Paper 104: Literature of the Victorians

Paper 104: From Partisan Correction to Systemic Protest: The Evolution of Political Allegory and Satire in Restoration and Romantic Poetry

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Name: Adityarajsinh.R.Gohil
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E-mail: adityarajsinh.r.gohil@gmail.com

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Paper Name: Literature of the Victorians
Paper No.: 104
Paper Code: 22395
Topic: From Partisan Correction to Systemic Protest: The Evolution of Political Allegory and Satire in Restoration and Romantic Poetry
Submitted To: Smt.Sujata Binoy Gardi, Department of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University
Submitted Date: November 10, 2025

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Abstract

This analysis provides a comparative historical and textual examination of political poetry from the Restoration (c. 1660 1700) and Romantic (c. 1789 1832) eras. It posits that the evolution of political poetry during this time was not merely stylistic but represented a profound redefinition of the poet's social function. Restoration poets, such as John Dryden, employed formal satire and classical allegory as sophisticated partisan weapons, aiming to "correct" political opponents and affirm a specific order within an elite power structure. In stark contrast, Romantic poets, including William Blake and Percy Bysshe Shelley, responded to systemic oppression, mass social crises, and state sanctioned violence. They adopted visionary, prophetic, and lyrical forms to "awaken" a broader popular audience, challenging the moral legitimacy of the entire social and political order. The research indicates that the function of political poetry fundamentally shifted from elite, partisan correction to mass, revolutionary protest, relocating the site of political struggle from the public court to the individual human consciousness.

Research Question

How and why did the form, function, and thematic focus of political allegory and satire in English poetry transition from the court centric, partisan formalism of the Restoration (c. 1660 1700) to the visionary, individualistic, and revolutionary protests of the Romantic era (c. 1789 1832)?

Hypothesis

The transformation of political poetry from the Restoration to the Romantic period was not merely a stylistic evolution but a fundamental redefinition of the poet's social role, driven by profound shifts in the loci of political power and social crisis. Restoration poets employed formal, allegorical satire as sophisticated weapons in elite partisan conflicts, such as the Exclusion Crisis. In contrast, Romantic poets, responding to the systemic upheavals of the French and Industrial Revolutions and state sanctioned violence, exemplified by the Peterloo Massacre, abandoned neoclassical forms. They turned to the visionary lyrics and ballad to critique systemic oppression and champion the liberation of the individual human spirit.

I. Introduction: The Poetics of Crisis

English poetry has persistently served as a mechanism for political commentary, but its form, function, and voice are dictated by the nature of the crises it confronts. This analysis examines two distinct "poetics of crisis" separated by a century: the Restoration (c. 1660 1700) and the Romantic period (c. 1789 1832).

The Restoration period began in 1660 with the return of Charles II to the throne, ending the Puritan Interregnum. The era crises were political, religious, and constitutional, centered on the precarious reestablishment of the monarchy. The primary conflicts revolved around succession specifically, the attempt to exclude the Catholic Duke of York from the throne and the intense factionalism that led to the birth of the first political parties, the Whigs and Tories.

The Romantic period, conversely, was defined by crises that were systemic, economic, and ideological. It was ushered in by the ideological rupture of the French Revolution in 1789 and the profound social disintegration wrought by the Industrial Revolution. The conflicts of this age were not merely about which faction ruled, but about human rights, systemic economic oppression, and the fundamental relationship between the state and the individual.

Within these contexts, political poetry served different ends. Restoration authors inherited the classical definition of satire, articulated by John Dryden as a tool for "the amendment of vices by correction". It functioned as a social and political "weapon" deployed within a shared, elite value system. Political allegory was its primary method: a formal device mapping contemporary political figures onto classical or biblical narratives to score a partisan point.

This analysis argues that the shift in the nature of the crisis, from the elite partisan conflicts of the Restoration to the mass systemic oppression of the Romantic era, forced a corresponding transformation in poetic form. This was not a simple change in literary taste; the dominant poetic forms of each era were active expressions of their political ideologies. The Restoration, emerging from civil war, sought order and containment. Its chosen form, the heroic couplet, formally enacts this goal. As "paired rhyming lines that encapsulate complete thoughts" , the heroic couplet is a poetics of balance, wit, reason, and, most importantly, closure. It is the perfect form for a poetics of social containment.

