Tillys Shelf | Victober Poetry Challenge 1: Elizabeth Barrett Browning @tillysshelf | Uploaded October 2020 | Updated October 2024, 11 hours ago.
Welcome to my token effort to participate in Victober irrespective of the set prompts and challenges. I would love for any of you who like poetry to join me in thinking and talking about some shorter Victorian poems over then next 14 days, so here is the full text of the poem Hiram Powers' Greek Slave by Elizabeth Barrett Browning for you to have a look at:
They say Ideal beauty cannot enter
The house of anguish. On the threshold stands
An alien Image with enshackled hands,
Called the Greek Slave! as if the artist meant her
(That passionless perfection which he lent her,
Shadowed not darkened where the sill expands)
To so confront man's crimes in different lands
With man's ideal sense. Pierce to the centre,
Art's fiery finger, and break up ere long
The serfdom of this world. Appeal, fair stone,
From God's pure heights of beauty against man's wrong!
Catch up in thy divine face, not alone
East griefs but west, and strike and shame the strong,
By thunders of white silence, overthrown.
One thing that I didn't mention, but remembered whilst uploading is that it could also be seen as troubling that she focuses on a white statue of a European woman and uses that figure to comment on or represent a global issue, making a clear allusion to slavery as experienced in the west ie America as well as in Europe, although I think at the time there was also significant racial stereotyping towards Greek and Turkish people.
My inspiration for this Victorian Poetry Challenge came from Matthew of the channel Mayberry Bookclub and his Norton Anthology readings earlier this year youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9xQGsG9ZplvHiP55eXZHqyIoMVOp8ftR
The hosts of Victober this year are:
Katy at Books and Things youtube.com/watch?v=vD0-QV0kxmE&ab_channel=BooksandThings
Kate Howe youtube.com/watch?v=nU5soCa3css&t=1189s&ab_channel=KateHowe
Lucy the Reader youtube.com/watch?v=Q-Gr-idpezw&t=655s&ab_channel=lucythereader
And here are the challenges (of which I am successfully achieving precisely none)
1. Katie’s challenge: Read a Victorian book that equates to your favourite modern genre
2. Lucy’s challenge: Read a Victorian diary or collection of letters
3. Kate’s challenge: Read a new to you book and/or short story by a favourite Victorian author
4. Readers’ challenge: Read a Victorian book from a previous Victober TBR that you didn't get to, or one you’ve been meaning to read for ages
5. General challenge: Read a Victorian book while wearing something Victorian/Victorian-esque
Group readalong: Shirley by Charlotte Brontë
Welcome to my token effort to participate in Victober irrespective of the set prompts and challenges. I would love for any of you who like poetry to join me in thinking and talking about some shorter Victorian poems over then next 14 days, so here is the full text of the poem Hiram Powers' Greek Slave by Elizabeth Barrett Browning for you to have a look at:
They say Ideal beauty cannot enter
The house of anguish. On the threshold stands
An alien Image with enshackled hands,
Called the Greek Slave! as if the artist meant her
(That passionless perfection which he lent her,
Shadowed not darkened where the sill expands)
To so confront man's crimes in different lands
With man's ideal sense. Pierce to the centre,
Art's fiery finger, and break up ere long
The serfdom of this world. Appeal, fair stone,
From God's pure heights of beauty against man's wrong!
Catch up in thy divine face, not alone
East griefs but west, and strike and shame the strong,
By thunders of white silence, overthrown.
One thing that I didn't mention, but remembered whilst uploading is that it could also be seen as troubling that she focuses on a white statue of a European woman and uses that figure to comment on or represent a global issue, making a clear allusion to slavery as experienced in the west ie America as well as in Europe, although I think at the time there was also significant racial stereotyping towards Greek and Turkish people.
My inspiration for this Victorian Poetry Challenge came from Matthew of the channel Mayberry Bookclub and his Norton Anthology readings earlier this year youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9xQGsG9ZplvHiP55eXZHqyIoMVOp8ftR
The hosts of Victober this year are:
Katy at Books and Things youtube.com/watch?v=vD0-QV0kxmE&ab_channel=BooksandThings
Kate Howe youtube.com/watch?v=nU5soCa3css&t=1189s&ab_channel=KateHowe
Lucy the Reader youtube.com/watch?v=Q-Gr-idpezw&t=655s&ab_channel=lucythereader
And here are the challenges (of which I am successfully achieving precisely none)
1. Katie’s challenge: Read a Victorian book that equates to your favourite modern genre
2. Lucy’s challenge: Read a Victorian diary or collection of letters
3. Kate’s challenge: Read a new to you book and/or short story by a favourite Victorian author
4. Readers’ challenge: Read a Victorian book from a previous Victober TBR that you didn't get to, or one you’ve been meaning to read for ages
5. General challenge: Read a Victorian book while wearing something Victorian/Victorian-esque
Group readalong: Shirley by Charlotte Brontë
