W.B Yeats is usually seen as a early 20th century poet but my favourite of his poems The Stolen Child was published in 1889. I love it's beautiful and heartbreaking tale of the taking of a child by faeries, the final stanza in particular brings me to tears. And much like my experiences disovering Tennyson, I first discovered the poem by way of music. There have been many musical versions of the poem, however the first one that I heard and fell in love with was recorded by The Waterboys (which spoken word sections by Tomás Mac Eoin) for their 1988 record album Fisherman's Blues. I really think it captures the heartbreaking otherworldliness of the poem with Mike Scott's haunting vocals matching up perfectly to Mac Eoin's reading of the text.
How does one become a Victorian arts & litereature geek in the modern world? I don't know about other people but my entry point was Loreena McKennitt's song version of Tennyson's Lady of Shallott from her 1991 album The Visit.
The song bewitched me, even though it wasn't untill later that I discovered that it was based on a poem. But when I did discover this I had to read more and more Tennyson, it became a passion. When I got to University I was expecting to study folklore but for some reason Tennyson wouldn't leave me and now I'm working on a PhD about him. The song had that much of an impact on me.
But it didn't stop there. Through Tennyson I discovered the Brownings, Christina Rossetti, Algernon Charles Swinburne, Matthew Arnold and other giants of Victorian poetry. Because I got intrested in JH Waterhouse's painting of the lady I discovered the PRB bortherhood, Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris. So therefore it is quite right that I should have a blog about Victoriana in popluar culture as that was how I first found my passion. The Visit can be bought at Amazon US or Amazon UK