The Romantic period, by contrast, began with a revolution and sought liberation of the individual, the imagination, and the nation. The Romantics consequently abandoned the heroic couplet and formal satire. They embraced the lyrics, the ode, and the fragment. These are forms of subjective expression, open endedness, and individual emotion. This formal shift was, in itself, a political act, manifesting a fundamental ideological move from an ideology of public order to one of individual liberation.

II. "The True End of Satire": Allegory and Partisan Politics in the Restoration

A. The Political and Religious Matrix

Restoration political poetry did not critique "society" at large; it intervened directly and often viciously in specific contemporary events. The era was defined by the emergence of the Whig and Tory parties , whose primary battleground was the Exclusion Crisis of 1679 1681. This crisis was fueled by the fabricated "Popish Plot" of 1678, a supposed Catholic conspiracy to assassinate Charles II. This invention stoked mass anti Catholic hysteria, which Whig politicians, led by the Earl of Shaftesbury, used to introduce parliamentary bills to exclude the King’s Catholic brother, James, Duke of York, from the line of succession.

In this charged environment, political satire became the primary literary "weapon" in a "war of words" waged among the political and literary elite. Wit was a form of "political power" , and satire was the "highly successful literary tool" used to "undercut... opponents" in this high stakes debate.

B. John Dryden’s Absalom and Achitophel (1681)

John Dryden’s Absalom and Achitophel is "generally acknowledged as the finest political satire in the English language". It is also the period's clearest example of poetry as state sponsored propaganda. Dryden, serving as Poet Laureate, was "called upon... probably by the King himself" to write the poem as a direct "counter [to] Whig propaganda" and to defend the Stuart monarchy.

The poem’s genius lies in its precise and devastating allegorical mapping of the biblical tale of Absalom’s rebellion onto the English crisis , a parallel his educated audience would have immediately recognized.

King David: Represents King Charles II, portrayed as a wise, just, but overly merciful ruler.

Absalom: Represents the Duke of Monmouth, Charles's popular but illegitimate Protestant son, whom the Whigs championed as an alternative heir.

Achitophel: Represents the Earl of Shaftesbury, the Whig leader. He is cast as a manipulative, satanic figure who "sows dissention" and tempts the naive Absalom into rebellion.

Written in masterful heroic couplets, the poem’s function is the "reaffirmation of royal authority". By framing the Whig agenda as a satan inspired plot against a god ordained king, Dryden defends "lawful succession" and argues for the restoration of order.

C. Case Study 2: Samuel Butler’s Hudibras (1663 1678)

If Dryden’s satire was a weapon in a current war, Samuel Butler’s Hudibras was a tool for celebrating a war already won. This "vigorous satirical poem", written in a "mock heroic style", does not primarily address the Whig/Tory conflict. Instead, it attacks the defeated enemy: the Puritans of the recent English Civil War and Interregnum.

The poem "parodies... the Puritan leaders" depicting their "antiquated thinking" and religious "fanaticism". The titular hero, Hudibras, is a "Cromwellian knight" whose adventures expose the "hypocrisy, self delusion, and the pitfalls of fanaticism" at the heart of the Puritan cause. By subjecting Hudibras to constant humiliation, the poem "delighted the royalists" and served a crucial political function: it consolidated the new Restoration regime by comprehensively ridiculing the "fanatic" ideology that had temporarily overthrown the monarchy.

D. Case Study 3: John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester’s "A Satyr on Charles II"

Restoration of satire was not monolithic; it could also be turned against the crown, but only from within. John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, was a "creature of the court" and the most notorious of the "Restoration wits". His satires were not public propaganda, but "clandestine" lampoons circulated among a small, aristocratic circle.

His "A Satyr on Charles II" is a stunningly direct critique of the monarch. However, it does not question the institution of monarchy. It attacks the King’s personal behavior: his laziness and his lechery. The poem’s political allegory is captured in a single, infamous couplet that describes the King's mistresses: "[Charles's] sceptre and prick are of a length; / And she may sway the one who plays with th'other". The allegory is clear: the King’s personal vice (his "prick") has become a political liability, allowing his mistresses to control his royal power (his "sceptre"). Rochester’s goal is not revolution; it is the insider's "correction" of a monarch who has "unking[ed] thee" through personal indulgence.

