Matthew Arnold the same initial: Empedocles on Etna, and Other Poems.

In 1853
appeared the first volume of poems published under his own name; it
Q: ARNOLD’S ‘THE STUDY OF POETRY’ consisted partly of poems selected from the earlier volumes and also
contained the well-known preface explaining (among other things) why
1.0. Introduction: Empedocles was excluded from the selection: it was a
Matthew Arnold was one of the foremost poets and critics of the 19th dramatic poem “in which the suffering finds no vent in action,” in which
century. While often regarded as the father of modern literary criticism, there is “everything to be endured, nothing to be done.” This preface
he also wrote extensively on social and cultural issues, religion, and foreshadows his later criticism in its insistence upon the classic virtues of
education. Arnold was born into an influential English family—his father unity, impersonality, universality, and architectonic power and upon the
was a famed headmaster at Rugby—and graduated from Balliol College, value of the classical masterpieces as models for “an age of spiritual
Oxford. He began his career as a school inspector, traveling throughout discomfort”—an age “wanting in moral grandeur.” Other editions
much of England on the newly built railway system. When he was followed, and Merope, Arnold’s classical tragedy, appeared in 1858, and
elected professor of poetry at Oxford in 1857, he was the first in the post New Poems in 1867. After that date, though there were further editions,
to deliver his lectures in English rather than Latin. Walt Whitman Arnold wrote little additional verse.
famously dismissed him as a “literary dude,” and while many have Not much of Arnold’s verse will stand the test of his own criteria; far
continued to disparage Arnold for his moralistic tone and literary from being classically poised, impersonal, serene, and grand, it is often
judgments, his work also laid the foundation for important 20th century intimate, personal, full of romantic regret, sentimental pessimism, and
critics like T.S. Eliot, Cleanth Brooks, and Harold Bloom. His poetry has nostalgia. As a public and social character and as a prose writer, Arnold
also had an enormous, though underappreciated, influence; Arnold is was sunny, debonair, and sanguine; but beneath ran the current of his
frequently acknowledged as being one of the first poets to display a truly buried life, and of this much of his poetry is the echo:
Modern perspective in his work. From the soul’s subterranean depth upborne
Perhaps Arnold’s most famous piece of literary criticism is his essay “The As from an infinitely distant land,
Study of Poetry.” In this work, Arnold is fundamentally concerned with Come airs, and floating echoes, and convey
poetry’s “high destiny;” he believes that “mankind will discover that we A melancholy into all our day.
have to turn to poetry to interpret life for us, to console us, to sustain “I am past thirty,” he wrote a friend in 1853, “and three parts iced over.”
us” as science and The impulse to write poetry came typically when
philosophy will eventually prove flimsy and unstable. Arnold’s essay thus A bolt is shot back somewhere in the breast,
concerns itself with articulating a “high standard” and “strict judgment” And a lost pulse of feeling stirs again.
in order to avoid the fallacy of valuing certain poems (and poets) too Though he was “never quite benumb’d by the world’s sway,” these hours
highly, and lays out a method for discerning only the best and therefore of insight became more and more rare, and the stirrings of buried feeling
“classic” poets (as distinct from the description of writers of the ancient were associated with moods of regret for lost youth, regret for the
world). Arnold’s classic poets include Milton, Shakespeare, Dante, and freshness of the early world, moods of self-pity, moods of longing for
Homer; and the passages he presents from each are intended to show The hills where his life rose
how their poetry is timeless and moving. For Arnold, feeling and sincerity And the sea where it goes.
are paramount, as is the seriousness of subject: “The superior character Yet, though much of Arnold’s most characteristic verse is in this vein of
of truth and seriousness, in the matter and substance of the best poetry, soliloquy or intimate confession, he can sometimes rise, as in “Sohrab
is inseparable from the superiority of diction and movement marking its and Rustum,” to epic severity and impersonality; to lofty meditation, as
style and manner.” An example of an indispensable poet who falls short in “Dover Beach”; and to sustained magnificence and richness, as in “The
of Arnold’s “classic” designation is Geoffrey Chaucer, who, Arnold states, Scholar Gipsy” and “Thyrsis”—where he wields an intricate stanza form
ultimately lacks the “high seriousness” of classic poets. without a stumble.
At the root of Arnold’s argument is his desire to illuminate and preserve In 1857, assisted by the vote of his godfather (and predecessor) John
the poets he believes to be the touchstones of literature, and to ask Keble, Arnold was elected to the Oxford chair of poetry, which he held
questions about the moral value of poetry that does not champion truth, for 10 years. It was characteristic of him that he revolutionized this
beauty, valor, and clarity. Arnold’s belief that poetry should both uplift professorship. The keynote was struck in his inaugural lecture: “On the
and console drives the essay’s logic and its conclusions. Modern Element in Literature,” “modern” being taken to mean not
merely “contemporary” (for Greece was “modern”), but the spirit that,
1.1. Life: contemplating the vast and complex spectacle of life, craves for moral
Matthew was the eldest son of the renowned Thomas Arnold, who was and intellectual “deliverance.” Several of the lectures were afterward
appointed headmaster of Rugby School in 1828. Matthew entered Rugby published as critical essays, but the most substantial fruits of his
(1837) and then attended Oxford as a scholar of Balliol College; there he professorship were the three lectures On Translating Homer (1861)—in
won the Newdigate Prize with his poem Cromwell (1843) and was which he recommended Homer’s plainness and nobility as medicine for
graduated with secondclass honours in 1844. For Oxford Arnold retained the modern world, with its “sick hurry and divided aims” and
an impassioned affection. His condemned Francis Newman’s recent translation as ignoble and
Oxford was the Oxford of John Henry Newman—of Newman just about eccentric—and the lectures On the Study of Celtic
to be received into the Roman Catholic Church; and although Arnold’s Literature (1867), in which, without much knowledge of his subject or of
own religious thought, like his father’s, was strongly liberal, Oxford and anthropology, he used the Celtic strain as a symbol of that which rejects
Newman always remained for him joint symbols of spiritual beauty and the despotism of the commonplace and the utilitarian.
culture.
In 1847 Arnold became private secretary to Lord Lansdowne, who 1.3. Arnold as a Critic:
occupied a high cabinet post during Lord John Russell’s Liberal ministries. It is said that when the poet in Arnold died, the critic was born; and it is
And in 1851, in order to secure the income needed for his marriage (June true that from this time onward he turned almost entirely to prose.
1851) with Frances Lucy Wightman, he accepted from Lansdowne an Some of the leading ideas and phrases were early put into currency in
appointment as inspector of schools. This was to be his routine Essays in Criticism (First Series, 1865; Second Series, 1888) and Culture
occupation until within two years of his death. He engaged in incessant and Anarchy. The first essay in the 1865 volume, “The Function of
travelling throughout the British provinces and also several times was Criticism at the Present Time,” is an overture announcing briefly most of
sent by the government to inquire into the state of education in France, the themes he developed more fully in later work. It is at once evident
Germany, Holland, and Switzerland. Two of his reports on schools that he ascribes to “criticism” a scope and importance hitherto
abroad were reprinted as books, and his annual reports on schools at undreamed of. The function of criticism, in his sense, is “a disinterested
home attracted wide attention, written, as they were, in Arnold’s own endeavour to learn and propagate the best that is known and thought in
urbane and civilized prose. the world, and thus to establish a current of fresh and true ideas.” It is in
fact a spirit that he is trying to foster, the spirit of an awakened and
1.2. Poetic Achievement: informed intelligence playing upon not “literature” merely but theology,
The work that gives Arnold his high place in the history of literature and history, art, science, sociology, and politics, and in every sphere seeking
the history of ideas was all accomplished in the time he could spare from “to see the object as in itself it really is.”
his official duties. His first volume of verse was The Strayed Reveller, and
Other Poems. By A. (1849); this was followed (in 1852) by another under
1
In this critical effort, thought Arnold, England lagged behind France and definite belief; and from the infidels, for clinging to the church and
Germany, and the English accordingly remained in a backwater of retaining certain Christian beliefs of which he had undermined the
provinciality and complacency. Even the great Romantic poets, with all foundations. Arnold considered his religious writings to be constructive
their creative energy, suffered from the want of it. The English literary and conservative. Those who accused him of destructiveness did not
critic must know literatures other than his own and be in touch with realize how far historical and scientific criticism had already riddled the
European standards. This last line of thought Arnold develops in the old foundations; and those who accused him of timidity failed to see that
second essay, “The Literary Influence of Academies,” in he regarded religion as the highest form of culture, the one
which he dwells upon “the note of provinciality” in English literature, indispensable without which all secular education is in vain. His attitude
caused by remoteness from a “centre” of correct knowledge and correct is best summed up in his own words (from the preface to God and the
taste. To realize how much Arnold widened the horizons of criticism Bible): “At the present moment two things about the Christian religion
requires only a glance at the titles of some of the other essays in Essays must surely be clear to anybody with eyes in his head. One is, that men
in Criticism (1865): “Maurice de Guérin,” “Eugénie de Guérin,” “Heinrich cannot do without it; the other, that they cannot do with it as it is.”
Heine,” “Joubert,” “Spinoza,” “Marcus Aurelius”; in all these, as Convinced that much in popular religion was “touched with the finger of
increasingly in his later books, he is “applying modern ideas to life” as death” and convinced no less of the hopelessness of man without
well as to letters and “bringing all things under the point of view of the religion, he sought to find for religion a basis of “scientific fact” that even
19th century.” the positive modern spirit must accept. A reading of Arnold’s Note Books
The first essay in the 1888 volume, “The Study of Poetry,” was originally will convince any reader of the depth of Arnold’s spirituality and of the
published as the general introduction to T.H. Ward’s anthology, The degree to which, in his “buried life,” he disciplined himself in constant
English Poets (1880). It contains many of the ideas for which Arnold is devotion and self-forgetfulness.
best remembered. In an age of crumbling creeds, poetry will have to
replace religion. More and more, we will “turn to poetry to interpret life Q: Arnold as a Romanticist/ Romanticism
for us, to console us, to sustain us.” Therefore we must know how to Romanticism has been defined variously as triumph of
distinguish the best poetry from the inferior, the genuine from the imagination over convention or liberalism in literature, or liberation and
counterfeit; and to do this we must steep ourselves in the work of the assertion of the ago or curious mixture of wonder and beauty or revival
acknowledged masters, using as “touchstones” passages exemplifying of medievalism, nostalgic backward look on time, passionate overflow of
their “high seriousness,” and their superiority of diction and movement. feeling escape from life and many more things. Romaticsm may be all
The remaining essays, with the exception of the last two (on Tolstoy and these things yet it may be much more. It is awakening of the imaginative
Amiel), all deal with English poets: Milton, Gray, Keats, Wordsworth, sensibility or wonder added to common experiences or naturalisation of
Byron, and Shelley. All contain memorable things, and all attempt a the supernatural. Arnold does not fall in any of the above definitions. He
serious and responsible assessment of each poet’s “criticism of life” and was a mixture of classicism and romanticism because, inspired by the
his value as food for the modern spirit. Arnold has been taken to task for Greek masters he wanted to see life steadily and see it whole as a poet,
some of his judgments and omissions: for his judgment that Dryden and critic and man of culture. A romaticist does seek for truth within himself
Pope were not “genuine” poets because they composed in their wits and his approach as poet is subjective, yet trancendental. We do meet
instead of “in the soul”; for calling Gray a “minor classic” in an age of quite a few examples of inner projection in Arnold’s poetry. Dover
prose and spiritual bleakness; for paying too much attention to the Beach, The Scholar Gipsy, Memorial Verses and The Forsaken Merman,
man behind the poetry (Gray, Keats, Shelley); for making no mention of all have elements of romanticism in them. Dover Beach is almost
Donne; and above all for saying that poetry is “at bottom a criticism of Keatsian in its melancholy and lilting cadence; Scholar Gipsy’s escape
life.” On this last point it should be remembered that he added “under from Oxford to seek the company the wild brother hood and lore of
the conditions fixed…by the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty,” and hypnotisn is romatic even in conceptualization and characterization;
that if by “criticism” is understood (as Arnold meant) “evaluation,” equally so is landscaping and depiction of the Oxford countryside. In
Arnold’s dictum is seen to have wider significance than has been Memoerial Verses, his tributes to not only Wordsworth, the father of
sometimes supposed. English romantic poetry but to the terrible child of English romaticism,
Culture and Anarchy is in some ways Arnold’s most central work. It is an Byron is a proof of Arnold‘s romantic inclinations irrespective of his
expansion of his earlier attacks, in “The Function of Criticism” and avowals on behalf classicisn. And, to surpass tham a ll, we have The
“Heinrich Heine,” upon the smugness, philistinism, and mammon Forsken Merman which is romantic both in conceptualization and
worship of Victorian England. Culture, as “the study of perfection,” is execution.
opposed to the prevalent “anarchy” of a new democracy without
standards and without a sense of direction. By “turning a stream of fresh Q: What is according to Arnold is the definition and
thought upon our stock notions and habits,” culture seeks to make function of criticism.
“reason and the will of God prevail.” Introduction:-
Arnold’s classification of English society into Barbarians (with their high Mathew Arnold was a great Victorian poet-critic. He wrote some
spirit, serenity, and distinguished manners and their inaccessibility to poetry before he turned to criticism. That way, his criticism is the
ideas), Philistines (the stronghold of religious nonconformity, with plenty criticism of a man who had personal experience of what he was writing.
of energy and morality but insufficient “sweetness and light”), and He never considered poetry as something apart from life. To him, it was
Populace (still raw and blind) is well known. Arnold saw in the Philistines never ‘Art for Art’s sake’. It had a serious concern with the art of living
the key to the whole position; they were now the most influential itself. It was also criticism of life. He expects high seriousness form a
section of society; their strength was the nation’s strength, their great literary artist as we find Homer, Dante and Shakespeare.
crudeness its crudeness: Educate and humanize the Philistines,
therefore. Arnold saw in the idea of “the State,” and not in any one class Criticism as an Art:-
of society, the true organ and repository of the nation’s collective “best According to Arnold, literary criticism is also an art. T.S. Eliot
self.” No summary can do justice to this extraordinary book; it can still be remarks,
read with pure enjoyment, for it is written with an inward poise, a “Criticism is not an end in itself. IT is a means to a great understanding
serene detachment, and an infusion of mental laughter, which make it a literary works.”
masterpiece of ridicule as well as a Art must be experience and criticism assists that process. Arnold
searching analysis of Victorian society. The same is true of its unduly says that in the modern world, poetry does not the work of religion. A
neglected sequel, Friendship’s Garland (1871). great poet must make a disinterested effort to learn and propagate the
best ideas in the world. And a critic of art should judge a work of art in
1.4. Religious Writings: the light of the best classics of the world.
Lastly Arnold turned to religion, the constant preoccupation and true
centre of his whole life, and wrote St. Paul and Protestantism (1870), Importance of Criticism
Literature and Dogma (1873), God and the Bible (1875), and Last Essays In his essay, “On Translating Homer”, Arnold says, “In all branches
on Church and Religion (1877). In these books, Arnold really founded of knowledge, the main critical effort is to see the object as in itself it
Anglican “modernism.” Like all religious liberals, he came under fire from really is>” Thus he gives great importance to criticism. Many critic did
two sides: from the orthodox, who accused him of infidelity, of turning not agree with him and asserted superiority of the creative effort of they
God into a “stream of tendency” and of substituting vague emotion for human spirit over its critical effort. Wordsworth also gave little

2
importance to criticism. Arnold agrees that false criticism should not be
encourage. He also admits that critical faculty criticism is better than Q: The Function of Criticism at the Present Time
creative literary. For example, Dr. Johnson’s creative play “Irene’” is not
Matthew Arnold was born on Christmas eve in 1822 in England. He is an
better than his critics works “The lives of the Poets”. Wordsworths’
eminent Victorian who holds a high place in the long line of poet-critics
Preface to the Lyrical Ballads” is better than his sonnets.
of England. As a critic Arnold was the most influential force among the
Creative Power:- Victorians. He believed that literature is a criticism of life. The function
Arnold further points out that ‘creative power is the highest of Arnold’s critic is to promote literary culture. The Function of Criticism
function of man. Man’s true happiness lives in his creative work. But he at the Present Time is the finest of Arnold’s essays. It is a classic
can use his creative power in other ways also. The use of the creative statement of the liberal principles, which ideally should guide the
power in the production of great works is not possible in all ages. Man is performance of criticism. When Matthew Arnold uses the term ‘criticism’
concerned with the current ideas of his own time. it has a wider application. It is directed upon society, religion, politics
A poet must have a thorough knowledge of life and he world. And and life in general. It is the free play of the mind on all subjects and its
in modern times life and the world are very complex. So there must be a function is to promote culture by helping the lively circulation of the best
great critical power behind the creation. Otherwise, his poetry will be ideas yet available to humanity. Arnold sees the critic as doing the
poor, barren, and short-lives. Byron had more creative than critical spadework for a new creative age. At one and the same time the critic is
power, while Goethe had more critical than creative power. a kind of midwife to artistic genius and the mediator between the artist
Of course, books are a source of great ideas, but mere reading is and the general public.
not always enough. Shelly and Coleridge had deep reading while Pindar, Arnold has stated his opinions about poetry in his “Study of Poetry”.
