The social advances of the era included the growth of the middle class, the universalization of public education, and an increase in leisure time. During this period, when the novel was beginning to emerge as the dominant genre, there was still a sizable and literate audience concerned with the poets of the day-the poets who are covered in this DLB volume. Victorian literature, and especially the poetry, is a personal, social and moral engagement. It is often cast in the imagery of struggle or battle, which is characterized by dialogue, conflict and uncertainty about the human condition.

43 entries include: Matthew Arnold, Emily Bronte, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Browning, Arthur Hugh Clough, Fanny Kemble, Gerald Massey, William Bell Scott, Sir Henry Taylor, Alfred Tennyson, Frederick Tennyson and Isaac Williams.