All three examples, whether defending the state (Dryden), securing the state by mocking its old enemies (Butler), or scolding the state from within (Rochester), demonstrate that Restoration political satire functioned as an internal regulatory mechanism for the political elite. It was a tool for partisan warfare and behavioral correction, but it never questioned the fundamental structures of power.

III. "The Mind Forg'd Manacles": Visionary Protest and Systemic Critique in Romantic Poetry

A. The New Age of Crisis

The Romantic era (c. 1789 1832) was defined by a paradigm shift in the very nature of political crisis. The conflicts were no longer factional disputes within a stable system; they were systemic, ideological, and social upheavals that threatened the system itself.

Ideological Rupture: The French Revolution of 1789 was the definitive event. It inspired a "Liberalism in Literature" and fired the imaginations of poets with its ideals of "liberty, equality, and fraternity". This led to a conscious "rejection of prescribed rules", both political and poetic.
Social and Economic Rupture: The Industrial Revolution created "disruptive social and economic changes". The "growth of the factory system", mass urbanization, child labor, and pollution created a new, impoverished urban class and a sense of profound human alienation.
Domestic Repression: The British state, terrified of a "dangerous insurrection" modeled on France, responded with "counterrevolutionary measures". This repression culminated in the Peterloo Massacre of 1819, where cavalry with "newly sharpened swords" charged a peaceful assembly of "60,000 men, women and children" who had gathered simply to demand parliamentary reform.

B. The New Poetic Form: Visionary Protest

In the face of this new systemic oppression, the "true end of satire" as "correction" seemed naive and insufficient. The Romantics saw the neoclassical reliance on wit and reason as part of the problem. They largely abandoned formal satire for forms that privileged "subjectivity, imagination, and appreciation of nature" and championed the "individual imagination as an originating force". The poet's role was no longer to be a partisan commentator, but a "visionary" prophet whose task was to "awaken" the human spirit and, in doing so, inspire political change.

C. Case Study 1: William Blake’s "London" (Songs of Experience, 1794)

William Blake’s "London" is the archetype of the new systemic critique. The poem’s speaker "wanders" the city and observes "marks of weakness, marks of woe". These are not, in Blake's vision, the result of individual failings, but the products of a corrupt, interlocking system of oppression. The poem functions as a dense, visionary allegory of this total system:

Economic Oppression: The "charter'd Thames" signifies the privatization and legal control of nature itself, a critique of rampant commercialism.
Psychological Oppression: The true source of suffering is the "mind forg'd manacles I hear". Blake diagnoses that the "fear" of institutions "causes... dependence"; the system works by colonizing human consciousness.
Religious Oppression: The "blackning Church appalls" the speaker. The Church, meant to save, is instead a corrupt and "blackning" institution, complicit in the child labor of "The Chimney Sweeper".
Political Oppression: The "hapless Soldiers sigh / Runs in blood down Palace walls". The Monarchy ("Palace") is stained with the blood of its own citizens, forced into "unnecessary wars".
Social Oppression: The "cycle of suffering" is complete as the "youthful Harlots curse / Blights with plagues in the Marriage hearse". Poverty forces prostitution, which in turn destroys the family (the "Marriage hearse"), creating more "newborn infants" destined for suffering.

For Blake, all forms of power economic, religious, political, and social are a single, unified system of oppression.

D. Case Study 2: Percy B. Shelley’s The Mask of Anarchy (1819)

If Blake diagnosed the system, Shelley prescribed the cure. The Mask of Anarchy has been called "the greatest poem of political protest ever written in English". It was written from exile in Italy as a "direct and angry response" to the Peterloo Massacre.

Like Dryden, Shelley uses allegory, but his "masque" presents not rival politicians but abstract spectral figures who are the English government:

Murder: Lord Castlereagh (Foreign Secretary).
Fraud: Lord Eldon (Lord Chancellor).
Hypocrisy: Lord Sidmouth (Home Secretary, who commended the Peterloo magistrates).
Anarchy: A skeletal figure on a white horse, representing the "corrupt" government and monarchy itself, which Shelley portrays as the ultimate source of disorder.

The poem's form is a deliberate political strategy. Shelley, known for "elaborate metaphors and obscure allusions," intentionally "rejects such complex artifice". He adopted a "driving ballad-like form" and "simpler, more familiar images" precisely "to reach as wide an audience as possible", specifically the "poor, uneducated audience" who were the victims at Peterloo.

