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Victorian Poetry

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The word Victorian or Victoriana has connotations of repression and social conformity, however in the realm of poetry these labels are somewhat misplaced. The Victorian age, which is defined as the events in the age of Queen Victoria’s reign of 1837-1901, provided a significant development of poetic ideals such as the increased use of the Sonnet as a poetic form, which was to influence later modern poets.  Poets in the Victorian period were to some extent influenced by the Romantic Poets such as Keats, William Blake, Shelley and W.Wordsworth. Wordsworth was Poet Laureate until 1850 so can be viewed as a bridge between the Romantic period and the Victorian period. Wordsworth was succeeded by Lord Tennyson, Queen Victoria’s favourite poet.

Victorian Poetry was an important period in the history of poetry, providing the link between the Romantic movement and the modernist movement of the 20th Century. It is not always possible to neatly categorise poets in these broad movements. For example Gerard Manley Hopkins is often cited as an example of a poet who maintained much of the Romantics sensibility in his writings.

Before the Victorian era there were very few famous female poets. In the early nineteenth century writing was still seen as a predominently male preserve. However despite views such as this the Victorian period saw the emergence of many important female poets.

The Bronte sisters were perhaps better known for their romantic novels but their poetry, especially that of Emily Bronte, has received more critical acclaim in recent years. Many have suggested that her works were a reflection of the difficulties women of that period faced. Other significant female poets include Elizabeth Browning and Christina Rossetti. Christina Rossetti in some ways could be viewed as a more typical Victorian poet. Her poetry reflected her deep Anglican faith and frequently pursued themes such as love and faith.

Victorian Names

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It is a simple fact that names change in use and popularity, over time, and the names we give our kids today are probably not what our great-grandmothers used. The Ambers and Wendys and Brandons of today were the Netties and Elizas and Philips of yore. It is my humble opinion that using period-correct names can add a certain “ring” to a story. During the Victorian era, Biblical names probably saw the most prevalent and common use, both for boys and girls, to include the familiar names from the New Testaments, and also the tongue-tanglers from the Old. However, their child-naming practices also borrowed heavily from prominent sources including national and political leaders, notable religious leaders, and celebrated military heroes. It was common find children named for famous figures in contemporary and ancient history, great literature, (authors and characters,) or sometimes even ancient mythology, such as Achilles or Hector. Likewise with names of royalty, such as William, George, Victoria, etc.

Nor was it unusual for parents to look closer to home, borrowing from close friends or people they admired. (I have a Captain Henley and a Doctor Harvey in my family tree – those were their names, not their occupations!) Not uncommonly they recycled family surnames, for instance inserting the mother’s maiden name as a child’s middle name. This applied to both boys and girls, which meant you might be named along the lines of John Butterfield Smith or Louisa Jefferson Jones. Sometimes those family surnames were used as given names, as well, so a boy might be named something like Fitzhugh Smith. Girls were also given virtuous names, such as Hope or Charity. Names were often handed down, too, so you might see an extended family tree with a Christopher Columbus Jones found in each of three or four consecutive generations. Likewise you might see a middle name reoccurring time and again, which was often an ancestor’s name or surname.

In a few places on this list, I have enumerated certain first and middle names together, (such as Sarah Ann,) because I find them joined thus so many times on old public records, that it is apparent those name-pairings enjoyed great popularity. Where common nicknames were often used, those are indicated, as well. Plus, I have included a few appellations which are so odd and obscure that I can only guess as to their origins, but they were popular in their day. All of these have been found countless times on census, marriage, and other public records during my own genealogical travels, dating back to the early 1800’s. These were certainly not the only names used, but they are among the most commonly-seen. Thus it is with some confidence that I can present this list as a fair example of child-naming practices of the Victorian era. Names have changed in popularity, over time, and while many old standbys are still used and loved today, others of this epoch are certainly antiquated in their sound, and all but forgotten in application. I present this compilation in the hopes that fiction writers will be able to make use of it, and so perhaps add a little extra color and atmosphere to their work.

