ABSTRACT
In the Victorian age itself, aestheticism was seen as originating in the Romantic period. The Romantics had extolled imagination, both as a means of insight into the world and as the power which governed poetic composition. In the aesthetic outlook, Romantic ideas were pushed in the direction of greater subjectivity, of withdrawal from actual life. The movement of thought and sensibility that fostered contemplative aestheticism is reflected in a poem by Matthew Arnold, The New Sirens. There he evokes the temptations offered by 'the new sirens' of Romanticism. Self–culture was not merely a cult of despair: it represented also a positive — and characteristically Victorian — aspiration to a better mode of life. Pre–Raphaelitism began as a quite clearly defined phenomenon with the foundation, towards the close of the eighteen–forties, of the Pre–Raphaelite Brotherhood. The link between aestheticism and decadence is perhaps a matter for speculation. Symptoms of decadence were observed quite early by Victorian critics.
