“THE ARMYTAGE-TOMSON-WATSON SEQUENCE”: POETIC ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE PERIODICAL PRESS, 1886–96

Abstract

In the summer of 1895 American critic Edmund Clarence Stedman sent a letter across the Atlantic to Robert Bridges about a second decisive change that had just occurred in the career of one of the English poet's most widely published compatriots: “the Armytage-Tomson-Watson sequence is interesting. Well, a woman who can write such ballads has a right to be her own mistress” (Stedman and Gould 2: 185). Stedman's intriguing comment arose from the succinct biographical entries that he was compiling forA Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895(1895). Without doubt, Stedman's eagerness to include up-to-date information about numerous poets whose reputations developed in the 1880s and 90s shows an unmatched thoroughness in such anthologies of the day, and the resulting comprehensiveness of his 1895 volume has ensured that it remains an enduringly useful source of reference.