Sophocles and Shakespeare were not deep readers. And yet they became Poetry, according to Arnold, is capable of higher uses than it appears to
supreme artist. The reason that they lived in a current of ideas in as be. It can interpret life for us, it can console us and sustain us. Without
stream of fresh ideas. During French revolution in the first quarter of the poetry science will be incomplete. Matthew Arnold says that religion
19th century no great works of art were produced only because it was a and philosophy are but shadows and dreams. They are actually false
political and practical movement and not a spiritual one.
shows of knowledge. Soon we will come to know of their emptiness and
According to Arnold, the most important quality of criticism is its
we will turn again to poetry. Arnold says that poetry is the criticism of
‘disinterestedness’ and a critic shows it by keeping aloof from the
life. The consolation and power that we seek in poetry will depend on its
practical views of the things. Criticism has nothing to do with an y
power of the criticism of life. By criticism of life, Arnold means the
external political or practice consideration about ideas. The real business
profound application of ideas of life.
of criticism is to know that best that is know and though in the world and
thus to create a current of true and fresh ideas. While much of English Poetic truth means the truth and seriousness of the substance and
criticism is guide by practical consideration. For example, the French matter. Poetic beauty means felicity and perfection of the diction and
Journal propagate the best that is known and thought in the world, while manner. The poet does not present life as it is, but he adds something to
most of the English journals are guided and controlled by one party or it from his own noble nature and this is his criticism of life. Poetry makes
the other. men better and nobler by appealing to the soul of men. Science, on the
Then Arnold remarks that too must of self-satisfaction is other hand, appeals to reason. When the poet speaks from the depth of
dangerous for human beings. For example ‘Sir Charles Adderley said that his soul, he creates a “thing of beauty, which is for ever”. It is this kind of
the English race is the best breed In the whole world’. Roebuck also said poetry that lives for-ever delighting us and ennobling our soul.
“I pray that our unrivalled happiness may last.” While Arnold agrees wit Matthew Arnold defines criticism as a disinterested hard work to learn
Goethe who said ‘”The little that is done seem nothing whom we look and propagate the best that is known and thought in the world. A critic
forward and see how much we have yet to do.” In “Advancement of should avoid narrow-minded provincialism and falsification of ideas so
Learning” Bacon also puts forth the same idea. that he can discover the best and the noblest. Arnold suggests his well-
A true critic should come out of the sphere of practical lie and known touchstone method to guide the critic. According to this method,
should follow the virtue of self-detachment. He should things as they poetry of very high quality are compared to the work under
really are. Common people never see thinks as they are they are always consideration. Arnold suggested this method to overcome the drawbacks
satisfied with every inadequate idea. Here Arnold regret that in English of the personal and historical estimates of a poem. In Arnold’s view the
most the people are guided practical consideration and thus fail to see most useful method to discover the real excellence is to have in mind
things as they real are. A true critic should be independent of the lines and expression of the great masters such as Dante, Shakespeare
practical aim. Criticism should not be based on practical importance. A Milton etc. which may be applied as touchstone to other works.
critic should know how to wait, be flexible, how to attach and also
detach himself with things of the world. The main function of the
Q: Arnold’s criticism/Idea/function
criticism to is to find out those element which are necessary for spiritual
perfection. While criticism may be considered lower in rank to creation, the creation
Now Arnold comes to the question, what should be the subject of great works of art is not always equally possible. The elements with
matter of Criticism? It is the disinterested endoavour to learn and which the creative power works are ideas, but the best and noble ideas
propagate the vest that is known and thought in the world, and thus may not be always current. That is why creative epochs in literature are
establish a current of fresh and true ideas. For this purpose, a critic must so rare. For great creation, the power of the man and the power of the
read the literature of as many centuries and language as possible. An moment must concur, but the power of the moment may not be always
English critic can not entirely depend upon English thought because available. Even the tremendous natural power of the romantics was
English is not all world. Must of the best that is known and thought in partially crippled by the lack of intellectual life in the English society of
the world can not be of English growth only. the nineteenth century. It makes Byron empty of matter, Shelley
Arnold firmly believes that he current English literature is mostly incoherent and even Wordsworth wanting in completeness and variety.
mediocre ,and does not come into this best that is known and thought in This is where criticism comes to play.
the world. The current literature of France and Germany is richer in the 1) Criticism has the power to make the best ideas prevail. It is the
his respect. A critic must have a through knowledge of the literature of business of criticism to know the best that is known and thought in the
other countries besides his own. That criticism is really values which world and in its turn making this known to create a current of true and
regard the whole of Europe as being bound to a joint action and works to fresh ideas. It creates stir and growth which makes creation possible.
a common result. Its members have a thought knowledge of Greek, That is why great creative epochs are preceded by great epochs of
Roman, and Eastern antiquity. They are linked together by the idea of criticism.
the best that is know and thought in the world. 2) In order to be successful, criticism must exercise curiosity, which is a
At last Arnold, declares that criticism can not also become a desire to know the best, and which should not be taken as a term of
creative activity certain ages when creative literature is not possible. disparagement.
Criticism not only paves the way for the creative artist. It itself becomes 3) Criticism must also be disinterested. It must keep aloof from the
a creative art. The best literature is produced when a man of genius is ‘practical view of things’. The critic must try to view an object with
possessed by a current of truth and living ideas and writes under their detachment to see it ‘as it really is’, without being stifled by
influence and inspiration. This is proved by the ages of Sophocles and practical/political considerations. Arnold is of the view that a critic’s
Shakespeare judgment should never be swayed by the prejudices of the Barbarian,

3
the Populace and the Philistines. A critic must shun provincialism, which 7. He is in favour of biographical interpretation; he is also conscious of
may take the forms of excess, ignorance or bathos, and must endeavour the importance of the moment", and yet he is against the historical
to be ‘in contact with the main stream of human life’. In short, the critic method of criticism.His standards of judgement are not literary.
must be disinterested in the sense that he should pursue only the ends His literary criticism is vitiated by his moral, classical and continental
of cultural perfection and should remain uninfluenced by the coarser prejudices. He is sympathetic only to the classics, he rates the
appeals of the Philistine. A critic who is disinterested and who tries to continental poets higher than the great English poets, and the moral test
see the thing as it really is in itself, is likely to be misunderstood, because which he applies often makes him neglect the literary qualities of a
in England ‘practice is everything, a free play of the mind is nothing’. poet. The immoral in a poets' life, prejudices him against his poetry.
4) Next, it is the function of criticism to keep men away from self
satisfaction which is retarding and vulgarizing. By shaking men out of Q: Arnold’s views on Poetry in his “the Study of Poetry”
their complacency, he makes their minds dwell on upon what is excellent
Stress on Action: He begins his ‘Preface to Poems’ 1853, by saying that he
in itself, the absolute beauty and fitness of things. But in England,
dropped his poem Empedocles on Etna from the new collection, because
criticism is not fulfilling this spiritual function because it has grown too
it had very little action. The hero suffered and brooded over his suffering
controversial.
and committed suicide. Mere subjectivity, the inner gloom or
5) Judging is often spoken as the critic’s main business, but such judging
melancholy of the poet to the neglect of action, can never result in true
has to be in a clear and fair mind, along with knowledge. Knowledge
poetry. Poetry of the highest order requires suitable action an action
therefore should be the critic’s concern. So, in his search for the best that
sufficiently serious and weighty. Poetry is dedicated to joy and this joy
is known and thought in the world, the critic has to study literatures
results from the magnificence of its action (reminds of Aristotle’s stress
other than his own. He should have knowledge of Greek, Roman and
on action as the soul of tragedy)
eastern antiquity.
Subject of Poetry: Only those should be taken as subjects of poetry which
6) False standards of judgment-personal and historical must be avoided.
can impart the highest pleasure. Arnold points out that it is not
The question that now arises is how is the critic to discover what is best
necessary for modern poets to choose modern subjects as in the modern
and noble. Arnold says that the critic must possess tact which is the
age there is too much of philistinism and vulgarization of values. The
unfailing guide to the excellent. And next, he should free himself from
poets should choose ancient subjects, those which were chosen by
false standards of judgment, namely the personal and historical
Homer and the other Greek Masters .In short, poets should choose
standards. By personal standard, Arnold means the critic’s own likes and
actions that please always and please all. Actions that are of this nature
dislikes intruding in his judgment of literature. A real estimate of poetry
‘most powerfully appeal to those elementary feelings which are
rises above personal predilections and prejudices. Personal estimates
independent of time’ and hence are the fittest subjects for poetry. It is
result in the hysterical, eruptive and the aggressive manner in literature.
immaterial whether such subjects are ancient or modern so long as they
The historic estimate is equally fallacious and misleading. By regarding a
fulfill this principle. But an age wanting in moral grandeur, says Arnold
poet’s work as a stage in the course of the development of a nation’s
with reference to his age, can hardly supply such subjects, and so the
language, thought and poetry, we may end up overrating a poet, and fail
poets must turn to ancient themes.
to see the value of his poetry ‘as it is in itself’.
Manner and Style: Highest poetry and highest poetic pleasure result
7) The Right Method or the Touchstone Method: In order to guide the
from the whole and not from separate parts, from the harmony of
critic in his performance of his task, Arnold prescribes his well known
matter and manner and not from manner alone. No unworthy subject
‘Touchstone method’. He says that a real estimate can be attained by
can be made delightful by an excellent treatment. Arnold says that with
learning to feel and enjoy the best work of a real classic and appreciate
the Greeks the action was the first consideration, with us, attention is
the wide difference between it and other lesser works. He further adds
fixed mainly on the value of individual thoughts and images. They
that high qualities lie both in the matter and substance, and in the
regarded the whole, we regard the parts. Greeks were also the highest
manner and style of poetry. The Matter and substance will possess ‘truth
model of expression, the masters of the grand style. That was because
and seriousness’, and this character is ‘inseparable from the superiority
they kept the expression simple and subordinated to the action, and
of diction and movement’ in style and manner. Arnold then suggest that
because they expression drew its force directly from the action.
it would do critics good if they always have in their minds lines and
The Ancients as safe models: Acc to Arnold, the ancients are the perfect
expressions of the great masters and apply them as touchstone to other
guides or models to be followed by the poets. Shakespeare is not a safe
poetry. This will help critics detect the presence or absence of high
guide, for although he has excellence of subject, he is unable to say a
poetic quality, and also the degree of this quality. He then takes a few
thing plainly even when the action demands direct expression. From the
passages from Homer, Dante, Shakespeare and Milton, and points out
ancients, the poet will learn how superior is the effect of one moral
that they belong to the class of the truly excellent.
impression left by a great action treated as a whole to the effect
produced by the most striking single thought.
Q: limitations of Matthew Arnold as a critic
There is no denying the fact that as a critic of literature, Arnold has well- The Grand style: Arnold says that the ancients were the masters of the
marked limitations and short comings which may be listed as follows:
‘grand style’. The grand style arises in poetry when ‘a noble nature,
1. He is incapable of connected reasoning at any length, and often poetically gifted treats with simplicity or severity, a serious subject’. So,
contradicts himself. Thus first he lays down the test of total impression for the grand style, there must be 1) nobility of soul 2) subject or action
for judging the worth of a poet, but soon after contradicts himself and
chosen must be serious enough 3) the treatment should be severe or
prescribes the well-known Touchstone Method. simple. Homer, Dante and Milton were masters of it, but most English
2. There is a certain want of logic and method in Arnold's criticism. He poets lacked it.Modern poets like Keats do not have the shaping power,
is not a scientific critic. Often he is vague, and fails to define or state they have short passages of excellence but not the beauty of the whole.
clearly his views. In Arnold’s view, only poetry modeled on the Ancients can serve as an
3. He frowns upon mere literary criticism. He mixes literary criticism
antidote to philistinism .Arnold’s theory of poetry is to be understood as
with socio-ethical consideration and regards it as an instrument of a counterblast to romantic individualism, subjectivity, and contempt of
culture. Pure literary criticism with him has no meaning and significance. authority.
4. There is some truth in the criticism that he was a propagandist and
Function/definition of poetry: Arnold is confident that poetry has a great
salesman. As Wimsatt and Brooks point out, "very simply, very future. It is in poetry that our race will find an ever surer stay. Poetry acc
characteristically, and very repetitiously, Arnold spent his career in to Arnold, is capable of higher uses, interpreting life for us, consoling us,
hammering the thesis that poetry is a "criticism of life". All his practical and sustaining us, that is, poetry will replace religion and philosophy.
criticism is but an illustration of this view. Arnold further declares that ‘poetry is a criticism of life under conditions
5. His criticism lacks originality. Practically all of his critical concepts
fixed for such a criticism by laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty, the
are borrowed. In his emphasis on 'action' and 'high seriousness', he spirit of our age will find…as time goes on, and other helps fail, its
merely echoes Aristotle; his concept of "grand style" is exactly the same consolation and stay.’Poetry as a criticism of life: Arnold explains
thing as "the sublime" of Longinus.
criticism of life as the application of noble and profound ideas to life, and
6. His learning is neither exact nor precise. He does not collect his ‘laws of poetic truth and beauty’ as ‘truth and seriousness of matter’ and
facts painstakingly. His illustration of his ‘touch stone’ method is all
‘felicity and perfection of diction and manner’ Arnold believes that
misquotations. Similarly, his biographical data are often inaccurate. poetry does not represent life as it is, rather the poet adds something to
it from his own noble nature and this contributes to his criticism of life.

4
Poetry makes men moral, better and nobler, not by direct teaching but indifference towards life.” When Arnold pleads for treating in poetry
by appealing to the soul, to the whole of man. moral ideas, he dees not mean composing moral and didactic poems, but
the poems that give answers to the question—how to live well.
Q: FUNCTION of POETRY According to ARNOLD? Arnold’s views on poetry have aroused considerable controversy among
Arnold’s views about poetry are elaborately stated in his “Study of the critics. Prof. Saintsbury thinks that the objects of poetry are not
Poetry”, which first appeared as an introduction to A.C. merely actions but thoughts and feeling also and thus Arnold
Ward’s Selections from English Poets. Arnold has a high conception of unnecessarily limits the scope of poetry. Then he thinks that Arnold’s
poetry. He is confident that poetry has immense future. “It is in poetry, definition of poetry is too wide. “All literature is the application of ideas
where it is worthy of its high destinies, our race, as time goes on will find to life; and to say that poetry is the application of ideas to life, under the
an ever surer and surer stay.” It is capable of higher uses, interpreting condition fixed for poetry, is simply a vain repetition.” The fact is that
life for us, consoling us, and sustaining us; that is, it will replace what we Arnold believes that the ideas and sentiments to have any permanent
understand by religion and philosophy dependent on reasonings, which value must be based on actual life. Thoughts and feelings excluded from
are but false shows of knowledge. Poetry with such a high destiny must the action might be the creed of a few poets, but they have no charm for
be of the highest standard. him.
It is in poetry which is a criticism of life that the spirit of our race will find Arnold’s theory of poetry may be questionable in details and on minor
its last source of consolation and stay. Arnold himself explains “criticism points, on the whole we can say that his views are quite mature, and are
of life” as the noble and profound application of ideas to life; and, laws in harmony with modern ideas. Arnold was actually against romantic
of poetic truth and poetic beauty as truth and seriousness to substance poetry in which the poets were expressing personal sentiments and
and matter, and felicity and perfection of diction and manner. Arnold emotions without caring for the general human nature. The poets were
belives that poetry does not present life as it is, rather the poet adds trying to build an imaginative atmosphere of their own, which though
something to it from his own noble nature, and this something fascinating, was of no use in affecting that self-realization which was the
contributes to his criticism of life. Poetry makes men moral, better and aim of Wordsworth. The greatest poets and philosophers of all ages have
nobler, but it does so not through direct teaching, or by appealing to believed that the ethical view of life is the essential view of life, and
reason, like science, but by appealing to the soul of man. The poet gives Arnold also believed the same. It had become all the more important in
in his poetry what he really and seriously believes in, he speaks from the his own age when materialism had dominated the life of the people, and
depth f his soul, and speaks it so beautifully, that he creates a thing of when religious values were crushed due to the development of science.
beauty, and so a perennial source of joy. Such high poetry makes life Arnold knew the malady of his age very well and protested vigorously
richer, and has the power of, “sustaining and delighting us, as nothing against it. He wanted to renew the permanent ethical values of life and
else can.” It answers the question, “How to live,” but it does so to reconstruct art on its true basis. He also believed that art, thus
indirectly, by conforming to the ideals of truth and goodness and thus by realised, would help men in achieving ethical values. Therefore he
uplifting and ennobling the soul. Arnold is against direct moral teaching; insisted on the union of the best subjects and the highest expression in
he regards didactic poetry as the lowest kind of poetry. poetry. Only poetry of this sort can achieve its ultimate end.
Poetry plays an eminent role in life. It is more important than religion.
