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Great Britain was Victorian for two-thirds of a century. Things changed and counterchanged; even the Queen often proved a surprise, though it may be thought that she was a surprise like a Browning character, by being even more herself than one would ever have anticipated.

— Christopher Ricks The New Oxford Book of Victorian Verse (1987)

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More quotes by Christopher Ricks

English poetry – having a life of its own – is forever being supplemented, complemented, culled, and found afresh. The anthologist had better not repine at the thought of his or her future departure.

The Oxford Book of English Verse (1999)

Inerrancy about one's own powers is not a mark of the Victorian poets, nor even is a simple prudence about not over-reaching or over-archaizing. The Victorian poetaster over 'weens'.

The New Oxford Book of Victorian Verse (1987)

When a language creates – as it does – a community within the present, it does so only by courtesy of a community between the present and the past.

The State of the Language (1980)

Any anthologist of the unparagoned achievement that is English poetry must enjoy the pleasure, privilege, and responsibility of being for a while the master of its ceremonies. Or of being, at any rate, in the rueful Americanism, kinda humble and kinda proud.

The Oxford Book of English Verse (1999)

[I]t is characteristic of true simplicity that there may radiate from its utmost directness a good many glinting things.

Dylan's Visions of Sin (2004)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Christopher Ricks (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.