The Pre-Raphaelites: From Rossetti to Ruskin

by Dinah Roe (Editor), Various

The Pre-Raphaelite Movement began in 1848, and experienced its heyday in the 1860s and 1870s. Influenced by the then little-known Keats and Blake, as well as Wordsworth, Shelley and Coleridge, Pre-Raphaelite poetry 'etherialized sensation' (in the words of Antony Harrison), and popularized the notion ofl'art pour l'art - art for art's sake. Where Victorian realist novels explored the grit and grime of the Industrial Revolution, Pre-Raphaelite poems concentrated on more abstract themes of romantic love, artistic inspiration and sexuality. Later they attracted Aesthetes and Decadents like Oscar Wilde, Aubrey Beardsley and Ernest Dowson, not to mention Gerard Manley Hopkins and W.B. Yeats.

Genres: Poetry, Art, Classics, Nonfiction, 19th Century, Pre Raphaelite, British Literature

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Born and raised in Upstate New York, Dinah Roe was educated at Vassar College. She is the author of Christina Rossetti’s Faithful Imagination (2006). She has recently completed selecting, editing and introducing the Selected Poems of Christina Rossetti for Penguin Classics. She lives and works in London.

Reviews

[Alix · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the wide selection of poems and the history of the PRB given by Dinah Roe in the beginning. It was a short lived movement but I love many of the paintings and artworks produced during that time so I wanted to give some of the poetry a shot. Your mileage will vary when it comes to the selection of poems. While I think the poems selected are a good representation of the PRB movement, some poets are clearly better than others. Some of the poems just read as whiny to me. Also, a few of the male poets and their poems of love were a little cringey for me at times.

I’m not a huge poetry person, but I am a fan of many classical poets, such as John Keats, of which the PRB wrote a lot of pieces about.

My favorite poets from this volume would be John Payne, William Allingham, Christina Rossetti, and Elizabeth Siddal. If you’re a fan of poetry or interested in reading poetry from the PRB movement, I think you’ll enjoy this selection of poems. If you’re just a casual reader I’m not sure if this will appeal to you. These aren’t poems that appeal to a wide audience in my opinion.

[Chloe · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Tate’s Pre-Raphaelite exhibition inspired me to pick up this volume and Dinah Roe’s notes are incredibly helpful and informative.

In terms of the poetry, I enjoyed the varied selection but some authors and poems stood far above others. As a result, my attention felt like a tennis ball flying between focus and distraction with each hit of poetry.

Overall, I do appreciate the work of these poets and have been delighted to discover some new favourites that I will return to again and again.

[crispy bits · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some GOATs in here; really loved Christina Rossetti and Elizabeth Siddall in particular. Many of the poems I felt dragged a little which hampered my enjoyment of the collection overall, but a good read.

[Aisling · Rating 4 out of 5]

"All places that have known my love at all
Have grown as sympathetic friends to me,
And each for song has some dear memory,
Some perfume of her presence clings to all;
How then, to me, O love, shall it befall,
When I no longer in my life shall see
The places that through love have grown to be
Of buried dreams the mute memorial?
Then surely shall I seem as one who stands
Exiled from home in unfamiliar lands,
And strains across the weary sea and long
His desolate sad eyes, and wrings his hands,
While round him press an undiscerning thong
Of strange men talking in an alien tongue."

- Philip Bourke Marston, 'Love's Shrines', 1871

Image: Cornelia Parker, 'The Distance', 2003

[Steph De Mel · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’ve always been fascinated by (and, to a degree, have romanticised) the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. While I’ve long been drawn to their paintings, however, I hadn’t read much of their poetry, apart from that of Swinburne and Christina Rossetti.

Clearly, I wasn’t missing much. For the most part, the poems in this collection are overwrought, overly-ornamented, self-involved, and - dare I say - amateurish. While I appreciate Dinah Roe’s attempt to include a broad range of PRB-affiliated poets in this collection, most are unworthy of mention. DG Rossetti, Christina Rossetti, and Swinburne are easily the most talented poets of the group; apart from their contributions to the collection, the rest - with one or two exceptions - are largely forgettable. I’m tempted to keep the book for the sake of the few poems I do like, but I certainly won’t re-read it in its entirety.

[kae !! · Rating 5 out of 5]

no voy a volver a ser la misma después de haber leído esto... si antes pensaba un montón en los prerrafaelitas, ahora voy a pensar todo el rato para siempre- solo ellos me entienden pero de verdad, yo debería haber estado ahí con ellos 😔😔

pd: he descubierto mi nuevo poema favorito del mundo mundiaaaal <3

[Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A broad selection of poems from the pre-raphaelites - not just the big names!

[Drew · Rating 1 out of 5]

The Pre-Raphaelites From Rossetti to Ruskin was pulled together by Dinah Roe. Her introduction and brief chronology of this short-lived art movement were really enjoyable, and for me, the best part of the volume. I really never got into any of the poets in this collection. That’s not a comment on all of them, but it just didn’t do it for me. Some of the selections did remind me of high school gloom, doom and unrequited love poetry. This was one of the claims thrown at the PRB during their time on the scene. So, please take my one star rating as a reflection of my interest in the Pre-Raphaelites rather than a comment on this particular collected work.