Poetry is “a criticism of life under the conditions fixed for that criticism Q: Matthew Arnold's THEORY of POETRY
by the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty.” Poetry, therefore, should Matthew Arnold one of foremost critic of 19th century is often regarded
be a real classic. Poetry of Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, Milton and the as father of modern English criticism . Arnold's work as literary critic
like is a serious criticism of life, and therefore good poetry. Excellence of started with "Preface to poems " in 1853 .It is a kind of manifesto of his
poetry lies both in its matter or substance and in its manner of style. But critical creed . It reflects classicism as well his views on grand poetic style
matter and style must have the accent of “high beauty, worth and . Arnold was classicist who loved art , literature and Hellenic culture .
power.” If the matter of a poet has truth and high seriousness, the His most famous piece of literary criticism is in his essay " The study
manner and diction would also acquire the accent of superiority. The two of poetry ". In this work he talks about poetry's " high destiny " . He
are vitally connected together. believes " mankind will discover that we have to turn poetry to interpret
Arnold was very much dissastified with the kind of poetry written in his life for us ,to console us ,to sustain us " .
own time and he reacted against it. He felt that the poets paid more Arnold lived in a materialistic world where advancement of science has
attention to the form and expression of the poem than to its subject and led society in a strange darkness . Importance of religion was submerged
that they tried to attract readers by the purple patches in the poem and . People were becoming fact seekers .A gap was being developed and
never paid attention to the total impressions of the work. Arnold’s own Arnold believed poetry could fill that gap .In his words "Our religion has
view is that poetic subject is the first consideration with a great poet, materialised itself in the fact , and the fact is now failing it .But for poetry
and poetic expression comes only afterwards. According to him, “human the idea is everything ,the rest is world of illusion , of Divine illusion "
actions” are the best subject-matter of poetry. The ancients to him were .Arnold wrote " without poetry our science will appear incomplete ;and
better poets than the moderns because ‘they regarded the whole; we most of what now passes with religion and philosophy will be replaced
regard the parts.’ With them, the action predominated over the by poetry .
expression; with us, the expression predominates over the action. He had definite aim in writing poetry .It was " criticism of life " By "
Nevertheless, poetry is to Arnold what it was to Wordsworth, ‘the breath criticism of life " he meant " noble and profound application of ideas of
and spirit of all knowledge.’ the impassioned expression of what is in the life ". He said poetry should serve a greater purpose instead of
countenance of all science.’ And “the greatness of a poet lies in his becoming a mere medium of gaining pleasure and appreciating beauty.
powerful and beautiful application of ideas to life—to the question : According to him the best poetry is criticism of life , abiding laws of
How to live.” Again he says “In poetry, however, the criticism of life has poetic truth and poetic beauty .By poetic truth he meant representation
to be made conformably to the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty. of life in true way . By poetic beauty he meant manner and style of
Truth and seriousness of substance and matter, felicity and perfection of poetry . He said poet should be a man with enormous experience . His
diction and manner, as these are exhibited in the best poets, are what intellect should be highly developed by means of enormous reading and
constitute a criticism of life made in conformity with the laws of poetic deep critical thinking..
truth and poetic beauty; and it is by knowing and feeling the work of Arnold says poetry is an " application of ideas to life " . If the application
those poets that we learn to recognise the fulfilment of such conditions.” of ideas is powerful the poetry will become great . He also lays emphasis
At another place he says, “Poetry interprets in two ways : it interprets by on quality of " high seriousness "
expressing with magical felicity thephysiognomy and movement of the It comes with sincerity which poet feels for his subject. Many critics
outer world, and it interprets by expressing with inspired conviction, the disagreed Arnold ,T.S.Elliot a great poet himself disagreed his view by
ideas and laws of the inward world of man’s moral andspiritual nature. saying Arnold's view is "frigid to anyone who has felt the full surprise
In other words, poetry is interpretative by having natural music in it; and and elevation of new experience in poetry ". Arnold classic poets include
by having moral profundity “ Dante , Milton , Homer and Shakespeare . He quotes famous line of
According to Arnold, there is no difference between art and morality. He Milton
says : “A poetry of revolt against moral idea is a poetry of revolt against "Nor thy life nor hate; but what thou livest Live well : how ling or short,
life : a poetry of indifference towards moral ideas is a poetry of permit to heaven".

5
According to Arnold Geoffrey Chaucer was not a classic poet as he lacked Q: Discuss Arnold AS A POET OF LOVE ?
" high seriousness " . Ans. Robert Bridges, poet critic, thinks that a poem is a reflection of the
Arnold said poetry should deal with ideas not facts . Ideas should be subjective experience of a poet or an intimate echo of the poets life. This
moral . He said moral should not be taken in narrow sense . He says may be partly true and to that extent applies to Arnold’s poetry also. His
“poetry of revolt against life ; a poetry of indifference towards moral personal experiences relevant in this context are his abortive love affair
idea is a poetry of indifference towards life ". with the French Marguerite whom he is known to have met in
Switzerland but they could not get married perhaps because of their
Q: Arnold’s Concept of POETRY as CRITICISM OF LIFE cultural incompatibilities. Related to this failed love is his successful
/ Relationship between Poetry and Morality. marriage to Frances Lucy Wightman. Both these experiences appear to
Mathew Arnold’s importance in the history of English literary criticism is have inspired quite a few of Arnold’s poems. But, in other poems also
acknowledged by one and all. His greatness lies in the fact that he had a the theme of love does occur and the indirect incidents portrayed in
definite aim in writing poetry. He clearly stated this aim and tied to these poems even more effectively comment on the frustration of the
conform to his aim. It was “a criticism of life”. By “criticism of life” he failed love or the promise of the married love. Dover Beach is a tribute to
married love because here in his lines Ah! Love let’s be true to one
meant “noble and profound application of ideas to life.” It means that
another, he finds solace and relief from the doubts and illusions of life
poetry is not for affording pleasure and creating beauty. It must have a
and the world which is spread out before him like a charming landscape
high deal. This ideal is to present life in such a way that it may illumine
of dreams but which has neither joy nor help from pain. Only true love,
us and inspire us. In other words Arnold wanted to use poetry for making
married love is the mainstry of life. In The Forsken Merman failed love,
man good. The ideas he wanted to apply were moral ideas.
betrayed love finds a piognant and bitter expression. The Marget of this
Arnold had a very high conception of poetry. The best poetry, he said, is poem appears to be none else than Marguarite of real life. Margret’s
a criticism of life under the conditions fixed for such a criticism by the desertion of her husband and children and the Merman’s description of
laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty. The author of any literary piece is her as a cruel woman are an echo of the intimate life of Arnold himself
expected to be man of high personal experience with all his mental and more particularly of his failed love with the French woman Marguerite.
intellectual faculties highly developed by means of his vast reading and Even in Scholar Gipsy toward the end of the poem, there is a reference to
deep thinking. Dido who was betrayed by Aeneas. Though the situation here is reversed
The phrase “criticism of life” is elaborated by Arnold with the phrase and it is the male partner who betrays the female partner yet indirectly
“application of ideas to life.” Poetry is an “application of ideas to life.” this reference points to Arnolds personal experience.
The more powerful the application of ideas, the greater will be the
poetry. We understand what Arnold means by the phrase. He means Q: Arnold and the Grand Style
that poetry is an interpretational life as the poet experiences it and Arnold, in his famous essay, On Translating Homer (1861) emphasizes
knows it bringing into play his intellect and mind matured by experience the notion of the grand style. He regards Homer, Dante, and Milton as
and reading. According to Arnold, poetry is not however, merely as the masters of grand style. The grand style, according to Arnold, arises in
intellectual exercise, it is subject to the laws of poetic truth and poetic poetry when a noble nature, poetically gifted treats with simplicity or
beauty. severity a serious subject. Severity is austerity: It is “gorgeousness
As if poetry is a criticism of life, the laws, fixed by the poetic the poetic severely restrained” as in Milton’s poetry and in Homer’s poetry too. It is
truth and poetic beauty, insist on one condition. This condition of the not stilted. In his sonnet Austerity in poetry. he says that the poet’s bride
quality of “high seriousness” when comes out of the deepest sincerity is
with which the poet feels for the subject. And this quality of “high “...............a hidden ground
Of thought and of austerity within.”
seriousness” is obviously found in the poetry of Dante, Homer and
Grand style involves sublime thought and sublim expression. It elevates,
Milton and this is the quality which Arnold says gives their poetry its
consoles, and transports us beyond ourselves.
power. From Milton he quotes the famous line:-
It expresses sublime thought with felicity, force, rapidity, and plainness.
Nor live thy life nor hate; but what thou livest
Arnold rephrases and re-interprets Longinus who in his treatise On the
Live well; how ling or short, permit to heaven
Sublime elaborated Grand style. The adjective ‘grand’ means
He says poetry however deals with ideas and not facts, and without ‘transcendental’, Transcendence can not be defined but it can be
poetry science will remain incomplete. Much of religion and philosophy experienced at the aesthetic level. it is a sine qua non of great poetry.
may be replaced by poetry. Arnold believes that the highest type of The term grand style is applicable to painting, music,........etc. Arnold
poetry should deal with moral ideas not so much in its didactic character. recommends great classical poetry as the touchstone to gauze the
The moral is used in its widest sense. The very question, how to live, is degree of sublimity in contemporary poetry. Arnold is hats off to the
according to Arnold a moral idea. Arnold declares that, moral, should not masters of grands style- Chauced, Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth ahs
be interpreted in a narrow sense. It means a code of behavior or a occasional glimpses of sublime style in his poems.
system of thought. Finally, Arnold holds the view that a “poetry of revolt Arnold takes a very limited and circumscribed view of the grand style
against moral ideas is a poetry of revolt against life; a poetry of and excludes a larger fraction of English poetry from its charmed circle.
indifference towards moral idea is a poetry of indifference towards life.
Criticism also means how a creative artist reacts to his experiences and Q: Arnold as A POET of VICTORIAN Unrest ?
gives expression to his ideal attitude to those experiences. Arnold is of Arnold belonged and hence he is referred to as the poet of Victorian
the opinion that the qualities of high type of poetry can be found in its unrest. Victorian age was the period of material prosperity, the
matter and substance and in its manner and style. expansion of democracy and the growth of science which had hardly any
However Arnold’s concept of poetry is really too high and serious and in appeal to him. He is certainly more violent than anybody else to the
this lies its limitations. From the very first Arnold is against art for art’s spiritual distress of his age and this is why he is called a poet Victorian
sake. Many English critics have disagreed with Arnold’s statement. unrest and spiritual distress which is clearly shown in his poetry.
T.S.Eliot himself a good poet says that Arnold’s view is “frigid to any one In his famous poem 'Doves beach', he reacted more violently to the
who has felt the full surprise and elevation of a new experience of spiritual distress and meaningless of his age. He says religion and
poetry.” traditional values are east dying out. Materialism, scepticism and
However in the last word we can say that poetry is a criticism of life. The agnosticism are the order of the day. Men do not find comfort and
critics’ duty is to examine poetry and life at the same time. As we happiness in Arid world .he says,
understand Mathew Arnold had a broad conception of criticism including "Hath really neither joy nor love nor light
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;"
religion, culture and education as well as poetry. In this wider
To him, contemporary life had on meaning or direction .life to him
perspective the aim of criticism is “in all branches of knowledge
appears to be full of darkness and gloom and he feels like a benighted
theology, philosophy, history, art science to see the object as in itself it
traveler in a foreign land without any light of hope.
really is.” "And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies slash by night."
It is the world of Science and people are sceptical. Their minds are
disturbed by the new scientific thoughts. It is now leaving the world

6
barren and dry with the declining of faith, men are getting more and Here ‘last quarter ‘ means the time of Queen Victoria, and ‘the main
more materialistic. He, therefore, could not help being a poet of movement’ suggests the emergence of modernism.
skeptical reaction. Once the sea of religion was full but now Arnold has One of the product of Arnold’s literary itinerancy is ‘Dover Beach’
complained about the religious belief of Victorian age- thought to be one of the first poetic examples of modrnism. The poem
"The Sea of faith makes its own journey from a peaceful, romantic landscape to a modern
War once, too at the full and round earth's shore crisis of faith. The traditional certainties recede with the sea.
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furl'd The setting of the poem is very much romantic, as the poem begins with
But now I only hear “The sea is calm to-night
Its long, melancholy, withdrawing roar" The tide is full, the moon lies fair .”
In the Victorian age, religious belief has disappeared; doubt and disbelief Usually sea beach is a kind of source of happiness, but it is totally
have combined to force back the wave of faith from the share of the reversal to Arnold. The Dorer Beachis an elegiac poem, though
world. And the world is now like a coast on which bole pebbles lie about unconventional, not lamenting any death but here works a sense of loss,
in complete desolation. loss of faith.
In his another poem "The Scholar Gypsy" we also find the atmosphere of “The sea of faith
the Victorian unrest as well as spiritual distress. He says Victorian people Was once too, at the full and round earth’s shore ”
only come and gone, and are completely lost in oblivion. They are But, the poet says,
“Now I only hear
materialistic and they have no fixed ideal to pursue.They are engaged in
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar
various experiments and have not the patience to stick to anything. They Retreating to the breath ”
fail in their experiments and feel weak and miserable as a result of a Arnold here means that once the world was full of faith, But now doubt ,
series of shocks. They lose their vitality and elasticity of spirit disbelief , scepticism and agonosticism heve conspired to roll back the
"'Tis that from change to change their beings roles; wares of faith from the world. Therefore, he is now full of melancholy
'Tis that repeated shocks, again, again, and considers the present condition as ‘naked shingles of the
Exhaust the energy of strongest souls world’ like twenteenth century Eliotic Wast Land.
And numb the elastic powers"(141-144)
In this poem, another modern element, feeling of melancholy, has also
The Victorians suffered from all lines of distraction, despair and
been evident. Actually such kind of feeling is in the very nature of
frustration, and that is why they were always feeling different about the
Arnold, as he himself says,
success of their quest.
“I believe a feeling of melancholy is the basis of my nature and my
The acute spiritual distress is found among the Victorians. The religious
poetics ” (Letter to Arther Hugh Claugh, 1853)
faith of the Victorians is casual. They have never thought about religion.
Hudson comments,
He says about them
“Most of his personal poetry is steeped in the melancholy spirit of an era
"and we,
of transition.”
Light half believers of our casual Creeds.
Who never deeply felt, oms clearly will'd" Its keynote is struck in the Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse :
“Wandering between two worlds, one dead,
The Victorian people's spiritual loss is evident in these lines The other powerless to be born ;”
"... this stange disease of modern life, Again, this melancholy leads Arnold to suffer loneliness, alienation and
With its pick hurry, its divided aims."
rootlessness. This modern element in literature has a Marxian, Christian
Victorians have no singleness purpose. They run after many hares and
and Existentialist connotation. The Marxists consider machine as the
catch none. They caunch an experiment today, and abandon it tomorrow
cause of man’s isolation; the Christians the original sin; and the
and they therefore, suffer from a series of shocks of disappointment.
Existentialists the experiance of man. Arnold’s Rugby Chapel presents
They advance one step to day and go two steps backward tomorrow:
such isolation and the aimlessness.
... Each year we see “Most men eddy about
Breeds new beginnings, disappointments new; Here and there eat and drink striving blindly , achieving
Who hesitate and falter life away, Nothing ; and , then they die ”
And kore to-morrow the ground won today. These lines also poresent a picture of modern life which is similar to the
Victorians do not know the meaning and purpose of life. They even can't view of “Absurdity” . Camus says in the Myth of Sioyphus,
face the baffling problems of life with stoical forbearance. They can “In a universe that is suddenly deprived of illusions and light, man feels
never hope to attain the serenity and bliss. a sranger... This divorce between man and his life ...truely constitutes
The Victorian age suffered from a strange disease called modern life, the feeling of Absurdity .”
which has brought in its wake sordid materialism and scepticism. Kenneth Allott in1954 comments on Arnold’s modern treatment of
They are madly pursuing wealth like the willo the wisp psychological and emotional conflicts, the uncertainty of purpose, above
...the strange disease of modern life, all the feeling of disunity within oneself or of the individual's
With its pick hurry, its divided aims, estrangement from society "If a poet can ever teach us to understand
its heads overtax'd, its palsied hearts, was rife, what we feel, and how to live with our feelings, then Arnold is a
Arnold the poet, therefore, is a poet of "the hopeless tangle of the age." contemporary."
in his poetry as a whole, and sometimes in every line of his poems, The key concept of modernism is innovation and to create something
Arnold proclaims himself a man who was dissatisfied with the Victorian new. Arnold, a modern poet, introduced the ‘free verse’ in English
age. R.H.Hutton, summing up Arnold's poetry says, "No one has poetry. Moreover, his introduction of the ‘verse libre ’ was also
expressed more powerfully and poetically its spiritual weakness, its attributed to ‘the desire to be different’.
craving for a passion that it can't feel, its admiration for a self mastery The modern poetry is intellectual. Unlike most of his contemporaries,
that it can't achieve, its desire for a creed that it fails to accept, its Arnold is an intellectual poet. This is later evident in Eliot who makes his
sympathy with a faith that it well not share, its aspiration for a peace it poetry intentionally difficult to have the readers excercise their intellect
doesn't know." In spite of his using modern elements in his poetry, Arnold
could not avoid using romantic elements in his poetry, though in a
Q: Modern Elements in Arnold Poetry/ AS MODERN POET different way from other Romantic poets.
