Two Rossetti Sonnets Commemorating a Momentous Occasion

Two Rossetti Sonnets Commemorating a Momentous Occasion

Lorraine Janzen Kooistra

A Sonnet is a moment's monument,—

Memorial from the soul's eternity

To one dead deathless hour. Look that it be,

Whether for lustral rite or dire portent,

Of its own intricate fulness reverent:

Carve it in ivory or in ebony,

As Day or Night prevail; and let Time see

Its flowering crest impearled and orient.

The Bitter Cry of the Outcasts

In the fall of 1883, a pamphlet called, The Bitter Cry of the Outcast London: An Inquiry into the Conditions of the Abject Poor, was published describing the deplorable sanitary conditions of the poor. A few days later, The Pall Mall Gazette picked up the story and wrote an article called “Is it Not Time?” containing a one-page condensed version of the pamphlet.

Advances in Pscychology During the Victorian Era

Shift in Psychological conceptions was initiated largely by George Henry Lewes as he developed a “New Psychology” in the mid-to-late nineteenth century. The term “new psychology” heralds in a new shift in the understanding of psychological, changing from the old, dominant models of the early nineteenth century where a person’s psychological state is static and unchanging and developed into a broader understanding in which the mind and psyche can change through biological and environmental factors. He also identified differing levels of consciousness.