The poem’s message is revolutionary. It calls for a "great 'Assembly'" of the oppressed to engage in a mass, non-violent resistance. Its concluding stanza became a "rallying cry for justice and freedom" for subsequent generations: "Rise like Lions after slumber... Ye are many they are few".

The political battlefield had thus been relocated. For the Restoration, the fight was in Parliament and the Court. For the Romantics, the fight was for the human spirit. The problem was not a bad law but "mind forged manacles", and the solution was not a "correction" but a revolution of consciousness, an awakening of the "great power" of the people.

IV. Body Section 3: From Partisan Combat to Prophetic Vision: A Comparative Analysis

A. Synthesizing the Divide: Target, Form, and Function

The transition from Restoration to Romantic political poetry represents a fundamental break in the understanding of what a political poem is and what it is for. The critique moved from being ad hominem and partisan to being systemic and abstract.

Target of Critique: Restoration satire targeted individuals and factions. Its enemies were the Earl of Shaftesbury, the Puritans, or the King’s personal vices. Romantic protest targeted systems and institutions. Its enemies were the Church, the Monarchy, Industrialism, and Tyranny itself.
Poetic Form as Political Function: Restoration forms were formal, closed, and elite. The heroic couplet and classical allegory are forms of intellectual control, requiring a classical education and aimed at an elite audience. Their function was to win a debate among the powerful. Romantic forms were lyrical, open, and popular. The ballad and visionary lyrics are forms of emotional liberation, "self-consciously" simple and "accessible" to a mass audience. Their function was to inspire mass movement.

The Role of the Poet: The poet's social role was completely redefined. The Restoration poet was a Partisan Insider. Dryden was a Poet Laureate, a propagandist for the state. Rochester was a courtier, a lampooner. They operated the power structure. The Romantic poet was a Visionary Outsider. Blake was a mystic prophet. Shelley was an exiled radical. They stood outside the power structure, using poetry to condemn and overthrow it.

B. The Bridge: Lord Byron and the Romantic Revival of Satire

The Romantic general "abandonment of satire" has one major exception: Lord Byron. Byron’s "epic satire" Don Juan seems, at first, to be a throwback. Yet it proves the Romantic transformation. Byron "infused" the "satire and wit from the previous period" with a new, destabilizing Romantic sensibility.

Byron’s satire does not use the focused, "corrective" form of Dryden. He rejected the orderly heroic couplet for the "seriocomic" Italian ottava rima. This form was, as Virginia Woolf noted, an "elastic shape which will hold whatever you choose to put into it". It was perfect for the Romantic individual

Furthermore, Don Juan is not a single target allegory. It is a sprawling, digressive, and total "critique of the society, culture, and politics of the 19th century". It attacks everything: "the hypocrisy of the church", the brutality of war ("the sea of slaughter"), and "corrupt" political systems. Byron’s work demonstrates that to write a satire that could "dress society" in the Romantic age, one had to abandon Dryden’s controlled form. Byron synthesized Restoration wit with Romantic individualism and formal elasticity, creating a new kind of social satire that was total, digressive, and fundamentally modern.

V. Conclusion: The Evolving Function of Political Verse

This analysis has traced the profound transformation of political poetry from the Restoration to the Romantic period. The journey from Dryden’s Absalom and Achitophel to Shelley’s The Mask of Anarchy is not just a change in style but a complete redefinition of the poet’s social and political function. Restoration of political poetry was a formal, elite, and partisan tool. It was an "insider" genre, written by Poet Laureates and court wits to correct political opponents and manage the existing power structure.

Romantic political poetry, forged in the crises of revolution and industrialization, became a visionary, popular, and revolutionary tool. It was an "outsider" genre, written by prophets and exiles to awaken a mass audience to systemic oppression. The poet’s role was redefined: from the partisan propagandist defending the Crown to the visionary radical condemning it, seeking to empower the people to "Rise like Lions".

This evolution, which relocated the political from the public court to the individual consciousness, did not end with the Romantics. The next evolution in poetic critique, the Victorian dramatic monologue, built directly on this inward turn. As practiced by poets like Robert Browning, the dramatic monologue became a new, potent vehicle for "social critique" and "social satire". In poems such as "Bishop Blougram’s Apology" and "Mr. Sludge, 'The Medium'", Browning satirizes contemporary social hypocrisies like religious doubt and the fad of spiritualism.

