"The Young Queen" and "Crowned and Wedded"

By Elizabeth Barrett Barrett (later Elizabeth Barrett Browning)

"The Young Queen"

Published 1 July 1837 in the periodical the Athenaeum

From The Seraphim, and Other Poems (1838).

Written on the occasion of Victoria's accession, at the age of eighteen, to the throne of England on 20 June 1837, the day William IV died.

• Picture of the Young Queen Victoria
• Victoria on the Victorian Web
• Picture of Victoria in her coronation robes

"Crowned and Wedded"

Published 15 February 1840 in the periodical the Athenaeum. From Poems (1844)

Written on the occasion of Victoria's marriage to Albert, 10 February 1840.

• Picture of Victoria proposing to Albert: this humorous lithograph from 1839 bases its humour on the reversal of conventional gender roles in courtship.
• Picture of the Royal Family in 1846.

• Who is the speaker of the poem?
• What is the speaker's relation to the occasion of the poem?
• What does this poem suggest about the relationship between poetry and the life of the nation?
• What does "The Young Queen" suggest about the relationship between gender and the role of the monarch?
• What does "Crowned and Wedded" suggest about the relationship between being a queen and being a wife?