Female Names:
* Abigale / Abby
* Ada
* Adella
* Agnes
* Allie
* Almira / Almyra
* Alva
* America
* Amelia
* Ann ~ (also nickname for Nancy) / Annie
* Arrah
* Beatrice
* Becky ~ (see Rebecca)
* Bernice
* Bess, Bessie, Beth, Betsy ~ (for Elizabeth)
* Charity
* Charlotte
* Chastity
* Claire
* Constance
* Cynthia
* Dorothy ~ (also Dot)
* Edith
* Edna
* Edwina
* Ella
* Eleanor
* Ellie
* Elizabeth ~(also Eliza, Liza, Lizzy; see Bess.)
* Elvira
* Emma
* Esther
* Ethel
* Ettie ~ (see Henrietta)
* Eudora
* Eva
* Fidelia
* Frances
* Fanny ~ (usually nickname for Frances)
* Flora
* Florence
* Geneve
* Genevieve
* Georgia
* Gertrude / Gertie
* Gladys
* Grace
* Hannah
* Hattie
* Helen
* Helene
* Henrietta / Hettie ~ (also Ettie)
* Hester
* Hope
* Hortence
* Isabell / Isabella
* Jane
* Jennie
* Jessamine
* Josephine
* Judith
* Julia
* Juliet
* Katherine / Kate
* Laura
* Leah
* Lenora
* Letitia
* Lila
* Lilly
* Lorena
* Lorraine
* Lottie
* Louise / Louisa
* Lucy
* Lulu
* Lydia
* Mahulda
* Margaret ~ (see Peggy)
* Mary
* Mary Elizabeth
* Mary Frances
* Martha
* Matilda / Mattie
* Maude
* Maxine /Maxie
* Mercy
* Mildred
* Minerva
* Missouri
* Molly ~ (nickname for Mary)
* Myrtle
* Nancy ~ (see Ann)
* Natalie
* Nellie / Nelly
* Nettie
* Nora
* Orpha
* Patsy
* Parthena
* Peggy ~ (nickname for Margaret)
* Permelia
* Phoebe
* Philomena
* Polly ~ (nickname for Mary)
* Preshea
* Rachel
* Rebecca ~ (see Becky)
* Rhoda / Rhody
* Rowena
* Rufina
* Ruth
* Samantha
* Sally
* Sarah
* Sarah Ann
* Sarah Elizabeth
* Savannah
* Selina
* Sophronia
* Stella
* Theodosia
* Vertiline ~ (also Verd)
* Victoria
* Virginia / Ginny
* Vivian
* Winnifred / Winnie
* Zona
* Zylphia

