted the rainbow in Biblical terms, as the sign of God's covenant described in Genesis 9:16.
From Wikipedia
British Poetry and the Sister Arts: 1840-1920
Throughout this course we will sample some of the wide range of poetry written during this period in the context of the era’s related art and musical settings. Victorian poetry was remarkable for its linguistic virtuosity (G. M. Hopkins); narrative complexity (Elizabeth Barrett Browning); feminist agenda (Rosamund Marriott Watson); psychological intensity (William Morris); unconventional eroticism (Algernon Swinburne); philosophic depth (Alfred Tennyson); intricate humor (Robert Browning); and broad social appeal (Janet Hamilton, Samuel Bamford). We will discuss poetry of celebration, consolation, amusement, and reflection during the high-Victorian period and the fin de siècle, as well as that of the First World War, written by women and by men, by members of several classes, and by defenders of different social and religious faiths.
Class sessions will also consider issues of poetic language, rhetoric and genre, the social context and audience, and the pictorial and aural qualities of these poems which make them appropriate complements to other forms of art.
Students will prepare individual projects on poets of their choice, to be presented to their fellow students. I will also offer information about the period, the individual authors’ lives and the Victorian literary marketplace, and we will view many examples of Victorian visual art. Class will focus on discussion, so attendance is essential (and will affect final grades), and I will ask students to submit six ICON postings and twelve additional pages of written work.
Course Information and Assignments
- TTh English-Philosophy Building, Room 202 5-6:15 p. m.
- Instructor: Florence Boos, florence-boos@uiowa.edu
- Office: 319 EPB; office phone 335-0434
- Office hours: before most classes (let me know so I’ll be sure to be in); TTh 6:16-7 p. m.;
Wednesday and Friday afternoons by appointment
Textbooks: Broadview Anthology of Victorian Poetry, Concise Edition and handouts from Linda
Hughes, The Cambridge Introduction to Victorian Poetry, and Carol Christ, "Victorian Poetry,"
from the Blackwell Companion to Victorian Poetry.
Exam: Tuesday December 12th at 5 p. m. or another time agreed on by class vote.
Course Requirements:
Participation: contributions to class discussion. Please read the assignment before class and come prepared to discuss the poem’s form and content, and to ask any questions you may have about unclear passages.
In addition, please come to class with a brief written answer to the following question: What is something you found valuable, important, or interesting in the reading? Why did this seem significant to you? (i. e., a beautiful passage, relevance to present day life or to your own life, psychological complexity, unconventionality, representative quality, etc.)
Since this is a large class, we’ll aim to discuss a couple of these written questions each time in rotation.
Shorter essays, ICON.
Six times during the semester, by the times indicated on the syllabus, please post an essay equivalent to two typed pages on our discussion space on the class ICON.
Of the postings,
- at least one should respond to a work or works of Victorian art, most likely from the Pre-Raphaelite and Morris slides which we view;
- at least one should provide background or commentary on a song or musical work composed between 1840 and 1920;
- one should use biographical or critical material from an article or book chapter which discusses the text on which you are commenting;
- and one or more should apply some of the observations in Linda Hughes’s The Cambridge Companion to Victorian Poetry or Carol Christ’s essay/introduction to Victorian poetry to a poem or poems which we read.
Due to the desire for assessment early in the semester, I will provide grades for these. However,
these short essays are intended chiefly as a way for you to work out your ideas and are thus
weighted less than the longer papers.
Two Longer Assignments: A Project+Essay and a Critical/Scholarly Essay
Grading: With some variation for special factors and marked improvement, grades will be roughly based on the following scale:
Project + essay and critical/scholarly essay, 35% each
Class discussion 20%
ICON postings 10%
Class Decorum:
No cell phones! It goes without saying that computers are to be used only to access course materials.
Special Day: I will be absent at a conference November 9th, 2023. I will leave questions for you to discuss in class that day, and students will record their conversations by Zoom.
Course Syllabus
Week 1
August 22nd T introduction; explanation of assignments
August 24th Th working-class poems by Ellen Johnson, W. J. Linton, Samuel Laycock, Fanny Forrester, and anonymous (handout); recordings
Week 2
August 29th T working-class poems
August 31st Th Elizabeth Barrett Browning, "The Cry of the Children"
Week 3
September 5th T assignment: critical articles by Carol Christ and Linda Hughes (handouts)
September 7th Th Pre-Raphaelite painting, slides
First posting due Friday September 8th
Week 4
September 12th T Victorian metrics--examples from our texts
September 14th Th Tennyson, "In Memoriam," 15 sections
Week 5
September 19th T Tennyson, "in Memoriam," 15 sections
September 21st Th slides of Victorian art
Week 6
September 26th T Robert Browning, "Fra Lippo Lippi"
September 28th Th Robert Browning
Second posting due Friday September 29th
Week 7
October 3rd T D. G. Rossetti, "The Blessed Damozel"
October 5th Th D. G. Rossetti, "Jenny"
Week 8
October 10th T Christina Rossetti, "Goblin Market"
October 12th Th August Webster, "The Castaway"
Third posting due Friday October 13th
Week 9
October 17th T Ausgusta Webster, "The Castaway"
October 19th Th Gerard Manley Hopkins, "The Windhover," "Binsey Poplars," "Pied Beauty," "Inversnaid," "Carrion Comfort"
Week 10
William Morris, Chants for Socialists
October 26th Th slides, Morris and the decorative arts
Fourth posting due Friday October 27th
Week 11
October 31st T Michael Field (Katharine Bradley and Edith Cooper), "A Portrait," "Embalmment," "Trinity," "A Palimpsest," "Fellowship"
November 2nd Th Oscar Wilde, "The Ballad of Reading Gaol"
Week 12
November 7th T Oscar Wilde
November 9th Th Charlotte Mew, "The Trees Are Down"
November 10th Project + essay due
Week 13
November 14th T Project Day
November 16th Th Wilfred Owen, "Strange Meeting"
Fifth posting due November 17th
Week 14
Thanksgiving
Week 15
November 28th T Siegfried Sassoon, "The Repression of War Experience"
November 30th Th T. S. Eliot, "The Waste Land"
December 1st F Final Icon posting due
Week 16
December 5th T T. S. Eliot
December 7th Th ____
Final exam Tuesday December 12th, 2023
Final 6 page Critical/Scholarly Essay/Exam due December 15th