Illustrated+poetry

Although the Victorians would not have considered illustrated poetry a genre, it is necessary to categorize it as such when discussing Victorian poetry. Illustrations became very popular in the Victorian period; “with the rise of wood engraving, the improvement of paper quality…[and] the advent of the steam press…illustrated periodicals, newspapers, and books of all kinds proliferated” (Kooistra, //Christina Rossetti and// Illustration). Lorraine Janzen Kooistra, an author and professor who focuses on 19th century literature and illustration, states (in her book //Poetry, Pictures, and Popular Publishing)// that illustrations gave a new volume to texts, creating a visual representation of what a reader could experience and turn it into a material object for visual consumption. Illustrated poetry aesthetically pleases the eye, and elevates the status of such works, which created (for the post-Victorian consumer) a genre of poetry that is different from others. This genre varies from others not in its textual form but in its overall package and interpretation; although the texts themselves could stand alone, when accompanied by an illustration, the overall effect on the can reader change. Illustrations became a big part of Victorian print culture and accompanied texts ranging from inexpensive periodicals to extravagant gift books, and gave a new dimension to texts for readers of all kinds, which had an impact on Victorian print and literary culture.

Illustrations shape a reader's interpretation of a text; when one reads a text on it’s own, they are free to imagine the characters, landscapes, monsters etc. any way they would like within the bounds of the literary description. An illustration however, presents the reader with an image of what is being described, often before they have even begun to read. Victorian illustrated books often came with a frontispiece that actually captured a scene from much later in the text, as an example in Christina Rossetti’s poem “Goblin Market,” (famous for it’s illustrations) there is an image of the two sisters, Lizzie and Laura displayed as Rossetti's frontispiece. As is common with Victorian illustration, the image has a caption from the scene the image is depicting:

(Rossetti 184-187)
Illustrations also highlight the overreach of themes in a poem//.// For example, the original illustrations for “Goblin Market” imply and reinforce the sensual themes of the poem. However, later versions, with illustrations that emphasize different themes, express and highlight different interpretations. Similarly, reading the poem on it’s own, without any illustrations, could offer the reader a different experience. To fully grasp the poetry of the Victorian era, however, it is important to look at it in its original context.

Illustrations launched literature into Victorian visual culture: the increased importance on images detached the author from the text and redirected the attention to the reader (Kooistra, //Poetry, Pictures, and Popular Publishing).// Visual representations of poetry and fiction replaced the “I” of the author making the text a part of the material world (Kooistra, //Poetry, Pictures, and Popular Publishing//). As a reader of poetry, it is easy to take a first person speaker and connect it to the author and any connotations that may come with that. Pairing text with a visual component, however, allows the reader to enter an imaginary world of the text without bringing the author.

Illustrations were an especially large contributor to the gift book phenomenon. Gift books were elaborately decorated and illustrated books of literature designed for the Christmas market (Kooistra, //Poetry, Pictures, and Popular// Publishing). Gift books that contained poetry and illustrations were deemed to be the ideal gift book amongst the genre (Kooistra, //Poetry, Pictures, and Popular Publishing//). “For many…newly literature or newly leisured book buyers the visual [aspect] had a particular appeal that enterprising publishers were quick to capitalize on” (Kooistra, //Christina Rossetti and Illustration//). These beautifully decorated and illustrated gift books became exceedingly popular and, more importantly, a status symbol: “…middle-class consumers need[ed] something to show off their sophisticated status” which created a market for gift books of illustrated poetry (Kooistra, //Christina Rossetti and Illustration//). These adorned gift books were mass produced but certainly not made for the masses (Kooistra, //Poetry, Pictures////, and Popular Publishing//). The elevated status of gift books as a display of income in turn elevated the status, and the market, for illustrated poetry, some of which was available to ‘the masses’ in periodicals and newspapers, a taste of what the gift books would offer.
 * Gift Books**

According to Kooistra, “volumes of illustrated verses predominated” amongst other literature—“reviewers gave poetic gift books pride of place in their columns…[this] all engaged with the way material packaging affected poetry’s place in Victorian culture” (//Poetry, Pictures, and Popular Publishing)//. A novel can capture a reader’s imagination in ways that are limited in a poem, therefore illustrations have a greater impact on poetry then they do for novels, “more was at stake in their production and reception” (Kooistra, //Poetry, Pictures, and Popular Publishing)//. For Victorians, poetry also held a higher status of sophistication then other texts; although poetry could be found in periodicals and newspapers, it was valued as a more artistic form of writing then others (Kooistra, //Poetry, Pictures, and Popular Publishing//). This was partly to do with the gift book tradition and accompanying illustrations. Illustrations did, however, find their way into periodicals as well, expanding the market for illustrated poetry//.// As with the gift books, and volumes of pictures and poems, the periodicals with illustrated poems offered a new interpretation and experience for their readers. As Philip V. Allingham mentions in his article on Victorian engraving techniques (//The Technologies of Nineteenth-Century Illustrations: Woodblock Engraving, Steel Engraving and Other Processes)//, illustrators were often the first readers, outside of the publication process to critique an d interpret a poem; their interpretations and visualizations helped shape the reader's intake of the poems and led to the creation of a new genre within Victorian poetry.
 * Readership**

More Illustrations of Goblin Market: http://www.dmvi.cf.ac.uk/imageView.asp?illus=GM001 Goblin Market the Poem: http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poems/goblin-market


 * Works Cited:**

Allingham, Philip V. “The Technologies of the Nineteenth-Century Illustrations: Woodblock Engraving, Steel Engraving and Other Processes.” //The Victorian Web.// n.d. 2 Feb. 2015. Kooistra, Lorraine Janzen. //Christina Rossetti and Illustration: A Publishing History.// Ohio University Press, 2002. Print. Kooistra, Lorraine Janzen. //Poetry, Pictures, and Popular Publishing: The Illustrated Gift Book and Victorian Visual Culture.// Ohio University Press, 2014. Print. Rossetti, Christina. "Goblin Market." //The Broadview Anthology of Victorian Poetry and Poetic Theory.// Ed. Thomas J. Collins & Vivienne J. Rundle. Toronto: Broadview Press, 1999. 848-855. Print.