This new form was, in effect, a "psychoanalysis" of a social type, designed to "penetrate the mind" of the individual speaker. The trajectory of political poetry is thus one of increasing interiority. It moves from a critique of a public argument (Dryden’s partisan satire) to a critique of a public action (Shelley’s visionary protest) to, finally, a critique of the private psychology (Browning’s social monologue) that produces those arguments and actions. This demonstrates the enduring, though ever evolving, function of poetry as a powerful vehicle for political and social commentary.

From Correction to Awakening: The Evolution of Political Poetry

From Correction to Awakening

An analysis of the profound shift in the function of political poetry from the Restoration to the Romantic era.

The Poetics of Crisis

The function of poetry is dictated by the crisis it confronts. The 18th century saw a fundamental shift from elite political conflicts to systemic social upheavals, forcing poetry itself to evolve.

Restoration Crisis (c. 1660-1700)

Type: Political & Constitutional
Key Events: Exclusion Crisis, Popish Plot
Conflict: Factional power struggles between elites (Whigs vs. Tories) over royal succession.
Audience: The elite, educated court.

Romantic Crisis (c. 1789-1832)

Type: Systemic & Ideological
Key Events: French & Industrial Revolutions, Peterloo Massacre
Conflict: Mass social and economic oppression; the state versus the individual.
Audience: The broader, popular "people."

The Restoration: Poetry as Partisan Correction

Restoration poets acted as "Partisan Insiders," operating within the elite power structure. Their goal was not revolution, but the "correction" of political opponents and the affirmation of social order, using formal, witty, and sophisticated satire as their weapon.

Form as Function: The Heroic Couplet

The era's dominant form, the heroic couplet, was a political act. Its structure formally enacts the ideology of containment and order that the regime sought to impose.

Heroic Couplet → Paired, rhyming lines

↓

Enacts Ideology Of:

Balance, Reason, Closure, & Social Containment

Case Study: Dryden's Allegorical Targets

In Absalom and Achitophel, Poet Laureate John Dryden used a precise biblical allegory to defend the King, casting the Whig opposition as satanic traitors.

Biblical Figure	Political Target
King David	King Charles II (The Crown)
Absalom	Duke of Monmouth (Whig choice)
Achitophel	Earl of Shaftesbury (Whig leader)

The Romantic Era: Poetry as Visionary Awakening

Romantic poets were "Visionary Outsiders" who stood against the power structure. Responding to systemic oppression, their goal was to "awaken" a mass audience to injustice and inspire a revolution of individual consciousness.

Form as Function: The Lyric & Ballad

The Romantics rejected the couplet for forms that championed the individual. This formal shift was itself a political act of liberation.

Lyric & Ballad → Subjective, emotional forms

↓

Enacts Ideology Of:

Individual Emotion, Open-Endedness, & Liberation

Case Study: Blake's Systemic Critique

In "London," William Blake doesn't target individuals, but a total, interlocking system of oppression. All institutions are complicit in the "mind-forg'd manacles."

Comparative Analysis: The Great Divide

The function, form, and target of political poetry were completely redefined. The poet's role was inverted, from an insider defending the state to an outsider condemning it.

Poetic Function Profile

This chart visualizes the two eras across four key metrics. The resulting "shapes" show two fundamentally different poetic missions, with Restoration poetry being formal and corrective, and Romantic poetry being systemic and revolutionary.

The Bridge: Lord Byron's Synthesis

Lord Byron fused the "wit" of the Restoration with the "individualism" and "elastic form" of the Romantics. He created a new kind of total social satire that was digressive, personal, and fundamentally modern.

Restoration Wit + Romantic Form

↓

Byron's Modern Social Satire

(e.g., Don Juan)

Conclusion: The Trajectory of Critique

The evolution from Dryden to Shelley relocated the site of political struggle from the public court to the individual consciousness. This "inward turn" continued into the Victorian era, where critique became a "psychoanalysis" of the individual mind.

RESTORATION

Critique of Public Argument

(Dryden's Partisan Satire)

→

ROMANTIC

Critique of Public Action

(Shelley's Visionary Protest)

→

VICTORIAN

Critique of Private Psychology

(Browning's Social Monologue)

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