Male Names:
* Aaron
* Abraham / Abe
* Alan / Allen
* Albert
* Alexander
* Alonzo
* Ambrose
* Amon
* Amos
* Andrew / Drew / Andy
* Aquilla
* Archibald / Archie
* Arnold
* Asa
* August / Augustus
* Barnabas / Barney
* Bartholomew / Bart
* Benjamin
* Bennet
* Benedict
* Bernard
* Bertram / Bert
* Buford
* Byron
* Calvin
* Charles / Charley / Charlie
* Christopher
* Christopher Columbus
* Clarence
* Clement / Clem
* Clinton / Clint
* Cole
* Columbus (also Lom or Lum)
* Commodore Perry
* Daniel / Dan
* David
* Dick ~ (see Richard)
* Edmund
* Edward
* Edwin
* Eldon
* Eli
* Elijah
* ElishaEmmett
* Enoch
* Ezekiel ~ (also Zeke)
* Ezra
* Francis
* Frank ~ (also nickname for Francis)
* Franklin
* Frederick / Fred
* Gabriel / Gabe
* Garrett
* George
* George Washington
* Gideon
* Gilbert / Gil
* Granville
* Gus ~ (see August)
* Hank ~ (nickname for Henry)
* Harland
* Harrison
* Harold / Harry
* Harvey
* Henry ~ (see Hank)
* Hiram
* Horace
* Horatio
* Hugh
* Isaiah
* Israel
* Isaac ~ (also Ike)
* Isaac Newton
* Jacob / Jake
* James ~ (also Jim)
* Jasper
* Jack ~ (for John)
* Jefferson / Jeff
* Jedediah / Jed
* Jeptha
* Jesse
* Joel
* John ~ (see Jack)
* John Paul
* John Wesley
* Jonathan
* Joseph
* Josephus ~ (also “Cephas”)
* Josiah
* Joshua
* Julian
* Julius
* Lafayette ~ (also Lafe)
* Lawrence / Larry
* Leander
* Les / Lester / Leslie
* Lewis / Lew / Louis
* Levi
* Lucas
* Lucian
* Lucius
* Luke
* Luther
* Louis
* Levi
* Lucas
* Lucian
* Lucius
* Luke
* Luther
* Matthew
* Marcellus
* Mark
* Martin
* Martin Luther
* Masheck
* Maurice
* Maxwell
* Merrill
* Meriwether
* Meriwether Lewis
* Michael/ Mike
* Micajah ~ (have seen nickname “Cage”)
* Mordecai
* Morgan
* Morris
* Nathaniel / Nathan / Nate / Nat
* Ned ~ (short for Edward)
* Newton / Newt
* Nicholas / Nick
* Nimrod
* Ninian
* Obediah
* Octavius
* Ora / Oral
* Orville
* Oscar
* Owen
* Paul
* Patrick / Pat
* Patrick Henry
* Paul
* Perry
* Peter
* Pleasant
* Ralph
* Raymond
* Reuben
* Robert ~ (also Bob)
* Robert Lee
* Richard / Rich ~ (see Dick)
* Roderick
* Rudolph
* Rufus
* Samuel
* Sam Houston
* Seth
* Silas
* Simon
* Simeon
* Stanley / Stan
* Stephen
* Thaddeus
* Thomas / Tom
* Thomas Jefferson
* Theodore / Ted
* Timothy / Tim
* Ulysses
* Uriah
* Victor
* Walter
* Warren
* Washington
* Wilfred
* William / Will ~ (also Bill, Billy)
* Willie ~ (Not always for William)
* Zachariah
* Zebulon
* Zedock

Victorian Fashion

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Elaborate dresses, lavish balls, a beautiful countryside and images straight from the canvas of the great artists come to my mind when I think about the Victorian era. The Victorian period or the Victorian era can be termed as the period under the reign of Queen Victoria. This period was between the year-1837 to 1901. I am sure many women would love to slip back into time and fulfill their dream of wearing bustle skirts with some fancy feathered hats at some point in their lives! Rich fabrics and genteel women attending fancy dos with cultured men are some of the glimpses of the life back then! Here’s a look at the kind of fashion followed in the Victorian Era. Victorian fashion has many interesting things to note and you can delve into the depths of Victorian fashion, right here!

Victorian Fashion:
The term Victorian fashion is generally used only with regard to the United Kingdom. There were certain clothing styles and mannerisms that were observed during this period. In the early period of the Victorian Era, the silhouette for the woman was more of the demure kind. Women wore pointed bodice, which were long and had fitting waists. The bodice was designed to enhance the waist. In the early period, Victorian clothing for women was about restriction of arm movements. Another interesting feature were the detachable collars! The colors used in the early period of the Victorian fashion were soft, pastel shades. Patterns were delicate and fashionable, all designed to maintain the femininity of the woman.

Beehive shaped skirts was another characteristic feature of Victorian fashion. Here, garments were stiffened to give a particular appearance. Crin also known as horsehair, was used for a particular portion of a garment so that it stiffens in that particular area. Crin was used for hem linings and sleeve heads of the dresses.

Although cloth was manufactured in the mills, Victorian clothing in 1837 was generally designed and assembled by tailors and other such specialized people who were into designing clothes and hats. These people catered to only a specific few of the society who could afford this service; others stitched their clothes at home.

Bell shaped skirts also became a rage and these became wider in the 1830s. The bell shape soon became dome shaped. As these skirts became bigger and flared out, they also needed support from the inside. Victorian dresses therefore needed to be worn with a lot of petticoats. The lower portion was also supported by horsehair, which were woven into the pattern for the stiffened look.