Matthew Arnold is a product of Victorian age marked by social unrest, Arnold has used nature in his poetry . But his attitude differs from that
disbelief, material prosparity and spiritual decline. But his poetry shows of Wordsworth . Wordsworth upholds the beauty and greatness of
hardly anything in common with his well known contemporaries. His nature , cosiders it to be the personification of the divine spirit. On
poetry is often seen as transitory between Wordsworthian romanticiam the contrary, his descriptions are often picturesque, and marked by
and more pessimisstic modernism. Now we will evaluate the elements of striking similes. However, at the same time he liked subdued colours,
modernism in Arnold’s poetry. mist and moonlight.
As a modern poet, Arnold is very much critical of life in his poetry. To Like Keats, Arnold’s Scholar Gypsy hs escaped from he diseased world to
him, poetry is “the criticism of life”. While Dryden and Pope take poetry ideal world which is depicted in the following lines
as “spirit of life”; and Wordworth as “spontaneous overflow ” of life. “Free from sick fatigue, the languid doubt,
In an 1869 letter to his mother, Arnold himself admits modernism in his Which much to have tried, in much been baffled, brings
poetry. He says ; O Life unlike to ours!”
“My poems present, on the whole, the main movement of mind of the
last quarter of a century.”
7
 Moreover, we notice Arnold’s imaginative power, scenic description, intimate friend Arthur Hugh Clough, that his French allegiance was
individualism, supernatural element as in The Forsaken Merman and further strengthened by a less intellectual bond.
some other poems. In 1847 he became private secretary to Lord Lansdowne, who in 1851
To draw the conclusion, we must now claim that Matthew Arnold is a secured him an inspectorship of schools, which almost to the end of his
precursor of Modernism: elements of modernism is dominant in his life was to absorb the greater part of his time and energies, and may
poetry. He also uses romantic elements in his poetry. Therefore, Arnold have been partly responsible for the smallness of his poetical output. But
can be considered the bridge between Romanticism and Modernism. His it shortly enabled him to marry Frances Lucy Wightman, daughter of Sir
use of symbolic landscapes was typical of the Romantic era, while his William Wightman, a Judge of the Queen's Bench.
skeptical and pessimistic perspective was typical of the Modern His literary career -- leaving out the two prize poems -- had begun in
era. Above all, he is more modern than romantic. 1849 with the publication of The Strayed Reveller and Other Poems by
A., which attracted little notice -- although it contained perhaps Arnold's
Q: Matthew Arnold as a Critic most purely poetical poem "The Forsaken Merman" -- and was soon
After the romantic period, which was known as the period of confusion withdrawn. Empedocles on Etna and Other Poems (among them
in criticism Arnold again forced authority. He was a stern and grave critic "Tristram and Iseult"), published in 1852, had a similar fate.
who put down certain ideologies of criticism and educated others how to Arnold's work as a critic begins with the Preface to the Poems which he
criticize. issued in 1853 under his own name, including extracts from the earlier
Matthew Arnold perceived the critic quite different from any other volumes along with "Sohrab and Rustum" and "The Scholar-Gipsy" but
before him. According to him, criticism did not come from the branch of significantly omitting "Empedocles." In its emphasis on the importance
philosophy. It was not even a craft; it was a form of art, the art of of subject in poetry, on "clearness of arrangement, rigor of development,
judgment. He says that a critic should belong to no party whether simplicity of style" learned from the Greeks, and in the strong imprint of
intellectual, religious or political. He should learn to think objectively, he Goethe and Wordsworth, may be observed nearly all the essential
should demonstrate that this is better than that. elements in his critical theory. He was still primarily a poet, however,
Criticism ought to be a ‘dissemination of ideas, an unprejudiced and and in 1855 appeared Poems, Second Series, among them "Balder
impartial effort to study and spread the best that is known and thought Dead."
in the world’, is what Matthew Arnold says in his essay- The Function of Criticism began to take first place with his appointment in 1857 to the
Criticism at the Present Time (1864). He writes that when assessing a professorship of poetry at Oxford, which he held for two successive
particular work, the goal is ‘to see the object as in itself it really is’. terms of five years. In 1858 he brought out his tragedy of Merope,
Psychological, historical and sociological backgrounds are immaterial. calculated, he wrote to a friend, "rather to inaugurate my Professorship
This attitude was very influential and particularly noteworthy with later with dignity than to move deeply the present race of humans," and
critics. chiefly remarkable for some experiments in unusual -- and unsuccessful -
In his pursuit for the best, a critic Arnold believed that it should not only - metres.
restrict or limit himself to the literature works of his own country but In 1861 his lectures On Translating Homer were published, to be
should draw significantly on foreign literature and ideas to a large extent followed in 1862 by Last Words on Translating Homer, both volumes
because the spreading of ideas should be an objective venture. admirable in style and full of striking judgments and suggestive remarks,
Arnold says criticism is nothing if it is not related to life. Life is the main but built on rather arbitrary assumptions and reaching no well-
thing. So his criticism of literature, society, politics, and religion all tends established conclusions. Especially characteristic, both of his defects and
towards being a criticism of life. So does his poetic activity. Thus criticism his qualities, are on the one hand, Arnold's unconvincing advocacy of
with Arnold denotes a comprehensive activity which embraces all the English hexameters and his creation of a kind of literary absolute in the
departments of life. He himself defines criticism as “the endeavor, in all "grand style," and, on the other, his keen feeling of the need for a
branches of knowledge, theology, philosophy, history, art, science, to see disinterested and intelligent criticism in England.
the object as in itself it really is. This feeling, a direct result of his admiration for France, finds fuller
The critic’s part in this procedure necessitates that he disinterestedly expression in "The Function of Criticism at the Present Time' and "The
identifies the greatness in writing and use his critical powers to Literary Influence of Academies," which were published as the first two
communicate this greatness to the common man. Arnold makes an effort of the Essays in Criticism (1865) in which collection the influence of
to demonstrate that criticism in and of itself has several significant French ideas, especially of the critic Sainte-Beuve, is conspicuous, both in
functions and should be observed as an art form that is as high and matter and in form -- that of the causerie. The Essays are bound together
important as any creative art form. by a scheme of social rather than of purely literary criticism, as is
apparent from the Preface, written in a vein of delicious irony and
Q: Mathew Arnold as a Critic and Poet culminating unexpectedly in the well-known poetically phrased tribute
Matthew Arnold, poet and critic, was born at Laleham on the Thames, to Oxford.
the eldest son of Thomas Arnold, historian and great headmaster of After the publication in 1867 of New Poems, which included "Thyrsis"
Rugby, and of Mary (Penrose) Arnold. He was educated at Winchester; and "Rugby Chapel," elegies on Clough and on Dr. Arnold, and in 1868 of
Rugby, where he won a prize for a poem on "Alaric at Rome"; and the Essay on the Study of Celtic Literature, a stimulating but illusory
Oxford, to which he went as a Scholar of Balliol College in 1841, and excursion into dangerously unfamiliar realms of philology and
where he won the Newdigate Prize for "Cromwell, A Prize Poem," and anthropology in imitation of Renan and perhaps of Gobineau, Arnold
received a Second Class in litterae humaniores, to the regret though turned almost entirely from literature to social and theological writings.
hardly to the surprise of his friends. Always outwardly a worldling, he Inspired by a fervent zeal for bringing culture and criticism to the British
had not yet revealed the "hidden ground of thought and of austerity middle class, beginning with the challenging Culture and Anarchy, Arnold
within" which was to appear in his poetry. "During these years," writes launched by dint of sheer repetition most of the catchwords associated
Thomas Arnold the younger in Passages in a Wandering Life, "my brother with his name such as "Sweetness and Light," borrowed from Swift, and
was cultivating his poetic gift carefully, but his exuberant, versatile the term "Philistine," borrowed from the Germans through Carlyle. He
nature claimed other satisfactions. His keen bantering talk made him felt himself to be like the poet earlier described in his "Stanzas from the
something of a social lion among Oxford men, he even began to dress Grande Chartreuse":
fashionably." Wandering between two worlds, one dead, The other powerless to be
In 1845, however, after a short interlude of teaching at Rugby, he was born and in an attempt to reconcile traditional religion with the results
elected Fellow of Oriel, accounted a great distinction at Oxford since the of the new higher criticism, he fell back on the idea of God as a "Stream
days of Keble, Newman, and Dr. Arnold himself. of Tendency," a phrase derived from Wordsworth.
The record of his private life at this period is curiously lacking. It is known To the relief of a good many of his contemporaries, a volume appeared
that his allegiance to France was sealed by a youthful enthusiasm for the in 1878 called Last Essays on Church and Religion; and the next year was
acting of Rachel, whom he later said he followed to Paris about this time published Mixed Essays -- "an unhappy title," says Mr. Herbert Paul,
and watched night after night, and that he visited George Sand at "suggesting biscuits." Worthy of particular mention are the two essays
Nohant on one occasion and made on her the impression of a "Milton on the French critic Edmond Scherer and his writings on Milton and
jeune et voyageant." It seems not improbable, from the poems to the Goethe, and that on George Sand, who had influenced him strongly in his
mysterious Marguerite and a veiled reference in an early letter to his youth.
In 1883 Gladstone conferred on Arnold a pension of £250 a year,
enabling him to retire from the post in the exercise of which he had not
8
only traveled the length and breadth of England, but made several trips valuable to his own age as its severest critic; to ours he represents its
abroad to report on continental education. These reports were published humanest aspirations.
in book form, and together with his ordinary reports as a school
inspector had an important effect on English education. With his Q: What are Merits and Demerits of Arnold as a critic?
increased freedom, he set out on a lecture tour in the United States, Matthew Arnold, the greatest of the Victorian critics, has been
spreading Sweetness and Light as far west as St. Louis. There, however, both eulogized and condemned by scholars. In recent times too T.S. Eliot
he began "to recognize the truth of what an American told the Bishop of has criticised him. He calls him a propagandist, a salesman, a
Rochester, that 'Denver was not ripe for Mr. Arnold.'" The three lectures clever advertiser, rather than a great critic. He finds him lacking in the
on "Numbers," "Literature and Science," and "Emerson," which he power of connected reasoning at any length says that "his flights are
delivered to American audiences in 1883-84, were afterwards published short flights or circular flights." F.R. Leavis accuses him of "high
as Discourses in America -- the book, he told George Russell, later his pamphleteering". Prof. Garrod, who otherwise is an admirer of Arnold,
biographer and editor of his Letters, by which, of all his prose writings, feels that Arnold became a critic only by accident (the accident of Oxford
he should most wish to be remembered. Professorship), and names him "the vendor of Frenchified disin
At this time an American newspaper compared him, as he stooped now terestedness."
and then to look at his manuscript on a music stool, to an elderly bird His Shortcomings
picking at grapes on a trellis; and another described him thus: "He has Arnold's limitations as a critic can be summarised in the following
harsh features, supercilious manners, parts his hair down the middle, manner:—
wears a single eyeglass and ill-fitting clothes." He crossed the Atlantic (1) He is incapable of connected reasoning at any length, and
again in 1886 on a visit to his daughter who had married an American. often contradicts himself. Thus first he lays down the test of total
When she returned the visit in 1888, he went to Liverpool to meet her, impression for judging the worth of a poet, but soon after contradicts
and there, while running to catch a tramcar, suddenly died. himself and prescribes the well-known, "Touchstone method."
Essays in Criticism: Second Series which he had already collected, (2) There is a certain want of logic and method in Arnold's
appeared shortly after his death. This volume, introduced by the essay criticism. He is not a scientific critic. Often he is vague, and fails to define
on "The Study of Poetry," with the celebrated discussion of poetry as "a or state clearly his views. Often he is lop-sided as in his Essay on
criticism of life," contains together with Essays in Criticism: First Series Shelley which is all biography except a brief concluding paragraph. His
the prose work by which Arnold is best known. His best-known poems criticism is often gappy; before he has fully established a point, he would
are probably "The Scholar-Gipsy"; "Thyrsis," considered one of the finest hastily hurry onto another.
elegies in English; and "Sohrab and Rustum," a narrative poem, in tone a (3) He frowns upon mere literary criticism. He mixes literary
blend of the Homeric with the elegiac, based on an episode from the criticism with socio-ethical considerations and regards it as an
Shah-Nameh of the Persian poet Firdausi. instrument of culture. Purely literary criticism with him has no meaning
Matthew Arnold "was indeed the most delightful of companions," writes and significance.
G. W. E. Russell in Portraits of the Seventies; "a man of the world entirely (4) There is some truth in the criticism that he was a propagandist
free from worldliness and a man of letters without the faintest trace of and a salesman. As Wimsatt and Brooks point out, "very simply, very
pedantry." A familiar figure at the Athenaeum Club, a frequent diner-out characteristically, and repetitiously, Arnold spent his career in
and guest at great country houses, fond of fishing and shooting, a lively hammering the thesis that poetry is a, "criticism of life." All his practical
conversationalist, affecting a combination of foppishness and Olympian criticism is but an illusion of this view.
grandeur, he read constantly, widely, and deeply, and in the intervals of (5) His criticism is lacking in originality. Practically all of his critical
supporting himself and his family by the quiet drudgery of school concepts are borrowed. In his emphasis on 'action' and high seriousness,'
inspecting, filled notebook after notebook with meditations of an almost he merely echoes Aristotle; his concept of "grand style" is exactly the
monastic tone. In his writings, he often baffled and sometimes annoyed same thing as, 'the sublime,' of Longinus and his biographical method is
his contemporaries by the apparent contradiction between his urbane, the method of the French Saint-Beauve. As George Watson says, "he
even frivolous manner in controversy, and the "high seriousness" of his plagiarises too heavily."
critical views and the melancholy, almost plaintive note of much of his (6) He might be learned, but his learning is neither exact, nor
poetry. "A voice poking fun in the wilderness" was T. H. Warren's precise. He does not collect his facts painstakingly. His illustrations of his
description of him. touchstone method are'all misquotations. Similarly, his biographical data
A deeper inconsistency was caused by the "want of logic and are often inaccurate.
thoroughness of thought" which J. M. Robertson noted in Modern (7) He is in favour of biographical interpretation; he is also
Humanists. Few of his ideas were his own, and he failed to reconcile the conscious he importance of "the moment," and yet he is against the
conflicting influences which moved him so strongly. "There are four historical method of criticism.
people, in especial," he once wrote to Cardinal Newman, "from whom I (8) He advocates 'disinterestedness,' but ties the critic
am conscious of having learnt -- a very different thing from merely to certain socio- ethical interests. He would like him to rise above
receiving a strong impression -- learnt habits, methods, ruling ideas, 'practical' and 'personal' interests, but he wants him to establish a
which are constantly with me; and the four are -- Goethe, Wordsworth, current of great and noble ideas and thus promote culture. But
Sainte-Beuve, and yourself." Dr. Arnold must be added; the son's disinterestedness means that the critic should
fundamental likeness to the father was early pointed out by Swinburne, have no interests except aesthetic appreciation.
and has been recently attested by Matthew Arnold's grandson, Mr. (9) He speaks of the moral effects of poetry, of its 'high
Arnold Whitridge. Brought up in the tenets of the Philistinism which, as a seriousness,' but never of its pleasure, the 'aesthetic pleasure' which a
professed cosmopolitan and the Apostle of Culture he attacked, he poet must impart, and which is the true test of its excellence. His
remained something of a Philistine to the end. standards of judgment are not literary.
