Introduction: physiological poetics -- The electric poetess: Robinson, Hemans, and the charge of romanticism -- Tennyson's telegraphic poetics -- Rhythms of spasm: Dobell, Aytoun, and the crisis of form -- Patmore, Hopkins, and the uncertain body of Victorian poetry -- Rapture and the flesh, Swinburne to blind -- Conclusion: spiritual and material poetics: Doten, Barrett Browning, and beyond.