Poetry on Pre-Raphaelite principles: science, nature and knowledge in William Michael Rossetti’s 'Fancies at Leisure' and 'Mrs. Holmes Grey'

Holmes, J. (2015) Poetry on Pre-Raphaelite principles: science, nature and knowledge in William Michael Rossetti’s 'Fancies at Leisure' and 'Mrs. Holmes Grey'. Victorian Poetry, 53 (1). pp. 15-39. ISSN 1530-7190

Abstract/Summary

This article demonstrates how early Pre-Raphaelite poetry worked according to the principle that art should be modelled on science theorised by the Pre-Raphaelites in their early essays. As the main theorists (rather than practitioners) of Pre-Raphaelite art, F. G. Stephens and William Michael Rossetti defined the Pre-Raphaelite project in terms of observation, investigation, experiment, the “adherence to fact” and the “search after truth”. In the hands of the early Pre-Raphaelite poets, and particularly Rossetti himself, poetry too becomes a mode of scientific enquiry into the natural world, the nature of observation, human psychology and medical practice.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/37468
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Arts, Humanities and Social Science > School of Literature and Languages > English Literature
Publisher	West Virginia University Press
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