In his poetry he derived not only the subject matter of his narrative (10)His literary criticism is vitiated by his moral, classical, and
poems from various traditional or literary sources but even much of the continental prejudices. He is sympathetic only to the classical, he rates
romantic melancholy of his earlier poems from Senancour's Obermann. the continental poets higher than the great English poets, and the moral
His greatest defects as a poet stem from his lack of ear and his frequent test which he applies often makes him neglect the literary qualities of a
failure to distinguish between poetry and prose. His significant if curious poet. The immoral in the life of a poet, prejudices him against his poetry.
estimate of his own poems in 1869 was that they represented "on the His Merits and Achievements
whole, the main movement of mind of the last quarter of a century." Arnold's faults are glaring, but more important are his merits and
It is perhaps true, however, that as Sir Edmund Chambers says, "in a achievements. He is the most imposing figure in Victorian criticism. In his
comparison between the best works of Matthew Arnold and that of his own day, and for years afterwards, he was venerated and respected
six greatest contemporaries . . . the proportion of work which endures is almost like Aristotle. After him the cry, for years, was, "Arnold has said
greater in the case of Matthew Arnold than in any one of them." His so." "For half a century, Arnold's position in this country was comparable
poetry endures because of its directness, and the literal fidelity of his with that of the venerable Greek, in respect of the wide influence he
beautifully circumstantial description of nature, of scenes, and places, exercised, the mark he impressed upon criticism, and the blind faith with
imbued with a kind of majestic sadness which takes the place of music. which he was trusted by his votaries." (Scott-James). Another critic
Alike in his poetry and in his prose, which supplies in charm of manner, praises him because his criticism is more "compellingly alive", more
breadth of subject-matter, and acuteness of individual judgment, what it thought-provoking than that of any other critic of his age. Harbert Paul
lacks in system, a stimulating personality makes itself felt. He was chiefly
9
goes to the extent of saying that Arnold did not merely criticise books, he dispassionate appraisal of the life “wherein England was deficient.” And
taught others to criticise books. that explains his donning of the mantle of a critic
Judged historically, Arnold rendered a great service to criticism. He
rescued it from the disorganised state in which it had fallen by stressing Arnold’s Literary Criticism on Life and Society:
the need of system in critical judgement. He also waged a relentless As a critic Arnold is best known as a literary critic. But his
battle against the intrusion of personal, religious, or political literary criticism has a close bearing on society and life in general. He was
considerations in the judgement of authors and works. Lastly, he raised extremely impatient of the slogan “Art for Art’s Sake” which was raised
criticism to a higher level than was ever thought by making it the care- by the Pre-Raphaelites, aesthetes, and some other nondescript groups.
taker of literature in epochs unfavourable to its growth. But more than Consequently, his literary criticism is submerged in the criticism of
one critic has been struck by the incongruity between Arnold, the more society. According to him, “poetry is a criticism of life under the
or less romantic poet, and Arnold, the more or less classical critic. conditions fixed for such a criticism.” Criticism, according to him, should
In certain respects, as shown by Scott-James, Arnold is superior be “sincere, simple, flexible, ardent, ever widening its knowledge.” In his
to Aristotle. Aristotleknew none but the classics of Greece, the only own literary and critical essays he is often led to specifically social
literary models available to him, whilst Arnold, having the literature of criticism. In his lectures on Homer, for instance, he expatiates upon the
many nations and ages before him, was limited only, of his own choice, frailty of intellectual conscience among his countrymen. Likewise, in
to, "the best that is known and thought in the world." Further, Arnold “The Function of Criticism at the Present Times” he points out the
repudiated the idea that the critic should be an "abstract lawgiver." absurdity of numerous false notions which have a free play in England
Above all, "Aristotle shows us the critic in relation to art. Arnold shows owing to the absence or weakness of such intellectual conscience. In a
us the critic in relation to the public. Aristotle dissects a work of art word, Arnold is a critic of his age even while he is engaged, apparently, in
Arnold dissects a critic." The one gives us the principles which govern the literary criticism.
making of a poem : the other, the principles by which the best poems
Social Criticism in Arnold’s Poetry:
should be selected and made known. Aristotle's critic owes allegiance to
Arnold’s oft-quoted remark that poetry is, or should be, “a
the Artist, but Arnold's critic has a duty to society. He is a propagandist
criticism of life” has provided a juicy bone for numerous critics to gnaw
tilling the soil so that 'the best ideas.' may prevail, making "an
at. Most critics have, however, spurned it as a frivolous truism. Thus
intellectual situation of which the creative power can profitably avail
George Saintsbury dismisses it as such, because as he observes in A
itself.
History of English Criticism, “all literature is the application of ideas to
Conclusion
life: and to say that poetry is the application of ideas to life, under the
In the words of Saintsbury, "His services, therefore, to English
conditions fixed for poetry is simply a vain repetition.” Likewise, T. S.
Criticism, whether as a "receptist" or as an actual craftsman cannot
Eliot (in The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism) observes that
possibly be overestimated. In the first respect he was, if not the absolute
Arnold’s dictum about poetry makes no sense. He holds that life is an
reformer, the leader in reform, of the slovenly and disorganised
awful mystery and we cannot criticise it properly; it can only be done just
condition into which Romantic criticism had fallen. In the second, the
vaguely. However, J. D. Jump makes bold attempts to defend Arnold. “A
things which he had not, as well as those which he had, combined to give
good deal of nonsense,” observes he, “has been written about this
him a place among the very first. He had not the sublime and ever new-
phrase (“a criticism of life”) by commentators who were so impatient to
inspired inconsistency of Dryden. He had not the robustness of Johnson,
reject it that they could not wait to understand it…It would be difficult to
the supreme critical "reason" of Coleridge; scarcely the exquisite,
find fault with this as an account of the ideal attitude of a poet, or other
fitful, appreciationof Lamb, or the full-blooded and
creative artist, towards his experience.”
passionate appreciation of Hazlitt. But he had an exacter knowledge
How far and in what way is Arnold’s own poetry “a criticism of
than Dryden; the fitness of his judgment seems finer beside Johnson's
life”? Hugh Walker answers this question in the following words:
bluntness; he could not wool-gather like Coleridge; his range was far
“His much-condemned definition of poetry as ‘a criticism of
wider than Lamb's; his scholarship and his delicacy alike were superior to
life’ is at least true of his own poetry. Even in the literary sense, there is a
those of Hazlitt."
surprising quantity of wise criticism in his verse…But Arnold’s verse is
critical in a far deeper sense than this. In all his deepest poems,
Q: Matthew Arnold as a Critic of His Age in Thyrsis and The Scholar Gipsy, in Resignation, in the Obermann poems,
Matthew Arnold was both a distinguished poet and prose
in^4 Southern Night, Arnold is passing judgment on the life of his age,
writer of the Victorian era. He wrote on varied topics such as literature,
the life of his country, the lives of individual men. In the last-named
education, politics, and religion. But whatever topic he handled, his
poem the fate of his brother, dying in exile in the attempt to return to
approach was always critical and more often than not, constructive. The
the country of his birth, becomes the text for a sermon on the restless
same critical attitude is discernible in much of his poetry also.
energy of the English and on the ‘strange irony of fate’ which preserves
As lago said of himself Arnold, too. is “nothing if not critical.”
for the members of such a race graves so peaceful as theirs by ‘those
All of his critical work, it may be pointed out. is of a piece. Criticism,
hoary Indian hills’ and ‘this gracious Midland sea.’
whether literary or social or political or educational, performs, according
“In all this Arnold is quite consistent with himself. Holding
to Arnold, the same function and demands the same qualities of
that what Europe in this generation principally needed was criticism he
intelligence, discrimination, knowledge, and disinterestedness. Criticism
gave this criticism in verse as well as in prose…”
is nothing if it is not related to life. Life is the main thing. So Arnold’s
Quite often Arnold’s criticism of life in his poetry does not go
criticism of literature, society, politics, and religion all tends towards
beyond the expression of a sense of resignation. Such a criticism is
being a criticism of life. So does his poetic activity. Thus criticism with
definitely negative. If Keats escapes from life, Arnold resigns himself to
Arnold denotes a comprehensive activity which embraces all the
it. Life with him is not something to be enjoyed, but something to be
departments of life. He himself defines criticism as “the endeavour, in all
suffered. Resignation to life is also of two kinds: one escapist, and the
branches of knowledge, theology, philosophy, history, art, science, to see
other Stoic. In the Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse the resignation is
the object as in itself it really is.” Thus criticism with Arnold is a definite
of the first kind. Sick of the fury, fret, and fever of life, the poet appeals
kind of approach to life. J. D. Jump observes: “Writing on literature,
to the monastic cloister to take him into its fold.
education, politics and religion, he tries to encourage a free play of the On, hide me in your gloom profound,
mind upon the material before it and so to help its readers to get rid of Ye solemn seats of holy pain!
any stock notions and pieces of mental petrifaction which may be Take me, cowl forms, and fence me round,
hampering their thought.” In other words. Arnold stood for the Till I possess my soul again.
annihilation of all tyrannical dogmas, prejudices, and orthodox notions. This desire to “possess my soul again” is a recurring feature of
That there was a pressing need for such a campaign in England cannot be Arnold’s poetic expression. His most insistent counsel to the people is to
gainsaid. “Matthew Arnold,” to quote Hugh Walker, ‘inherited the “possess their souls.” He felt that with the relentless and catastrophic
teacher’s instinct, and he was profoundly influenced by his sense of what advance of the materialistic values in his age human beings had lost
his country needed. To be useful to England was always one of his contact with their inner spirit which is the abode of all the higher values
greatest ambitions; and he knew that England was always one of his of life.
greatest ambitions; and he knew that the way to be useful was to supply The other kind of Arnoldian resignation is more assertive and
that wherein England was deficient.’ Obviously it was the rational and valiant and much less negative. It arises from a pessimistic insight into
the arcanum of life. It is an acceptance of the human predicament,

10
arecognition and an adjustment to the fact that duty is not usually working classes of towns and thus almost doubled the electorate. The
attended by a meet reward. Duty is still to be performed and the event Victorian age is generally known to us as an age of peace and prosperity
left to God. We are ordained to spend life and most of all, political stability (in spite of the numerous unsuccessful
In beating where we must not pass attempts made on the life of Queen Victoria). But behind the imposing
And seeking what we shall not find. facade of order, Arnoldperceived some anarchic forces at work. Anarchy,
Nature herself is resigned to the pain of existence: according to him is essentially antonymous to culture. When everybody
Yet, Fausta, the mute turf we tread, is bent upon “doing as one likes”, culture is in danger. What: makes for
The solemn hills around us spread, culture? It is, in his words, a “view in which the love of our neighbours,
This stream which falls incessantly, the impulses towards action, help, and beneficence, the desire for
The strange, scrawl ‘d rocks; the lonely sky,
removing human error, clearing human confusion and diminishing
If I might lend their life a voice,
human misery, the noble aspiration to leave the world better and
Seem to bear rather than rejoice.
Science and Faith: happier than we found it-motives eminently such as are called social-
Like most other Victorian writers, Arnold expresses in his come in as parts of the ground of culture and the main and preeminent
work the conflict between science and faith which his age witnessed. The parts.” Culture is thus a social passion of doing good. And anarchy is its
unprecedented development of experimental science had come to shake very negation. Arnold was convinced of the progress of democracy, but
the very foundations of Christianity by calling into question Genesis and he desired that the transition to democracy should not be allowed to
much else besides. Arnold felt that he was breathing in a kind of spiritual destroy the social edifice. He was against unchartered freedom which
vacuum. Like Janus he looked both ways. Neither like T. H. Huxley could allowed all to have their own ways. “The moment,” writes he, “it is
he align himself completely with the new mode of thinking (by turning plainly put before us that a man is asserting his personal liberty, we are
an agnostic) nor could he cling to the ruins of a crumbling order. Spiritual half disarmed; because we are believers in freedom and not in some
disturbance often manifesting itself in despair was the natural outcome dream of a right reason to which the assertion of our freedom is to be
of such a predicament. Arnold found himself shuttlecocking subordinated.” He supports a “firm state-power” to hold such anarchic
between two worlds, one dead, tendencies in check. The state should not be representative of any single
The other powerless to be born. class, because all individual classes have been depraved by the contagion
This desperate groping for something like a firm moral stance of materialism-the higher classes have been materialised, the middle
finds expression in much of his most typical poetry. As Moody and Lovett classes desensitised, and the lower classes brutalised. Along with Culture
maintain, Arnold’s “prevailing tone is one of doubt and half-despairing and Anarchy may be mentioned here Friendship’s Garland (1871) in
stoicism.” Dover Beach is the finest embodiment of Arnold’s dominant which is contained, according to Hugh Walker, “the very best of Arnold‘s
mood. He refers to the crumbling of the religious edifice: criticism on the social rather than the political side.”
The Sea of Faith Educational Criticism:
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore A word in the end about Arnold‘s educational
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furl’d; criticism. Arnold was an Inspector of Schools and then the Professor of
But now I only hear Poetry of Oxford. He was, naturally, interested in educational reforms
Its melancholy, long withdrawing roar, and wrote quite a few tracts in this connexion. Many of the reforms
Retreating, to the breath which he advocated have since been implemented. Compton Rickett
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear observes: “There were no more liberal-minded, clear-sighted educational
And naked shingles of the world. reformers in the Victorian era than he and Thomas Henry Huxley.”
He is keenly aware of the terrible confusion caused by the conflict
between science and faith, between advancing materialism and Q: Matthew Arnold as a Literary Critic +ALL+++++
retreating Christianity: Matthew Arnold (1822-1888), the Victorian poet and critic, was 'the first
Ah, love, let us be true modern critic' [1], and could be called 'the critic's critic', being a
To one another! for the world which seems champion not only of great poetry, but of literary criticism itself. The
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
purpose of literary criticism, in his view, was 'to know the best that is
So various, so beautiful, so new.
known and thought in the world, and by in its turn making this known, to
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
create a current of true and fresh ideas', and he has influenced a whole
And we are here as on a darkling plain school of critics including new critics such as T. S. Eliot, F. R. Leavis, and
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight. Where ignorant armies Allen Tate. He was the founder of the sociological school of criticism, and
clash by night. through his touchstone method introduced scientific objectivity to
He compares modern civilization to Rachel: critical evaluation by providing comparison and analysis as the two
Ah, not the radiant spirit of Greece alone primary tools of criticism.
She had—one power, which made her breast its home! Arnold's evaluations of the Romantic poets such as Wordsworth, Byron,
In her, like us, there clash ‘d contending powers, Shelley, and Keats are landmarks in descriptive criticism, and as a poet-critic
Germany, France, Christ, Moses, Athens, Rome he occupies an eminent position in the rich galaxy of poet-critics of English
The strife, the mixture in her soul are ours. literature.
Her genius and her glory are her own. T. S. Eliot praised Arnold's objective approach to critical evaluation,
What is, after all, the way out of his confusion!” In Arnold’s particularly his tools of comparison and analysis, and Allen Tate in his
opinion, “says Hugh Walker, “that which the time demands above all essay Tension in Poetry imitates Arnold's touchstone method to discover
things is the discovery of some shore, not false or impossible, towards 'tension', or the proper balance between connotation and denotation, in
which to steer. We need some Columbus to guide us over a trackless poetry. These new critics have come a long way from the Romantic
ocean to a new continent which he discerns, though we cannot. Our approach to poetry, and this change in attitude could be attributed to
misfortune is that we can find no such pilot. Goethe, the ‘physician’ of Arnold, who comes midway between the two schools.
Europe’s ‘iron age,’ had laid his finger on the seat of the disease, but he The social role of poetry and criticism
failed to find a cure. Arnold never conceived himself to be capable of To Arnold a critic is a social benefactor. In his view the creative artist, no
succeeding where Goethe had failed. On the contrary, he rather teaches matter how much of a genius, would cut a sorry figure without the critic
that the problem had grown so complex that scarcely any intellect could to come to his aid. Before Arnold a literary critic cared only for the
suffice for its solution. This feeling of almost insuperable difficulty is the beauties and defects of works of art, but Arnold the critic chose to be the
secret of Arnold’s melancholy. It gives a sense of brooding pause, almost educator and guardian of public opinion and propagator of the best
of the paralysis of action, to his verse. It is the secret of his attraction for ideas.
some minds, and of an alienation amounting almost to repulsion Cultural and critical values seem to be synonymous for Arnold. Scott
between him and many others. It makes him, in verse as well as in prose, James, comparing him to Aristotle, says that where Aristotle analyses the
critical rather than constructive.” work of art, Arnold analyses the role of the critic. The one gives us the
“Culture and Anarchy”: principles which govern the making of a poem, the other the principles
Among Arnold‘s works dealing with social and political by which the best poems should be selected and made known.
questions, the pride of place must go to Culture and Anarchy (1869) Aristotle's critic owes allegiance to the artist, but Arnold's critic has a
which was obviously occasioned by the mass agitations preceding the duty to society.
passage of the Reform Bill of 1869 which granted voting rights to the

11
To Arnold poetry itself was the criticism of life: 'The criticism of life under his anti-Romantic theme, urges, modern poets to shun allusiveness and
the conditions fixed for such criticism by the laws of poetic truth and not fall into the temptation of subjectivity.
poetic beauty', and in his seminal essay The Study of Poetry' 1888) he He says that even the imitation of Shakespeare is risky for a young
says that poetry alone can be our sustenance and stay in an era where writer, who should imitate only his excellences, and avoid his attractive
religious beliefs are fast losing their hold. He claims that poetry is accessories, tricks of style, such as quibble, conceit, circumlocution and
superior to philosophy, science, and religion. Religion attaches its allusiveness, which will lead him astray.
emotion to supposed facts, and the supposed facts are failing it, but Arnold commends Shakespeare's use of great plots from the past. He
poetry attaches its emotion to ideas and ideas are infallible. And science, had what Goethe called the architectonic quality, that is his expression
in his view is incomplete without poetry. He endorses Wordsworth's was matched to the action (or the subject). But at the same time Arnold
view that 'poetry is the impassioned expression which is in the quotes Hallam to show that Shakespeare's style was complex even
countenance of all Science', adding 'What is a countenance without its where the press of action demanded simplicity and directness, and
expression?' and calls poetry 'the breath and finer spirit of knowledge'. hence his style could not be taken as a model by young writers.
