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Reciting, Marching, Singing: The Collective Political Voice of Victorian Poetry.

  • Published In: Victorian Poetry, 2026, v. 63, n. 1. P. 17 1 of 3

  • Database: Academic Search Ultimate 2 of 3

  • Authored By: Levine, Caroline 3 of 3

Abstract

This article makes the case that Victorian poetry has something distinctive to offer, in this moment of neoliberal individualism, to the project of building collectives. We might at first assume that the novel form more readily affords an engagement with social worlds, focused as it is on the interaction of characters with each other and with socioeconomic conditions. But this essay reads the collective "we" speaker of Victorian poetry as an effective form for bringing people together. It considers Ebenezer Elliott's "Caged Rats" (1831), Elizabeth Barrett Browning's "The Cry of the Children" (1843), Rudyard Kipling's disturbing "Recessional" (1897), and William Morris's "March of the Workers" (1885) as different models for speaking together in groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Additional Information

  • Source:Victorian Poetry. 2026/03, Vol. 63, Issue 1, p17
  • Document Type:Literary Criticism
  • Subject Area:Social Sciences and Humanities
  • Publication Date:2026
  • ISSN:0042-5206
  • DOI:10.1353/vp.2025.a987311
  • Accession Number:192850905
  • Copyright Statement:Copyright of Victorian Poetry is the property of Johns Hopkins University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

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