The Voice of Victorian Sex: Arthur H Clough 1819-1861 by Rupert Christiansen
London: Short Books, 2001 ISBN 0571208150
An interesting little essay on an interesting Victorian character. I'm not sure Clough lives up to the title that Christiansen has given his work, but his life and poetry are a fascinating insight into a time of great intellectual upheaval in England, and Christiansen has given us a deeply thought out account of how Clough's experiences shaped his all-to-short life.
Unusually for one of his class, Clough spent his early years in America, and when he returned to England was sent to Rugby under the tutelage of Thomas Arnold, where he was a much-loved and successful student, before heading up to Oxford with a scholarship to Balliol. His years at Oxford were not successful, as Clough struggled with having to submit to the religious test to stay at the University. This eventually became intolerable and affected his final degree, and led to him abandoning his position as a don.
He led a life of dithering over what he should do with his life. He variously entertained plans of moving to New Zealand, Australia, and actually did for a time spend some time in the USA (he was firm friends with Ralph Waldo Emerson, after meeting him in England. He was also close to Matthew Arnold and Thomas Carlyle). Eventually he got a job in the civil service, and married. However, it seems he was never truly happy, not being able to conform with societal expectations. Christiansen makes much of Clough's sexual travails - his Arnoldian education meant he was wracked with guilt over any sexual thoughts that weren't pure, exacerbated by what seems to be a predilection to prostitutes over the course of his life.
His poetry is where Christiansen finds evidence that Clough was "the voice of Victorian sex". Certainly his poetry did move on from Romantic tropes that were popular during his youth, toward a poetry of ordinary life and feelings, and to relations between men and women. Clough often gives women in his poems agency in love and romance, which is unusual for his times.
I suppose where I have reservations about Christiansen's claim is that Clough, although popular in literary circles, and seen for some time as an up-and-coming man (before he was seen as a what-might-have-been), was only a minor figure in poetry. His first published poem as an adult, The Bothie of Toper-na-fuosich was well received, but at no stage was he truly influential in the world of poesy in England.
His poetry has never been really popular - he usually appears in anthologies of Victorian poetry, but not as often in broader collections. His style was individual, preferring lesser-used metrical systems such as hexameter, and subjects that were very individual. It is hard to gather from his life whether he saw himself as a poet in any meaningful way.
His later life was spent as general factotum to Florence Nightingale, who was a cousin to his wife. He worked extremely hard in her name, until he had some sort of mental and physical breakdown in 1859. The origins of his decline are such that Christiansen can't pinpoint exactly what was wrong with him, but he went to Europe for a cure, and died in Italy with his wife by his side.
I suppose it's fitting that a minor poet gets a short book - I like the idea behind this series of "short lives" books - this was a pleasant and edifying way to spend some time waiting for my child to finish their music lesson, and like all books worth reading, has lead me on to have a look at more of Clough's work.
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