A moralist Elsewhere he says that Shakespeare's 'expression tends to become a
As a critic Arnold is essentially a moralist, and has very definite ideas little sensuous and simple, too much intellectualised'.
about what poetry should and should not be. A poetry of revolt against Shakespeare's excellences are 1)The architectonic quality of his style; the
moral ideas, he says, is a poetry of revolt against life, and a poetry of harmony between action and expression. 2) His reliance on the ancients
indifference to moral ideas is a poetry of indifference to life. for his themes. 3) Accurate construction of action. 4) His strong
Arnold even censored his own collection on moral grounds. He omitted conception of action and accurate portrayal of his subject matter. 5) His
the poem Empedocles on Etna from his volume of 1853, whereas he had intense feeling for the subjects he dramatises.
included it in his collection of 1852. The reason he advances, in the His attractive accessories (or tricks of style) which a young writer should
Preface to his Poems of 1853 is not that the poem is too subjective, with handle carefully are 1) His fondness for quibble, fancy, conceit. 2) His
its Hamlet-like introspection, or that it was a deviation from his classical excessive use of imagery. 3) Circumlocution, even where the press of
ideals, but that the poem is too depressing in its subject matter, and action demands directness. 4) His lack of simplicity (according to Hallam
would leave the reader hopeless and crushed. There is nothing in it in and Guizot). 5) His allusiveness.
the way of hope or optimism, and such a poem could prove to be neither As an example of the danger of imitating Shakespeare he gives Keats's
instructive nor of any delight to the reader. imitation of Shakespeare in his Isabella or the Pot of Basil. Keats uses
Aristotle says that poetry is superior to History since it bears the stamp felicitous phrases and single happy turns of phrase, yet the action is
of high seriousness and truth. If truth and seriousness are wanting in the handled vaguely and so the poem does not have unity. By way of
subject matter of a poem, so will the true poetic stamp of diction and contrast, he says the Italian writer Boccaccio handled the same theme
movement be found wanting in its style and manner. Hence the two, the successfully in his Decameron, because he rightly subordinated
nobility of subject matter, and the superiority of style and manner, are expression to action. Hence Boccaccio's poem is a poetic success where
proportional and cannot occur independently. Keats's is a failure.
Arnold took up Aristotle's view, asserting that true greatness in poetry is Arnold also wants the modern writer to take models from the past
given by the truth and seriousness of its subject matter, and by the high because they depict human actions which touch on 'the great primary
diction and movement in its style and manner, and although indebted to human affections: to those elementary feelings which subsist
Joshua Reynolds for the expression 'grand style', Arnold gave it a new permanently in the race, and which are independent of time'. Characters
meaning when he used it in his lecture On Translating Homer (1861): such as Agamemnon, Dido, Aeneas, Orestes, Merope, Alcmeon, and
I think it will be found that that the grand style arises in poetry when a Clytemnestra, leave a permanent impression on our minds. Compare
noble nature, poetically gifted, treats with simplicity or with a severity a 'The Iliad' or 'The Aeneid' with 'The Childe Harold' or 'The Excursion' and
serious subject. you see the difference.
According to Arnold, Homer is the best model of a simple grand style, A modern writer might complain that ancient subjects pose problems
while Milton is the best model of severe grand style. Dante, however, is with regard to ancient culture, customs, manners, dress and so on which
an example of both. are not familiar to contemporary readers. But Arnold is of the view that
Even Chaucer, in Arnold's view, in spite of his virtues such as benignity, a writer should not concern himself with the externals, but with the
largeness, and spontaneity, lacks seriousness. Burns too lacks sufficient 'inward man'. The inward man is the same irrespective of clime or time.
seriousness, because he was hypocritical in that while he adopted a The Function of Criticism
moral stance in some of his poems, in his private life he flouted morality. It is in his The Function of Criticism at the Present Time (1864) that
Return to Classical values Arnold says that criticism should be a 'dissemination of ideas, a
Arnold believed that a modern writer should be aware that disinterested endeavour to learn and propagate the best that is known
contemporary literature is built on the foundations of the past, and and thought in the world'. He says that when evaluating a work the aim
should contribute to the future by continuing a firm tradition. Quoting is 'to see the object as in itself it really is'. Psychological, historical and
Goethe and Niebuhr in support of his view, he asserts that his age suffers sociological background are irrelevant, and to dwell on such aspects is
from spiritual weakness because it thrives on self-interest and scientific mere dilettantism. This stance was very influential with later critics.
materialism, and therefore cannot provide noble characters such as Arnold also believed that in his quest for the best a critic should not
those found in Classical literature. confine himself to the literature of his own country, but should draw
He urged modern poets to look to the ancients and their great characters substantially on foreign literature and ideas, because the propagation of
and themes for guidance and inspiration. Classical literature, in his view, ideas should be an objective endeavour.
possess pathos, moral profundity and noble simplicity, while modern The Study of Poetry
themes, arising from an age of spiritual weakness, are suitable for only In The Study of Poetry, (1888) which opens his Essays in Criticism: Second
comic and lighter kinds of poetry, and don't possess the loftiness to series, in support of his plea for nobility in poetry, Arnold recalls Sainte-
support epic or heroic poetry. Beuve's reply to Napoleon, when latter said that charlatanism is found in
Arnold turns his back on the prevailing Romantic view of poetry and everything. Sainte-Beuve replied that charlatanism might be found
seeks to revive the Classical values of objectivity, urbanity, and everywhere else, but not in the field of poetry, because in poetry the
architectonics. He denounces the Romantics for ignoring the Classical distinction between sound and unsound, or only half-sound, truth and
writers for the sake of novelty, and for their allusive (Arnold uses the untruth, or only half-truth, between the excellent and the inferior, is of
word 'suggestive') writing which defies easy comprehension. paramount importance.
Preface to Poems of 1853 For Arnold there is no place for charlatanism in poetry. To him poetry is
In the preface to his Poems (1853) Arnold asserts the importance of the criticism of life, governed by the laws of poetic truth and poetic
architectonics; ('that power of execution, which creates, forms, and beauty. It is in the criticism of life that the spirit of our race will find its
constitutes') in poetry - the necessity of achieving unity by subordinating stay and consolation. The extent to which the spirit of mankind finds its
the parts to the whole, and the expression of ideas to the depiction of stay and consolation is proportional to the power of a poem's criticism of
human action, and condemns poems which exist for the sake of single life, and the power of the criticism of life is in direct proportion to the
lines or passages, stray metaphors, images, and fancy expressions. extent to which the poem is genuine and free from charlatanism.
Scattered images and happy turns of phrase, in his view, can only In The Study of Poetry he also cautions the critic that in forming a
provide partial effects, and not contribute to unity. He also, continuing genuine and disinterested estimate of the poet under consideration he
should not be influenced by historical or personal judgements, historical
12
judgements being fallacious because we regard ancient poets with imagination', the poets of the 18th century introduced certain
excessive veneration, and personal judgements being fallacious when we regulations. The restrictions that were imposed on the poets were
are biased towards a contemporary poet. If a poet is a 'dubious classic, uniformity, regularity, precision, and balance. These restrictions curbed
let us sift him; if he is a false classic, let us explode him. But if he is a real the growth of poetry, and encouraged the growth of prose.
classic, if his work belongs to the class of the very best . . . enjoy his Hence we can regard Dryden as the glorious founder, and Pope as the
work'. splendid high priest, of the age of prose and reason, our indispensable
As examples of erroneous judgements he says that the 17th century 18th century. Their poetry was that of the builders of an age of prose
court tragedies of the French were spoken of with exaggerated praise, and reason. Arnold says that Pope and Dryden are not poet classics, but
until Pellisson reproached them for want of the true poetic stamp, and the 'prose classics' of the 18th century.
another critic, Charles d' Hricault, said that 17th century French poetry As for poetry, he considers Gray to be the only classic of the 18th
had received undue and undeserving veneration. Arnold says the critics century. Gray constantly studied and enjoyed Greek poetry and thus
seem to substitute 'a halo for physiognomy and a statue in the place inherited their poetic point of view and their application of poetry to life.
where there was once a man. They give us a human personage no larger But he is the 'scantiest, frailest classic' since his output was small.
than God seated amidst his perfect work, like Jupiter on Olympus.' The Study of Poetry: on Burns
He also condemns the French critic Vitet, who had eloquent words of Although Burns lived close to the 19th century his poetry breathes the
praise for the epic poem Chanson de Roland by Turoldus, (which was spirit of 18th Century life. Burns is most at home in his native language.
sung by a jester, Taillefer, in William the Conqueror's army), saying that His poems deal with Scottish dress, Scottish manner, and Scottish
it was superior to Homer's Iliad. Arnold's view is that this poem can religion. This Scottish world is not a beautiful one, and it is an advantage
never be compared to Homer's work, and that we only have to compare if a poet deals with a beautiful world. But Burns shines whenever he
the description of dying Roland to Helen's words about her wounded triumphs over his sordid, repulsive and dull world with his poetry.
brothers Pollux and Castor and its inferiority will be clearly revealed. Perhaps we find the true Burns only in his bacchanalian poetry, though
The Study of Poetry: a shift in position - the touchstone method occasionally his bacchanalian attitude was affected. For example in
Arnold's criticism of Vitet above illustrates his 'touchstone method'; his his Holy Fair, the lines 'Leeze me on drink! it gies us mair/ Than either
theory that in order to judge a poet's work properly, a critic should school or college', may represent the bacchanalian attitude, but they are
compare it to passages taken from works of great masters of poetry, and not truly bacchanalian in spirit. There is something insincere about it,
that these passages should be applied as touchstones to other poetry. smacking of bravado.
Even a single line or selected quotation will serve the purpose. When Burns moralises in some of his poems it also sounds insincere,
From this we see that he has shifted his position from that expressed in coming from a man who disregarded morality in actual life. And
the preface to his Poems of 1853. In The Study of Poetry he no longer sometimes his pathos is intolerable, as in Auld Lang Syne.
uses the acid test of action and architectonics. He became an advocate of We see the real Burns (wherein he is unsurpassable) in lines such as, 'To
'touchstones'. 'Short passages even single lines,' he said, 'will serve our make a happy fire-side clime/ to weans and wife/ That's the true pathos
turn quite sufficiently'. and sublime/ Of human life' (Ae Fond Kiss). Here we see the genius of
Some of Arnold's touchstone passages are: Helen's words about her Burns.
wounded brother, Zeus addressing the horses of Peleus, suppliant But, like Chaucer, Burns lacks high poetic seriousness, though his poems
Achilles' words to Priam, and from Dante; Ugolino's brave words, and have poetic truth in diction and movement. Sometimes his poems are
Beatrice's loving words to Virgil. profound and heart-rending, such as in the lines, 'Had we never loved
From non-Classical writers he selects from Henry IV Part II (III, i), Henry's sae kindly/ had we never loved sae blindly/ never met or never parted/
expostulation with sleep - 'Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast . . . '. we had ne'er been broken-hearted'.
From Hamlet (V, ii) 'Absent thee from felicity awhile . . . '. From Also like Chaucer, Burns possesses largeness, benignity, freedom and
Milton's Paradise Lost Book 1, 'Care sat on his faded cheek . . .', and spontaneity. But instead of Chaucer's fluidity, we find in Burns a
'What is else not to be overcome . . . ' springing bounding energy. Chaucer's benignity deepens in Burns into a
The Study of Poetry: on Chaucer sense of sympathy for both human as well as non-human things, but
The French Romance poetry of the 13th century langue d'oc and langue Chaucer's world is richer and fairer than that of Burns.
d'oil was extremely popular in Europe and Italy, but soon lost its Sometimes Burns's poetic genius is unmatched by anyone. He is even
popularity and now it is important only in terms of historical study. But better than Goethe at times and he is unrivalled by anyone except
Chaucer, who was nourished by the romance poetry of the French, and Shakespeare. He has written excellent poems such as Tam O'Shanter,
influenced by the Italian Royal rhyme stanza, still holds enduring Whistle and I'll come to you my Lad, and Auld Lang Syne.
fascination. There is an excellence of style and subject in his poetry, When we compare Shelley's 'Pinnacled dim in the of intense inane'
which is the quality the French poetry lacks. Dryden says of (Prometheus Unbound III, iv) with Burns's, 'They flatter, she says, to
Chaucer's Prologue 'Here is God's plenty!' and that 'he is a perpetual deceive me' (Tam Glen), the latter is salutary.
fountain of good sense'. There is largeness, benignity, freedom and Arnold on Shakespeare
spontaneity in Chaucer's writings. 'He is the well of English undefiled'. He Praising Shakespeare, Arnold says 'In England there needs a miracle of
has divine fluidity of movement, divine liquidness of diction. He has genius like Shakespeare's to produce a balance of mind'. This is not
created an epoch and founded a tradition. bardolatory, but praise tempered by a critical sense. In a letter he writes.
Some say that the fluidity of Chaucer's verse is due to licence in the use 'I keep saying Shakespeare, you are as obscure as life is'.
of the language, a liberty which Burns enjoyed much later. But Arnold In his sonnet On Shakespeare he says; 'Others abide our question. Thou
says that the excellence of Chaucer's poetry is due to his sheer poetic are free./ We ask and ask - Thou smilest and art still,/ Out-topping
talent. This liberty in the use of language was enjoyed by many poets, knowledge'.
but we do not find the same kind of fluidity in others. Only in Arnold's limitations
Shakespeare and Keats do we find the same kind of fluidity, though they For all his championing of disinterestedness, Arnold was unable to
wrote without the same liberty in the use of language. practise disinterestedness in all his essays. In his essay on Shelley
Arnold praises Chaucer's excellent style and manner, but says that particularly he displayed a lamentable lack of disinterestedness. Shelley's
Chaucer cannot be called a classic since, unlike Homer, Virgil and moral views were too much for the Victorian Arnold. In his essay on
Shakespeare, his poetry does not have the high poetic seriousness which Keats too Arnold failed to be disinterested. The sentimental letters of
Aristotle regards as a mark of its superiority over the other arts. Keats to Fanny Brawne were too much for him.
The Study of Poetry: on the age of Dryden and Pope Arnold sometimes became a satirist, and as a satirical critic saw things
The age of Dryden is regarded as superior to that of the others for too quickly, too summarily. In spite of their charm, the essays are
'sweetness of poetry'. Arnold asks whether Dryden and Pope, poets of characterised by egotism and, as Tilotson says, 'the attention is directed,
great merit, are truly the poetical classics of the 18th century. He says not on his object but on himself and his objects together'.
Dryden's post-script to the readers in his translation of The Arnold makes clear his disapproval of the vagaries of some of the
Aeneid reveals the fact that in prose writing he is even better than Romantic poets. Perhaps he would have agreed with Goethe, who saw
Milton and Chapman. Romanticism as disease and Classicism as health. But Arnold occasionally
Just as the laxity in religious matters during the Restoration period was a looked at things with jaundiced eyes, and he overlooked the positive
direct outcome of the strict discipline of the Puritans, in the same way in features of Romanticism which posterity will not willingly let die, such as
order to control the dangerous sway of imagination found in the poetry its humanitarianism, love of nature, love of childhood, a sense of
of the Metaphysicals, to counteract 'the dangerous prevalence of

13
mysticism, faith in man with all his imperfections, and faith in man's sure that the currency and the supremacy of the classics will be
unconquerable mind. preserved in the modern age, not because of conscious effort on the part
Arnold's inordinate love of classicism made him blind to the beauty of of the readers, but because of the human instinct of self-preservation.
lyricism. He ignored the importance of lyrical poems, which are In the present day with the literary tradition over-burdened with imagery,
subjective and which express the sentiments and the personality of the myth, symbol and abstract jargon, it is refreshing to come back to Arnold and
poet. Judged by Arnold's standards, a large number of poets both his like to encounter central questions about literature and life as they are
ancient and modern are dismissed because they sang with 'Profuse perceived by a mature and civilized mind.
strains of unpremeditated art'.
It was also unfair of Arnold to compare the classical works in which Q:Discuss Mathew Arnold’s views on CHARACTERISTICS of
figure the classical quartet, namely Achilles, Prometheus, Clytemnestra good poetry? / Importance /Historical Fallacy.
and Dido with Heamann and Dorothea, Childe Harold, Jocelyn, and 'The “Poetry is the criticism of life, governed by the laws of
Excursion'. Even the strongest advocates of Arnold would agree that it is poetic truth and poetic beauty”.
not always profitable for poets to draw upon the past. Literature “… real estimate, the only true one, is liable to be
expresses the zeitgeist, the spirit of the contemporary age. Writers must superseded, if we are not watchful, by two other kinds
choose subjects from the world of their own experience. What is ancient of estimate, the historic estimate and the personal
Greece to many of us? Historians and archaeologists are familiar with it, estimate, both of which are fallacious.” Discuss
but the common readers delight justifiably in modern themes. To be in Arnold’s views of the historic, the Personal, the Real.
the company of Achilles, Prometheus, Clytemnestra and Dido is not
Elucidate Arnold’s views on good poetry as “the superior
always a pleasant experience. What a reader wants is variety, which
character of truth and seriousness, in the matter and
classical mythology with all its tradition and richness cannot provide. An
substance of the best poetry, is inseparable from the
excessive fondness for Greek and Latin classics produces a literary diet
without variety, while modern poetry and drama have branched out in
superiority of diction and movement marking its style
innumerable directions. and manner” with reference his essay The Study of
As we have seen, as a classicist Arnold upheld the supreme importance Poetry.
of the architectonic faculty, then later shifted his ground. In the Introduction: Matthew Arnold (1822-1888), the Victorian poet and critic,
lectures On Translating Homer, On the Study of Celtic Literature, and The was 'the first modern critic' [1], and could be called 'the critic's critic',
Study of Poetry, he himself tested the greatness of poetry by single lines. being a champion not only of great poetry, but of literary criticism itself.