The cashmere shawl was also a prominent feature of Victorian fashion. It was particularly noticed in 1840. By then, the shawl was used as wrap over the dresses. Women also wore heavy fabrics such as satins and silks and there was also a time when fabric dictated the status of the person in the society as well.

Slowly these huge ballooned Victorian skirts gave way to the hobble skirts. Hobble skirts brought into fashion narrow skirts, where in knee length corsets were combined with the entire ensemble. Hobble skirts often restricted movement, which is probably why they have been given this name. These slim skirts created a problem for women in the comfort factor yet they gained popularity with time. Today, the slim pencil skirt can still be witnessed in the fashion scenario in many modified ways.

Apart from horsehair, bustles were also used to increase the fullness of the skirts. Bustles were used to make the waist look smaller. Many times, the fullness of the fashion was spread out towards the back and this often fanned out in the shape of a train. Bustles were also seen in different shapes. Sometimes, these also created a hump below the waist area on the backside, which was considered to be a fashion statement in the Victorian era. The bustle therefore, can be considered to be yet another typical feature of Victorian fashion.

Victorian fashion for men was about Norfolk jackets and the sack suits. Men preferred to don themselves in casual attire.

Victorian fashion was thus quite elaborate as far as women’s clothing was concerned. Victorian clothing is still very much popular and the basics have been woven into new modern designs to create contemporary attire!

History of the White Wedding Dress

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White has long been accepted as the traditional color of the wedding dress, but wedding gowns were not always white. The marriage of Queen Victoria to her cousin Albert of Saxe- Coburg in 1840 has had more influence on weddings than any other. Queen Victoria put the wheels in motion by marrying in white. Though brides continued to wed in gowns of different colors, white was now set as the color of choice for weddings and has continued ever since. In Godey’s Lady’s Book, 1849, this statement was printed: “ Custom has decided, from the earliest ages, that white is the most fitting hue, whatever may be the material. It is an emblem of the purity and innocence of girlhood, and the unsullied heart she now yields to the chosen one.”

There is an old poem about how the color of your wedding dress will influence your future: “Married in white, you will have chosen all right. Married in grey , you will go far away. Married in black, you will wish yourself back. Married in red, you’ll wish yourself dead. Married in blue, you will always be true. Married in pearl, you’ll live in a whirl. Married in green, ashamed to be seen, Married in yellow, ashamed of the fellow. Married in brown, you’ll live out of town. Married in pink, your spirits will sink.”

The Industrial Revolution also brought about change. By the 1890’s and the arrival of the department store, almost every woman could realize her dream of being married in a “new” wedding dress. The white dress was gaining popularity and in 1890, Ladies Home Journal wrote: “That from times immemorial the bride’s gown has been white”. Although this statement was not true, it shows how deeply accepted it was that a wedding gown be white. Although white was popular, some brides, especially the frontier brides, wore dresses that were more practical and could be worn after the wedding. As wedding dresses closely resembled the fashions of the time, only a little alteration was needed for the dress to be perfect to wear again.

Edwardian brides took the traditions of their Victorian ancestors to new extremes. Fashions became more extravagant as the decade progressed, but came to a screeching halt with the outbreak of WWI. Styles became simpler, and also reflected the changing role of women in society with hems getting shorter and the disposing of tightly laced corsets. Coco Chanel was a powerful force behind the change in women’s’ fashions, and was the one who officially introduced the short wedding dress in the 1920’s. It was a white knee length dress worn with a long train. This cemented white as the universal color of the wedding dress.

When the Depression hit, brides made do with their “best” dress for the wedding. My great grandmother, who was married in 1928 had a new white wedding dress, but after the wedding she dyed it navy, keeping only the collar and cuffs white—a common practice at that time. During WWII, women considered it their duty to give up the traditional wedding , although most brides might be engaged only for a few weeks or even days before the wedding took place. This did not leave enough time to find a wedding dress so the best suit had to do. If the bride was set on having a white dress, one could be borrowed or rented for the ceremony. If both the bride and groom were in the military they were married in their respective uniforms.

