Religious Symbolism in Adelaide Anne Procter’s Legends and Lyrics

The present study investigates the religious symbolism in Legends and Lyrics by Adelaide Anne Procter, who represents Victorian feminine religious sensibility. In her poetry, we often find unique symbols with religious undertones entailing more profound spiritual implications. Symbols are used to represent the invisible and intangible facts that would otherwise remain only abstractions. When religious symbols are employed in an author’s works, notably a poet, there is a clear indication that the writer is trying to answer questions of spiritual nature, divinity, and the beatific vision. The study helps to answer why symbols are so fundamental in religious literature, mainly that which deals with the esoteric side of dogma, especially in the Victorian era. It has been found that the overall imagery used in Procter’s poetry is universal in nature but with clear biblical connotations.