Arnold the classicist presumably realised towards the end of his life that The purpose of literary criticism, in his view, was 'to know the best that
classicism was not the last word in literature. is known and thought in the world, and by in its turn making this known,
Arnold's lack of historic sense was another major failing. While he spoke to create a current of true and fresh ideas', and he has influenced a
authoritatively on his own century, he was sometimes groping in the whole school of critics including new critics such as T. S. Eliot, F. R. Leavis,
dark in his assessment of earlier centuries. He used to speak at times as and Allen Tate. He was the founder of the sociological school of criticism,
if ex cathedra, and this pontifical solemnity vitiated his criticism. and through his touchstone method introduced scientific objectivity to
As we have seen, later critics praise Arnold, but it is only a qualified critical evaluation by providing comparison and analysis as the two
praise. Oliver Elton calls him a 'bad great critic'. T. S. Eliot said that primary tools of criticism.
Arnold is a 'Propagandist and not a creator of ideas'. According to Walter Arnold's evaluations of the Romantic poets such as Wordsworth, Byron,
Raleigh, Arnold's method is like that of a man who took a brick to the Shelley, and Keats are landmarks in descriptive criticism, and as a poet-
market to give the buyers an impression of the building. critic he occupies an eminent position in the rich galaxy of poet-critics of
English literature.
Arnold's legacy
T. S. Eliot praised Arnold's objective approach to critical evaluation,
In spite of his faults, Arnold's position as an eminent critic is secure.
particularly his tools of comparison and analysis, and Allen Tate in his
Douglas Bush says that the breadth and depth of Arnold's influence
essay Tension in Poetry imitates Arnold's touchstone method to discover
cannot be measured or even guessed at because, from his own time
'tension', or the proper balance between connotation and denotation, in
onward, so much of his thought and outlook became part of the general
educated consciousness. He was one of those critics who, as Eliot said, poetry. These new critics have come a long way from the Romantic
arrive from time to time to set the literary house in order. Eliot named approach to poetry, and this change in attitude could be attributed to
Dryden, Johnson and Arnold as some of the greatest critics of the English Arnold, who comes midway between the two schools.
The Future of Poetry
language.
Arnold united active independent insight with the authority of the In The Study of Poetry, (1888) which opens his Essays in
humanistic tradition. He carried on, in his more sophisticated way, the Criticism: Second series, in support of the future of poetry. He writes,
Renaissance humanistic faith in good letters as the teachers of wisdom, “THE FUTURE of poetry is immense, because in poetry, our race, as time
and in the virtue of great literature, and above all, great poetry. He saw goes on, will find an ever surer and surer stay. There is not a creed which
poetry as a supremely illuminating, animating, and fortifying aid in the is not shaken. But for poetry the idea is everything; the rest is a world of
difficult endeavour to become or remain fully human. illusion, of divine illusion. Poetry attaches its emotion to the idea; the
Arnold's method of criticism is comparative. Steeped in classical poetry, idea is the fact. The strongest part of our religion to-day is its
and thoroughly acquainted with continental literature, he compares unconscious poetry.”
English literature to French and German literature, adopting the We have to turn to poetry to interpret life for us, to console
disinterested approach he had learned from Sainte-Beuve. us, to sustain us. Without poetry, our science will appear incomplete;
Arnold's objective approach to criticism and his view that historical and and most of what now passes with us for religion and philosophy will be
biographical study are unnecessary was very influential on the new replaced by poetry.
criticism. His emphasis on the importance of tradition also influenced F. Science is incomplete without poetry.
R. Leavis, and T. S. Eliot. WW truly calls poetry ‘the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge’;
Eliot is also indebted to Arnold for his classicism, and for his objective poetry ‘the impassioned expression which is in the countenance of all
approach which paved the way for Eliot to say that poetry is not an science’
expression of personality but an escape from personality, because it is After giving this importance to poetry, he moves ahead to define canon
not an expression of emotions but an escape from emotions. for good poetry. To say in his own words, “But if we conceive thus highly
Although Arnold disapproved of the Romantics' approach to poetry, their of the destinies of poetry, we must also set our standard for poetry high,
propensity for allusiveness and symbolism, he also shows his since poetry, to be capable of fulfilling such high destinies, must be
appreciation the Romantics in his Essays in Criticism. He praises poetry of a high order of excellence.”
Wordsworth thus: 'Nature herself took the pen out of his hand and Quoting from an anecdote (Napolean and Sainte-Beuve) he writes,
wrote with a bare, sheer penetrating power'. Arnold also valued poetry “charlatanism might be found everywhere else, but not in the field of
for its strong ideas, which he found to be the chief merit of poetry, because in poetry the distinction between sound and unsound,
Wordsworth's poetry. About Shelley he says that Shelley is 'A beautiful or only half-sound, truth and untruth, or only half-truth, between the
but ineffectual angel beating in a void his luminous wings in vain'. excellent and the inferior, is of paramount importance”. For Arnold there
In an age when cheap literature caters to the taste of the common man, is no place for charlatanism in poetry. To him “poetry is the criticism of
one might fear that the classics will fade into insignificance. But Arnold is
14
life, governed by the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty”. It is in the poetic beauty. Those laws fix as an essential condition, in the poet’s
criticism of life that the spirit of our race will find its stay and treatment of such matters as are here in question, high seriousness;—
consolation. The extent to which the spirit of mankind finds its stay and the high seriousness which comes from absolute sincerity.
consolation is proportional to the power of a poem's criticism of life, and
the power of the criticism of life is in direct proportion to the extent to Q: Note : Arnold’s Touchstone Method (short)
which the poem is genuine and free from charlatanism. Matthew Arnold is one of the foremost critics of 19th century and is
Thus he is of the view that, “the best poetry is what we want; the best often regarded as the father of modern English criticism. His The Study of
poetry will be found to have a power of forming, sustaining, and Poetry is mainly an introduction to T.H. Wards The English Poets. Later
delighting us, as nothing else can” on it appeared in Essay in Criticism.
In this essay he also cautions the critic that in forming a genuine and In The Study of Poetry, Arnold delineated his idea of excellent poetry
disinterested estimate of the poet under consideration he should not be and formulates a practical method for identifying the true poetry. This
influenced by historical or personal judgements, historical judgements method is named by him as the touchstone method. Arnold's touchstone
being fallacious because we regard ancient poets with excessive method is a comparative method of criticism. According to this method,
veneration, and personal judgements being fallacious when we are the specimens of the very highest quality of poetry are compared to the
biased towards a contemporary poet. If a poet is a 'dubious classic, let us specimen of the work of poetry under study and conclusions are drawn
sift him; if he is a false classic, let us explode him. But if he is a real in favor or against the work. This method requires to keep in one's mind
classic, if his work belongs to the class of the very best . . . enjoy his lines and expressions of the great masters, and to apply them as a
work'. He observes: “But this real estimate, the only true one, is liable to touchstone to other poetical works. Even single line or selected
be superseded, if we are not watchful, by two other kinds of estimate, quotations will serve the purpose. If the other work moves us in the
the historic estimate and the personal estimate, both of which are same way these lines and expressions do, then it is really a great work,
fallacious. otherwise not.
Arnold explains these fallacies in detail. He writes, “a poet or a poem In the process of finding truly excellent poetry, Arnold wants us to
may count to us historically, they may count to us on grounds personal avoid certain fallacies : the fallacy of historical estimate and the fallacy
to ourselves, and they may count to us really. The course of of personal estimate. Both in Arnold's view, a reflection of inadequate
development of a nation’s language, thought, and poetry, is profoundly and improper response to literature. According to him, both the
interesting; and by regarding a poet’s work as a stage in this course of historical significance of a literary work as well as its significance to the
development we may easily bring ourselves to make it of more critic in personal terms tend to obliterate the real esteem of that work as
importance as poetry than in itself it really is, we may come to use a in itself really is. Historical judgements are fallacious because one may
language of quite exaggerated praise in criticizing it; in short, to overrate regard ancient poets with excessive veneration and personal
it. judgements are fallacious because we are biased towards a
So arises in our poetic judgments the fallacy caused by the estimate contemporary poet. Real estimate can be attained by learning to feel
which we may call historic.” He quotes words of M.Charles, editor of and enjoy the best work of the real classics and thus to appreciate wide
magazine, to prove his point. M.Charles wrote, ‘the cloud of glory difference between it and all lesser work. If one wants to know whether
playing round a classic is a mist as dangerous to the future of a literature any poetic work is of a high quality, he should compare it with the
as it is intolerable for the purposes of history’. As examples of erroneous specimens of poetry of the highest quality. According to him, the most
judgements he says that the 17th century court tragedies of the French useful method of discovering the worth of poetry is "to have in ones
were spoken of with exaggerated praise, until Pellisson reproached them mind lines and expressions of the great masters and to apply them as a
for want of the true poetic stamp, and another critic, Charles d' Hricault, touchstone to other poetry". The real classics can serve as the
said that 17th century French poetry had received undue and touchstone by which the merit of contemporary poetic work can be
undeserving veneration. Arnold says the critics seem to substitute 'a halo tested. This is the central idea of Arnold's touchstone method.
for physiognomy and a statue in the place where there was once a man. Arnold condemns the French critic Vitet, who had eloquent words of
They give us a human personage no larger than God seated amidst his praise for the epic poem Chanson de Roland by Turoldus, (which was
perfect work, like Jupiter on Olympus.' sung by a jester, Taillefer, in William the Conqueror's army), saying that
He further writes, “then, again, a poet or poem may count to us on it was superior to Homer's Iliad. Arnold's view is that this poem can
grounds personal to ourselves. Our personal affinities, likings and never be compared to Homer's work, and that we only have to compare
circumstances, have great power to sway our estimate of this or that the description of dying Roland to Helen's words about her wounded
poet’s work, and to make us attach more importance to it as poetry than brothers Pollux and Castor and its inferiority will be clearly
in itself it really possesses, because to us it is, or has been, of high revealed.Arnold's criticism of Vitet above illustrates his 'touchstone
importance. Here also we overrate the object of our interest, and apply method'; his theory that in order to judge a poet's work properly, a critic
to it a language of praise which is quite exaggerated. And thus we get the should compare it to passages taken from works of great masters of
source of a second fallacy in our poetic judgments—the fallacy caused by poetry, and that these passages should be applied as touchstones to
an estimate which we may call personal”. other poetry. Even a single line or selected quotation will serve the
So to judge a good poetry wherein our estimate is not affected by purpose.From this we see that he has shifted his position from that
fallacies, we should look for following attributes in the poetry: expressed in the preface to his Poems of 1853. In The Study of Poetry he
1. The matter and substance of the poetry, and its manner and no longer uses the acid test of action and architectonics. He became an
style. Both of these, the substance and matter on the one hand, the style advocate of 'touchstones'. 'Short passages even single lines,' he said,
and manner on the other, have a mark, an accent, of high beauty, worth, 'will serve our turn quite sufficiently'.Some of Arnold's touchstone
and power. passages are: Helen's words about her wounded brother, Zeus
2. Only one thing we may add as to the substance and matter of addressing the horses of Peleus, suppliant Achilles' words to Priam, and
poetry, guiding ourselves by Aristotle’s profound observation that the from Dante; Ugolino's brave words, and Beatrice's loving words to
superiority of poetry over history consists in its possessing a higher truth Virgil.From non-Classical writers he selects from Henry IV Part II (III, i),
and a higher seriousness . Let us add, therefore, to what we have said, Henry's expostulation with sleep - 'Wilt thou upon the high and giddy
this: that the substances and matter of the best poetry acquire their mast . . . '. From Hamlet (V, ii) 'Absent thee from felicity awhile . . . '.
special character from possessing, in an eminent degree, truth and From Milton's Paradise Lost Book 1, 'Care sat on his faded cheek . . .', and
seriousness. 'What is else not to be overcome .
Thus, the superior character of truth and seriousness, in the
matter and substance of the best poetry, is inseparable from the Q: Note : Arnold’s Touchstone Method (long)
superiority of diction and movement marking its style and manner. Arnold compares the French poetry of the 12th and 13th centuries with
So, a poet’s criticism of life may have such truth and power Chaucer’s work to prove this point. The 12th and the 13th centuries were
that it triumphs over its world and delights us. the time of indisputable French hegemony European language and
Later in the essay he adds, for supreme poetical success more literature. During this time French poetry comprised of the langue d’oil
is required than the powerful application of ideas to life; it must be an and langue d’oc. The former is the poetry of northern France; modern
application under the conditions fixed by the laws of poetic truth and French has evolved from it. The latter is the language of the troubadours

15
of southern France. It was this language that influenced Italian literature, Arnold concludes his essay by comparing Chaucer and Burns. While both
the first literature of modern Europe. However major French poetry that poets reveal a huge width of vision in term of human life and the world,
dominated Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries was in langue d’oil. the feeling of freedom in Chaucer’s works has been transformed into a
Although love-poetry originated in England in the 12th century, “fiery, reckless energy.” Similarly, Chaucer’s benign state of existence
nonetheless it was deeply influenced by the love-poetry written in finds itself morphed into an overwhelming sense of pathos over both
langue d’oil. During most of the Middle Ages it was the latter which human and nonhuman nature. Arnold finds great force and energy in
enjoyed hegemony in Europe; but is unsurprisingly not read much now. Burns without the charm of Chaucer’s poetry.
It was the arrival of Chaucer on the scene in the 14th century that The essay despite claims towards absolute markers of poetic worth
reversed the situation. His use of words, rhyme, meter and stanza refuses to engage with any formal qualities of ‘good’ poetry. Arnold
formation completely overshadowed French poetry. The substance of his seems to be suggesting that if the content of a poem is sufficiently
poetry is undeniably superior to those of the French poets; he has a “serious,” it will automatically find expression in a serious form. This is
large, simple and kind view of human life and observes the world from a his primary objection with Burns’ poetry; it is not serious enough. Arnold
truly humanistic viewpoint. Moreover poetry reveals a large, free and also refuses to place the poet and the poem within its historical context.
sound representation of things. In style and manner also his work is This is deliberately done so as to maintain the idea that art is
superior to the French; there is a liquidity of diction and a fluidity of ameliorative. Arnold effectively dismisses the claims of the French critic
movement in his verse that is absent in the French works. he cites regarding the canonization of certain works as classics, a process
This tradition of fluidity continued in the works of Shakespeare, Milton, which forecloses further investigation into the origins, influences, the
Spenser and Keats. It would not be amiss therefore, to suggest that, immediate circumstances and possible motivations of the work. His
Chaucer is the ‘father of our splendid English poetry’ and that real poetry reliance on some ineffable literary sensibility which somehow knows
begins with him. Chaucer is a towering figure in the history of the growth how to judge could be considered a form of obscurantism, since it is an
and development of poetry; he overwhelms the poetic output from the appeal to experience and to make judgments on the basis of a sensibility
time the love-poetry of the French up to the Elizabethan era. Despite this which resists articulation.
