Victorian Poets The Age Of The Classics - Part 2 Poets shifted from the extremely personal expression (or subjectivism) of the Romantic writers to an objective surveying of the problems of human life. The poems of Tennyson, Browning, and Arnold especially reflect this change. Much Victorian poetry was put to the service of society.   Alfred Tennyson (1809-92) attempted to give direction to his readers. `Idylls of the King' (1859) is a disguised study of current ethical and social conditions. `Locksley Hall' (1842), `In Memoriam' (1850), and `Maud' (1855) deal with conflicting scientific and social ideas. Much of Tennyson's poetry, however, can be read without worrying about such problems. His narrative skill makes many of his poems interesting just as stories. For example, each of the Arthurian tales in `Idylls of the King' brings the reader a wealth of beauty and experience. `The Lady of Shalott' and `The Death of Oenone' are pleasing tales to young readers. For those who have seen Rudolph Besier's modern play `The Barretts of Wimpole Street', Elizabeth and Robert Browning need no introduction. Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-61) wrote the most exquisite love poems of her time in `Sonnets from the Portuguese' (1850). These lyrics were written secretly while she was being courted by Robert Browning.   Browning (1812-89) is best remembered for his dramatic monologues. `My Last Duchess' (1842), `Fra Lippo Lippi' (1855), and `Andrea del Sarto' (1855) are excellent examples. The stirring rhythm of `How They Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix' (1845) and the simple wonder of `The Pied Piper of Hamelin' (1842) endear Browning to readers. His expressions of personal faith have inspired thousands of readers (`Epilogue to Asolando', 1889; `Rabbi Ben Ezra', 1864; `Prospice', 1864). The poetic drama `Pippa Passes' (1841) is one of his finest efforts.   The poetry of Matthew Arnold (1822-88) is marked by an intense seriousness and classic restraint. `Sohrab and Rustum' (1853) is a fine blank-verse narrative. His elegiac poems on the death of his father, Dr. Thomas Arnold (`Rugby Chapel', 1867), and of his friend Arthur Hugh Clough (`Thyrsis', 1867) are profound and moving. His interest in the problem of making Englishmen aware of higher values of life caused him to quit writing poetry and turn to critical prose. As a critic, he drove his ideas home with clarity and force.   Arnold's somber and disillusioned poem `Empedocles on Etna' (1852) was characteristic of the poetry dealing with the conflict between religion and science. A much more popular poem on the same theme was the free translation of the `Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam' (1859), by Edward Fitzgerald (1809-83). The poem was originally written by Omar, a Persian astronomer. Fitzgerald claimed that the only course of action left to the man whose religious ideals had been destroyed by science was self-indulgence.