The transition between early and late Victorian poetry has been determined, in this volume, to be 1850. A case can be made for this choice as the year saw, among other significant events, the death of the romantic poet laureate, Wordsworth, and the publication of his Prelude; the appointment of Tennyson as the Victorian poet laureate and the publication of his In Memoriam. It was unquestionably a time of change, but the innovations in form, departures in theme and originality of subject matter expressed by Victorian poetry after 1850 marked not so much a break from its antecedents as an extension of the form, quality and imagination that the preceding generation of Victorian poets initiated. This volume contains two appendices that deal with topics related to poetry of the late Victorian era.

41 entries include: William Allingham, Alfred Austin, T. E. Brown, Robert Buchanan, C. S. Calverley, Edward Dowden, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Jean Ingelow, George Meredith, John Payne, DanteGabriel Rossetti, James Thomson, Augusta Webster and Thomas Woolner.