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The document compares three Victorian poems—Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold, Porphyria's Lover by Robert Browning, and Ulysses by Alfred Lord Tennyson—highlighting their shared theme of the struggle between individual will and external forces. Each poet's unique style reflects this theme: Arnold's contemplative tone, Browning's dramatic monologue, and Tennyson's heroic verse. Additionally, the poems reflect Victorian societal anxieties regarding belief, love, and the challenges of modernity.

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53 views2 pages

Oh

The document compares three Victorian poems—Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold, Porphyria's Lover by Robert Browning, and Ulysses by Alfred Lord Tennyson—highlighting their shared theme of the struggle between individual will and external forces. Each poet's unique style reflects this theme: Arnold's contemplative tone, Browning's dramatic monologue, and Tennyson's heroic verse. Additionally, the poems reflect Victorian societal anxieties regarding belief, love, and the challenges of modernity.

Uploaded by

omarmir564
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Victorian Voices in Poetry – Arnold, Browning & Tennyson

Poems: Dover Beach (Matthew Arnold), Porphyria's Lover (Robert Browning), Ulysses (Alfred,
Lord Tennyson).

Comparison

One shared overall theme for all three poems is that of struggle between individual will and the
forces which hold or counter it back. In Dover Beach, the speaker longs for ever-present truth
and stability in a world where religion has withdrawn "like the Sea of Faith." The necessity for
certainty is at odds with the reality of doubt and religious uncertainty. In Porphyria's Lover, the
narrator longs for an unblemished, eternal instant of love, but the needs of the real world and
Porphyria's possible role duties compel him to freeze the instant in violence. In Ulysses, the
aging king will not settle for a stagnant life in his home but longs to continue seeking adventure
despite age and duty. In both, desire confronts the boundaries imposed by time, society, or
religion.

The difference in style is in how each poet handles this theme:

• Arnold uses a contemplative, elegiac tone and blank verse moving with fluidity to create a
meditative rhythm, mirroring the ebb and flow of the sea. His imagery is symbolic and oblique,
linking the physical world with philosophical thought.

• Browning uses the dramatic monologue, employing conversational rhythms, psychological


acuteness, and an unreliable narrator to suggest character indirectly. The tension is created
through irony—what the speaker affirms and what the reader infers.

• Tennyson uses heroic blank verse with elevated diction, classical references, and rhythmic
momentum that emulates Ulysses' agitated eagerness. His voice is rhetorical and motivational,
propelling the reader forward even while acknowledging mortality.

Thus, while all three poets deal with the tension between desire and reality, Arnold's voice is
philosophical, Browning's is psychological, and Tennyson's is heroic.

Reflection of Victorian Society (brief note)

They express quintessential Victorian anxieties and aspirations: Arnold's the erosion of belief
before scientific progress, Browning's the dark undertows of love and social life beneath a
surface of civility, and Tennyson's the imperialism and self-reliance of the age combined with an
awareness of human fallibility. Together, they express a culture caught between change,
uncertainty, and the necessity for meaning in a transforming modern world.

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