The people's voice : the role of audience in the popular poems of Longfellow and Tennyson
department or school: Arts, Faculty of
department or school: English, Department of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Torrence, Avril Diane
issued: 2011-03-09T00:27:55Z
issued: 1991
related degree: Doctor of Philosophy - PhD
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: At the height of their popularity in the mid-nineteenth century, a vast transatlantic readership conferred on Longfellow and Tennyson the title "The People's Poet." This examination of Anglo-American Victorian poetry attempts to account for that phenomenon. A poetic work is first defined as an aesthetic experience that occurs within a triangular matrix of text, author, and reader. As reception theorist Hans Robert Jauss contends, both the creator's and the receptor's aesthetic experiences are filtered through a historically determined "horizon of expectations" that governs popular appeal. A historical account of the publication and promotion of Longfellow's and Tennyson's poetry provides empirical evidence for how and why their poetic texts appealed to a widespread readership. This account is followed by an analysis of the class and gender of Victorian readers of poetry that considers the role of "consumers" in the production of both poetry and poetic personae as commodities for public consumption. The development of each poet's voice is then examined in a context of a gendered "separate-sphere" ideology to explain how both Longfellow's and Tennyson's adoption of "feminine" cadences in their respective voices influenced the nineteenth-century reception of their work. The final two chapters analyze select texts—lyric and narrative—to determine reasons for their popular appeal in relation to the level of active reader engagement in the poetic experience. Through affective lyricism, as in Longfellow's "Psalm of Life" and Tennyson's "Break, break, break," these poets demanded that their readers listen; through sentiment transformed into domestic allegory, as in Miles Standish and Enoch Arden, these poets demanded further that they feel. While both Victorian poets were later decanonized by their modern successors, contemporary critics, mainly academic, have restored Tennyson to the literary canon while relegating Longfellow to a second-rate schoolroom status. The conclus…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/32172
note: THE PEOPLE'S VOICE: THE ROLE OF AUDIENCE IN THE POPULAR POEMS OF LONGFELLOW AND TENNYSON By AVRIL DIANE TORRENCE B.A., Simon F r a s e r U n i v e r s i t y , 1981 M. A., The U n i v e r s i t y o f T o r o n t o , 1983 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY i n THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (The Department o f E n g l i s h ) We a c c e p t t h i s t h e s i s as c o n f o r m i n g t o t h e r e q u i r e d s t a n d a r d THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA October 1991 ©Avril Diane T o r r e n c e , 1991 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of & Ll S H The University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada Date Z>£. JO DE-6 (2/88) ABSTRACT A t t h e h e i g h t o f t h e i r p o p u l a r i t y i n t h e m i d - n i n e t e e n t h c e n t u r y , a v a s t t r a n s a t l a n t i c r e a d e r s h i p c o n f e r r e d on L o n g f e l l o w and Tennyson t h e t i t l e "The P e o p l e ' s P o e t . " T h i s e x a m i n a t i o n o f A n g l o - A m e r i c a n V i c t o r i a n p o e t r y a t t e m p t s t o a c c o u n t f o r t h a t phenomenon. A p o e t i c work i s f i r s t d e f i n e d as an a e s t h e t i c e x p e r i e n c e t h a t o c c u r s w i t h i n a t r i a n g u l a r m a t r i x o f t e x t , a u t h o r , and r e a d e r . As r e c e p t i o n t h e o r i s t Hans R o b e r t J a u s s c o n t e n d s , b o t h t h e c r e a t o r ' s and t h e r e c e p t o r ' s a e s t h e t i c e x p e r i e n…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0101024
language: eng
degree discipline: English
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.
scholar level: Graduate
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/32172