After the war, prosperity made it possible for the large dream weddings inspired by the Victorian era to become a reality. Grace Kelly’s marriage to Prince Monaco garnered much publicity because of its grand fairy tale wedding. She wore a white silk and lace gown. The focus of wedding dresses has shifted since the 1950”s. The emphasis now is on the individuality of the bride. So whatever color you choose to be married in, you now know a bit more behind the tradition of the white wedding dress.

Types Of Victorian Furniture

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The Victorian era spanned the years from the 1830s to 1900, when Queen Victoria was on the British throne. Interior design styles focused on the ornate and the historical, drawing on revivals of past eras of design. Furniture was considered a status symbol, and rooms were filled with many pieces, often not all the same design style.

    History

  1. Furniture production took a huge jump in Victorian times, with the advent of mass manufacture of many types of furniture. This made Victorian furniture more readily available to the middle class, and often these “reproduction” type pieces of furniture were not well made. Victorian furniture abounds in today’s antique shops because of this burst in production.

    2. Types

  2. Victorian furniture designers took their designs from earlier fashions, particularly the Gothic style and the Rococo style. Tudor and Elizabethan furniture was also reimagined and modified in Victorian designs. Furniture in Renaissance and Neo-Classical styles also were seen in Victorian-era decorating. English, French and Italian Rococo revival furniture pieces were among the most popular in homes, while artistically, the Gothic revival designs became the most influential to later generations, as they are now considered to be hallmarks of Victorian design.

    3. English

  3. In England, the Victorian styles of furniture were all the rage as they came out, and the trend in design was focused on England, as its queen gave her name to the age. “Englishness” was a quality prized in furniture. For that reason, the English oak became a popular furniture wood at this time, although it was not the most widely available wood. Revivals of classic English designers like Thomas Chippendale and Robert Adam became popular in the late Victorian furniture designs, resulting in many reproductions of their work produced for the large middle-class market.

    4. American

  4. Though America was no longer a colony of England, English culture and designs still had an enormous impact on American home design in the Victorian age, including furniture. Corresponding with the early Victorian designs in England was the so-called Eclectic period in American furniture, which drew on all the different types of revivals and influences that English furniture designers used in Victorian times, and combined them with simpler, colonial styles as well. In the last two decades of the century, when English furniture was progressing through its late Victorian phase, American furniture was turning more toward the Arts and Crafts ethos.

    5. Early Victorian

  5. The interior design and art style that preceded the Victorian age was the Regency style, a simpler style drawing on Grecian and classic lines. Early Victorian furniture shows a transition from these designs to more ornate, more highly decorated pieces of furniture, also called the “high Victorian” style. Furniture was designed for its location in the house and children’s furniture retained more simplicity. Classic, heavy Tudor-like furniture was to be found in men’s rooms and dining rooms. Designers mixed several styles in this time period, with no one style predominating the furniture market. Shoddy craftsmanship accompanied the rise of mass-market furniture, with lots of ornate decoration and veneers added to disguise poor joins and low-quality woods. The style that emerged was more heavily Gothic and Rococo with the added decorations. Furniture was carved intricately and upholstered in velvet fabrics for an expensive look. Ironwork furniture also came onto the market and was especially popular in bedrooms.

    6. Late Victorian

  6. In the later Victorian period, from the 1860s to the turn of the century, two major art and design movements began, influencing the end of the period and the development of other late Victorian styles. The Arts and Crafts movement and the aesthetic movement began to gain ground, both of which considered furniture as an art form. The extravagance of the early Victorian furniture came to be seen as wasteful, and painting furniture rather than carving it became fashionable. The amount of upholstering done decreased, and straight lines predominated over the flares and curves popular in furniture of the early Victorian age. Japanese designs were brought in to some furniture, and other designers were influenced by antique styles, including Etruscan and Egyptian.

Read more: Victorian Furniture Styles | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_5382010_victorian-furniture-styles.html#ixzz0qemZMTOS