This Companion brings together specially commissioned essays by distinguished international scholars that reflect both the diversity of Victorian poetry and the variety of critical approaches that illuminate it.

* Approaches Victorian poetry by way of genre, production and cultural context, rather than through individual poets or poems

* Demonstrates how a particular poet or poem emerges from a number of overlapping cultural contexts.

* Explores the relationships between work by different poets

* Recalls attention to a considerable body of poetry that has fallen into neglect

* Essays are informed by recent developments in textual and cultural theory

* Considers Victorian women poets in every chapter