SOURCE: Weinig, Sister Mary Anthony. “Established Poet.” In Coventry Patmore, pp. 60-80. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1981.

In the following essay, Weinig offers a thematic and stylistic analysis of Patmore's early poetry.

I Tamerton Church-tower

A significant step on Coventry Patmore's way from new poet to household poet (a tenuous position at best, but justified in the 1860s by the large British and overseas sales of the Angel) is “Tamerton Church-Tower,” title poem of the 1853 collection.¹ This in its final form is a carefully crafted piece whose four parts of different lengths but subtle symmetry are a regrouping, a hundred lines reduced, of the original ten sections. It is tempting, though not profitable, to see in the four-fold division an analogy with the four finished parts of the Angel in the House, which likewise moves through courtship, wedded bliss, bereavement, peace (though not with the same couple). One hundred and...