Edgar Allan Poe famously declared, “The death of a beautiful woman is, unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world.” This provocative statement hints at a fascinating aspect of literary history, particularly within the realm of romantic poetry and its subsequent influence on the Victorian era: a profound, often melancholic, engagement with the theme of death. Far from being merely morbid, this fascination frequently intertwined with ideas of beauty, transcendence, and the fleeting nature of life.
The Romantic poets, in their quest for the ideal and the sublime, often turned to death as an escape from the perceived struggles and ugliness of everyday existence. It represented an ultimate state of peace, a release from earthly pain. John Keats, a key figure in English romantic poetry, contemplated this in his poem “On Death,” written in 1814. He questions the common fear of dying, contrasting life’s “transient pleasures” that “as a vision seem” with the perceived finality of death. Yet, he notes the human paradox: we suffer through life’s struggles but fear the ultimate awakening that death might bring. Percy Bysshe Shelley, another titan of romantic poetry, was similarly preoccupied with death, sometimes viewing it as a path to ultimate happiness and perfection.
Figure of a young woman reclining on pillows, head turned, hands clasped in lap, in a dark room.
The Victorian era inherited and amplified this romanticized view of death, particularly the aesthetic of a slow, gentle passing. This is vividly captured in the work of photographer Henry Peach Robinson. His 1858 photograph, “Fading Away,” is a prime example. This image, notable as an early photomontage, depicts a pale, frail young woman, likely dying from consumption, surrounded by grieving family members. The photograph encapsulates the era’s fascination with death, presenting it not as a sudden end, but as a staged, almost theatrical departure. The father figure turning away, perhaps suppressing tears or feeling powerless, underscores the emotional weight placed on this transition. For the Victorians, while the aesthetic might have felt appropriate, the public nature of such an intimate moment was initially shocking, highlighting a different boundary between private sorrow and public display compared to today.
The poem “On Death” by John Keats offers a window into the romantic sensibility regarding mortality:
Can death be sleep, when life is but a dream,
And scenes of bliss pass as a phantom by?
The transient pleasures as a vision seem,
And yet we think the greatest pain’s to die.
How strange it is that man on earth should roam,
And lead a life of woe, but not forsake
His rugged path; nor dare he view alone
His future doom which is but to awake.
This poem reflects the Romantic contemplation of death as potentially not an end, but a form of “awakening” from the dream-like state of life. This perspective aligns with the desire among romantic poetry poets for transcendence and escape from earthly woes.
Robinson’s 1857 photograph, “She Never Told Her Love,” served as a study for the central figure in “Fading Away.” Inspired by a line from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, which speaks of concealed love feeding “like a worm i’ the bud” on a young woman’s beauty, this image focuses solely on the dying girl.
Henry Peach Robinson, She Never Told Her Love, 1857
The line from Shakespeare:
“She never told her love,
But let concealment,
like a worm i’ the bud,
Feed on her damask cheek”
This study emphasizes the girl’s isolation in her suffering. While “She Never Told Her Love” captures a poignant solitude, the addition of family in “Fading Away” amplifies the narrative and the collective drama surrounding death in the Victorian imagination.
Contrasting the Romantic and Victorian views with modern attitudes reveals a significant cultural shift. Today, the earlier era’s direct engagement with death is often labeled “morbid” or “Gothic.” Death has become a more taboo subject, frequently hidden or sanitized. This contrasts sharply with the romanticized vision where death, especially of a young, beautiful life, was considered the most poetic and moving subject for art and romantic poetry. The idea of literally dying from a broken heart, a concept deeply embedded in romantic literature and art, seems foreign in a contemporary context that often prioritizes control and avoidance of unpleasant realities.
Yet, the power of poetry to grapple with death remains. The Russian poet Sergei Yesenin, though writing beyond the peak of the Romantic era (1895-1925), penned a poem about death, “Goodbye, my friend, goodbye,” that carries a similar emotional weight, albeit born of a different kind of sorrow (suicide). Discovered after his death and reportedly written in his own blood, the poem is undeniably tragic but also holds a peculiar resonance with the Romantic notion of parting and potential reunion.
Goodbye, my friend, goodbye
My love, you are in my heart.
It was preordained we should part
And be reunited by and by.
Goodbye: no handshake to endure.
Let’s have no sadness — furrowed brow.
There’s nothing new in dying now
Though living is no newer.
This poem, while outside the historical period of romantic poetry, echoes its themes of love, parting, and the timeless nature of existence and non-existence (“There’s nothing new in dying now / Though living is no newer”). It suggests that death, though a separation, may not be an ultimate end, offering a glimmer of the transcendent hope often sought in earlier romantic poetry grappling with mortality.
Exploring how romantic poetry and Victorian art depicted death offers a profound look at changing cultural perspectives. While modern society may shy away from such direct, romanticized portrayals, the enduring power of poems like Keats’s and Yesenin’s reminds us that death, as a universal human experience, continues to be a fertile, albeit challenging, ground for poetic exploration. It highlights how the art of poetry allows us to confront the inevitable, finding beauty, meaning, and sometimes even hope in the face of life’s most profound mystery.