SOURCE: Hartnell, Elaine. “‘Nothing but Sweet and Womanly’: A Hagiography of Patmore's Angel.” Victorian Poetry 34, no. 4 (winter 1996): 457-76.

In the following essay, Hartnell considers the portrayal of women in Patmore's poetry.

Most of the critical work currently available on Coventry Patmore was produced before 1957 and by a predominantly male establishment. It is thus inevitable that, while much of this research is still of interest, both the social attitudes and the critical approaches that underpin it have changed over time. For example, in 1921, Osbert Burdett published a frequently straightforwardly narrative commentary on Patmore's poetry, which included within it many overtly subjective remarks. He offers the following passage in praise of Patmore's poetical rendering of a trip to Stonehenge: “We all remember … happy occasions when the limit of delight seems to have been reached. The imagination in this hour looks ahead and sees the future unfold in one long afternoon...