Arnold does not acknowledge Chaucer as a real classicist. Unlike Dante,
whom Arnold recognizes as a classic poet, Chaucer lacks seriousness Q: Conflict between Science and Religion
which Aristotle mentions as a marker of good poetry. Thus the “The Study of Poetry,” written as General Introduction to The English
touchstone method reveals that even though Chaucer is a great poet, he Poets, edited by T. H. Ward, is one of the most influential texts of literary
does not rank among the greatest classic poets of the English language. humanism. This essay contains some of his best-known pronouncements
According to Arnold the criticism and analysis of poetry of this period about poetry and poets. It is preeminently an essay about judgment and
makes it difficult to look beyond the historical estimation of the worth evaluation. It insists on the social and cultural functions of literature, it
and value of poetry produced during this time. The 18th century ability to civilize and to cultivate morality, as well assist providing
considered that it had produced greater works of poetic merit, and had bulwark against the mechanistic excesses of modern civilization. In the
introduced more innovations and developments in poetry than had been essay, Arnold claims an elevated status for poetry over science, religion,
produced in any other time ever. theology and philosophy. He postulates that the fields of science,
The impact of this self- praise was such that right up to Arnold’s time it religion, hilosophy and politics are awash with Charlatanism. These
was the poetry of Dryden, Addison, Pope and Johnson that were seen as ideologies deliberately obfuscate facts and create confusion between
good verse. Using the touchstone method Arnold questions the veracity that which is good and desirable and that which is fake and harmful.
of the claim that the 18th century poets are classic. He argues that the Religion fails to address fundamental questions facing man since its
years following the Restoration are characterized by a rejection of the status has been threatened by science which in turn falsely presents
Puritan ethic. This, “negatively” for Arnold, took the form of a rejection itself as the new arbiter of knowledge. Moreover, was he points out in
of the spiritual life of the period. The new age required a prose that the essay, religion places meanings on facts which are being proved to be
regularity, precision and uniformity. While the writers of the time incorrect and false.
attempted to achieve these in their writings, the spirit of poetry was In contrast to this poetry rests meaning in ideas and these are infallible.
sadly neglected and suppressed. Philosophy is incapable of providing moral and spiritual sustenance to
Their verse also heralds the advent of the age of prose and reason. man since it is itself grappling with entrenched and unresolved questions
However it does not render a poetic criticism life. In fact Arnold takes and problems. In view of this fact, according to the critic, only poetry is
pains to point out that their work lacks the seriousness, style and in a position to offer any kind of spiritual and emotional succor to man.
manner of ‘high poetry.’ Thus while the writers of the age wrote great Poetry is also, according to him, the only viable method of interpreting
prose they were middling versifiers; and cannot be labelled classic. life. To interact with poetry it is imperative that the reader views the
Among the poets of the time, Arnold finds Gray to be a frail classic; he poetic object as it really is by avoiding the historical and personal
emulated the conventions and modes of the classical poets from the fallacies. By rejecting an abstract system and foregrounding his
ancient world. His ideas never emerge from his own consciousness but touchstone method Arnold challenges the reader to accept his critical
are competently aped. With Burns, a poet of the late 18th century, taste and judgment. His assumption is that reasonable people, without
Arnold reveals the dangers posed by personal fallacy in assigning poetic absolute standards, can agree on the quality not only of a poet's artistry
worth. According to Arnold it is in his poems of aspects of Scottish life but of his 'criticism of life'. To his credit, Arnold’s surviving notebooks,
that Burns reveals his true self. Arnold suggests that this familiarity with filled with short quotations from the classics, suggest that he really
the Scottish world goes against the poet when the reader is not a practiced the method he advocated. In this essay Arnold is concerned
compatriot. The critic mentions that though Burns’ poetry reveals the with ranking English poets and deciding as to which ones may be singled
poet’s triumph over the harsh Scottish landscape, his poetry does not out as being truly classic. In this endeavor some of his statements were
come out favorable when analyzed through the touchstone method. controversial when first stated. In today’s age of shifting canons these
For Arnold, Burns is the best example of personal fallacy leading to a are proving to be extremely controversial.
misleading assessment of poetic worth. He considers Burns’ poems
insufficiently bacchanalian since they lack the sincerity of this type of Q: The Importance of Poetry or Poetry as a Spiritual Force
poetry. He finds bravado reflected in Burns’ poetry which makes them The critic apprises his readers of the fact that if poetry were to play such
insincere and unsound to him. Arnold acknowledges that while there is a central role in the lives of men, then it is imperative that it be of a
an “application of ideas to life” in his poetry these are not as per the “higher order of excellence.” This means that not only should poetry
laws of poetic truth and beauty. His work reveals that he has exemplary maintain a higher standard but also that it be judged by more stringent
command over language; however it lacks the “high seriousness” which parameters than any other field of study. Therefore the distinctions of
is a sign of complete sincerity. According to Arnold in contrast to Dante, ‘excellent and inferior,’ ‘sound and unsound,’ and true and untrue’ gain
Burns preaches in his poems; his articulations do not emerge from the significance in the case of poetry, considering the fact that it has a
deepest recesses of his soul and are therefore superficial. In Arnold’s “higher destiny.” According to Arnold it is necessary to hold poetry to
assessment Burns’ poetry is primarily ironic; his work may reveal truth of such higher standards since in the increasingly mechanized world it will
manner and matter, nevertheless he lacks the poetic virtue of the prove to be the only source of succor and peace to man. It is only poetry
classical poets. that gives a criticism of life; however the value and credibility of such a

16
criticism is in direct proportion to the degree with which poem constitutes great poetry; however it is easy to identify great poetry.
approaches the ideals of truth and beauty. Arnold’s humanism implied Therefore, instead of referring to a critic who would then give abstract
that he imparted to poetry the power to sustain and delight man in the ideas about what constituted ‘good’ poetry, he suggested that it would
dreary confines of modern existence. It is for this reason that he was be more useful if the reader kept before him some lines and expressions
insistent in the creation of “the best” poetry. He further elaborates that by the greatest poets of the English language while reading poetry. Then
it is because poetry sustains man in times of troubles that he should be all that he had to do was compare the poem he was reading with these
extremely critical and conscious of what he is reading. Reading is not references and judge for him as to how useful he found them. This
passive exercise but rather a collaborative endeavor. Since the act of method would work because the reader knows when he is in the
reading poetry presence of great literature since it evokes a strong response from him.
influences the mind and the spirit, Arnold insists that the reader be Arnold insisted that it was irrelevant whether the lines used as
constantly aware of what he is reading and judge as to whether it is for touchstone and the poem being read was of the same type and genre.
his benefit or not. He insists that every act of reading poetry should give According to him the selected lines by poets like Shakespeare, Milton,
a sense of the excellent and a sense of joy. If one feels these while Dante and Homer would serve to judge not only the character of poetic
reading poem then it is the true estimate of the worth of the text being quality but also the degree of the quality. Poetic worth resides in the
read. He goes on to suggest that it is only a careful reading of poetry that matter and substance of the poem and also in the manner and style in
allows us to identify the caliber of poets and to identify them as good or which this matter is communicated. It follows that a high degree of
bad. It is only after this has been done that the reader can choose to matter and substance can only be communicated in an appropriately
accept or reject the artist and this work. The study of poetry is an high degree of manner and style. Thus the two necessarily accompany
exercise, he says in the essay, that requires consistent scrutiny: the each other. Arnold drew on Aristotle’s comparison between poetry and
reader should be able to identify when a work falls short in terms of history where the ancient critic found poetry to be superior in both truth
language or meaning and give it the correct rating It is only when the and seriousness; Arnold postulated that the high degree of matter and
reader does this that he will be in a position to identify good poetry and substance in poem existed because it had a high degree of truth and
enjoy it. Thus “negative criticism” in the study of poetry is essential to seriousness. Similarly, the manner and style of a poem resided in its
identify good literature and enjoy it. In fact he stresses the fact that style, diction and movement.
merely knowledge of the efforts made by the artist in creating the work,
or information regarding its weaknesses; or knowledge of the Q: Note : Arnold’s views of Chaucer as Poet.
biographical details of the poet are meaningless if they do not assist in The French Romance poetry of the 13th century langue d'oc and langue
raising the level of enjoyment when the reader interacts with the poem. d'oil was extremely popular in Europe and Italy, but soon lost its
This is another drawback of historical fallacy; the student becomes so popularity and now it is important only in terms of historical study. But
obsessed with historical details that he uses sight of the text itself. Chaucer, who was nourished by the romance poetry of the French, and
Nonetheless, Arnold accepts the fact that it is fairly easy to be carried influenced by the Italian Royal rhyme stanza, still holds enduring
away by the historical reputations of poets and works as well as by fascination. There is an excellence of style and subject in his poetry,
personal affinities and likings in the act of reading poetry. He calls these which is the quality the French poetry lacks. Dryden says of Chaucer's
two distractions or fallacies, the historical and personal fallacy Prologue 'Here is God's plenty!' and that 'he is a perpetual fountain of
respectively. good sense'. There is largeness, benignity, freedom and spontaneity in
Historical fallacies occur when the reader is swept away by the Chaucer's writings. 'He is the well of English undefiled'. He has divine
reputation of the artist or by the role of the poem or poet in the fluidity of movement, divine liquidness of diction. He has created an
historical development of a nation’s literature, or a genre or type of epoch and founded a tradition.
poetry. Poems are markers in the artistic development of individuals. Some say that the fluidity of Chaucer's verse is due to license in the use
Interestingly this occurs primarily with classical poets. Thus it is probable of the language, a liberty which Burns enjoyed much later. But Arnold
and possible that critics and readers give greater significance to works says that the excellence of Chaucer's poetry is due to his sheer poetic
than they actually deserve. In the case of historical fallacy these talent. This liberty in the use of language was enjoyed by many poets,
exaggerations aren't very important since they generally do not impact but we do not find the same kind of fluidity in others. Only in
the general public. Moreover, these exaggerations are done by literary Shakespeare and Keats do we find the same kind of fluidity, though they
men, whose judgments and words could lose meaning and validity if wrote without the same liberty in the use of language.Arnold praises
they continue to lavish excessive praise on clearly mediocre works and Chaucer's excellent style and manner, but says that Chaucer cannot be
artists. A negative impact of historical fallacy is that it posits false models called a classic since, unlike Homer, Virgil and Shakespeare, his poetry
as ideals that need to be emulated and followed. Since these poets and does not have the high poetic seriousness which Aristotle regards as a
their work are given exaggerated importance it gives the impression that mark of its superiority over the other arts.
withdrawing the artist and his creation from the immediate social milieu
doesn't do any violence to either the text or the artist. As an example of Q: Note : Arnold’s views on the age of Dryden and Pope
historical fallacy Arnold mentions Chanson de Roland, a 12th century The age of Dryden is regarded as superior to that of the others for
romance. He agrees that while the work has verve and freshness, it is 'sweetness of poetry'. Arnold asks whether Dryden and Pope, poets of
primarily of linguistic important win tracing the growth and development great merit, are truly the poetical classics of the 18th century. He says
of the romance. It lacks simplicity and greatness, the markers of great Dryden's post-script to the readers in his translation of The Aeneid
poetry. Therefore, according to Arnold, the critic M. Vitet is incorrect reveals the fact that in prose writing he is even better than Milton and
when he labels it an epic. He also mentions the French obsession with Chapman.Just as the laxity in religious matters during the Restoration
the court-poetry of the 17th century as an example of historical fallacy. period was a direct outcome of the strict discipline of the Puritans, in the
Pellison has already dismissed any claims this poetry may have to same way in order to control the dangerous sway of imagination found
greatness by underlying its lack of poetic verve. Nonetheless the student in the poetry of the Metaphysicals, to counteract 'the dangerous
of French literary history diligently studies them as models of perfect prevalence of imagination', the poets of the 18th century introduced
classical poetry. This detailed study and the philological groundwork certain regulations. The restrictions that were imposed on the poets
should ideally assist in the enjoyment of the poem; instead, were uniformity, regularity, precision, and balance. These restrictions
paradoxically the student gets bogged down by the details he has curbed the growth of poetry, and encouraged the growth of prose.Hence
amassed that he is distracted from actually enjoying the best works of we can regard Dryden as the glorious founder, and Pope as the splendid
poetry. Ironically philological groundwork raises the probability of over- high priest, of the age of prose and reason, our indispensable 18th
rating the value of an artistic work. century. Their poetry was that of the builders of an age of prose and
Q: Historica/Personal Fallacy reason. Arnold says that Pope and Dryden are not poet classics, but the
Personal fallacy is based on a flawed personal estimation of a poet or his 'prose classics' of the 18th century.As for poetry, he considers Gray to be
work originating either in personal liking or circumstance. Personal the only classic of the 18th century. Gray constantly studied and enjoyed
fallacy generally occurs with contemporary or modern poets. Greek poetry and thus inherited their poetic point of view and their
Arnold postulated the touchstone method as a means of avoiding the application of poetry to life. But he is the 'scantiest, frailest classic' since
historical and personal fallacies. It is difficult to articulate as to what his output was small.

17
 ancient and modern are dismissed because they sang with 'Profuse
Q: Note : Arnold’s views on Robert Burns as a poet strains of unpremeditated art'.
Although Burns lived close to the 19th century his poetry breathes the It was also unfair of Arnold to compare the classical works in which
spirit of 18th Century life. Burns is most at home in his native language. figure the classical quartet, namely Achilles, Prometheus, Clytemnestra
His poems deal with Scottish dress, Scottish manner, and Scottish and Dido with Heamann and Dorothea, Childe Harold, Jocelyn, and 'The
religion. This Scottish world is not a beautiful one, and it is an advantage Excursion'. Even the strongest advocates of Arnold would agree that it is
if a poet deals with a beautiful world. But Burns shines whenever he not always profitable for poets to draw upon the past. Literature
triumphs over his sordid, repulsive and dull world with his expresses the zeitgeist, the spirit of the contemporary age. Writers must
poetry.Perhaps we find the true Burns only in his bacchanalian poetry, choose subjects from the world of their own experience. What is ancient
though occasionally his bacchanalian attitude was affected. For example Greece to many of us? Historians and archaeologists are familiar with it,
in his Holy Fair, the lines 'Leeze me on drink! it gies us mair/ Than either but the common readers delight justifiably in modern themes. To be in
school or college', may represent the bacchanalian attitude, but they are the company of Achilles, Prometheus, Clytemnestra and Dido is not
not truly bacchanalian in spirit. There is something insincere about it, always a pleasant experience. What a reader wants is variety, which
smacking of bravado.When Burns moralises in some of his poems it also classical mythology with all its tradition and richness cannot provide. An
sounds insincere, coming from a man who disregarded morality in actual excessive fondness for Greek and Latin classics produces a literary diet
life. And sometimes his pathos is intolerable, as in Auld Lang Syne.We without variety, while modern poetry and drama have branched out in
see the real Burns (wherein he is unsurpassable) in lines such as, 'To innumerable directions.
make a happy fire-side clime/ to weans and wife/ That's the true pathos As we have seen, as a classicist Arnold upheld the supreme importance
and sublime/ Of human life' (Ae Fond Kiss). Here we see the genius of of the architectonic faculty, then later shifted his ground. In the lectures
Burns.But, like Chaucer, Burns lacks high poetic seriousness, though his On Translating Homer, On the Study of Celtic Literature, and The Study of
poems have poetic truth in diction and movement. Sometimes his poems Poetry, he himself tested the greatness of poetry by single lines. Arnold
are profound and heart-rending, such as in the lines, 'Had we never the classicist presumably realised towards the end of his life that
loved sae kindly/ had we never loved sae blindly/ never met or never classicism was not the last word in literature.
parted/ we had ne'er been broken-hearted'. Arnold's lack of historic sense was another major failing. While he spoke
Also like Chaucer, Burns possesses largeness, benignity, freedom and authoritatively on his own century, he was sometimes groping in the
spontaneity. But instead of Chaucer's fluidity, we find in Burns a dark in his assessment of earlier centuries. He used to speak at times as
springing bounding energy. Chaucer's benignity deepens in Burns into a if ex cathedra(with authority), and this pontifical (pompous) solemnity
sense of sympathy for both human as well as non-human things, but vitiated his criticism.
Chaucer's world is richer and fairer than that of Burns.Sometimes Burns's As we have seen, later critics praise Arnold, but it is only a qualified
poetic genius is unmatched by anyone. He is even better than Goethe at praise. Oliver Elton calls him a 'bad great critic'. T. S. Eliot said that
times and he is unrivalled by anyone except Shakespeare. He has written Arnold is a 'Propagandist and not a creator of ideas'. According to Walter
excellent poems such as Tam O'Shanter, Whistle and I'll come to you my Raleigh, Arnold's method is like that of a man who took a brick to the
Lad, and Auld Lang Syne. market to give the buyers an impression of the building.
When we compare Shelley's 'Pinnacled dim in the of intense inane'
(Prometheus Unbound III, iv) with Burns's, 'They flatter, she says, to Q: Arnold's legacy
deceive me' (Tam Glen), the latter is salutary.Arnold on In spite of his faults, Arnold's position as an eminent critic is secure.
ShakespearePraising Shakespeare, Arnold says 'In England there needs a Douglas Bush says that the breadth and depth of Arnold's influence
miracle of genius like Shakespeare's to produce a balance of mind'. This cannot be measured or even guessed at because, from his own time
is praise tempered by a critical sense. In a letter he writes. 'I keep saying onward, so much of his thought and outlook became part of the general
Shakespeare, you are as obscure as life is'.In his sonnet On Shakespeare educated consciousness. He was one of those critics who, as Eliot said,
he says;Others abide our question. Thou art free.We ask and ask—Thou arrive from time to time to set the literary house in order. Eliot named
smilest and art still,Out-topping knowledge. For the loftiest hill,Who to Dryden, Johnson and Arnold as some of the greatest critics of the English
the stars uncrowns his majesty,Planting his steadfast footsteps in the language.
sea,Making the heaven of heavens his dwelling-place,Spares but the Arnold united active independent insight with the authority of the
cloudy border of his baseTo the foil'd searching of mortality;And thou, humanistic tradition. He carried on, in his more sophisticated way, the
who didst the stars and sunbeams know,Self-school'd, self-scann'd, self- Renaissance humanistic faith in good letters as the teachers of wisdom,
honour'd, self-secure,Didst tread on earth unguess'd at.—Better so!All and in the virtue of great literature, and above all, great poetry. He saw
pains the immortal spirit must endure,All weakness which impairs, all poetry as a supremely illuminating, animating, and fortifying aid in the
griefs which bow,Find their sole speech in that victorious brow. difficult endeavour to become or remain fully human.
Arnold's method of criticism is comparative. Steeped in classical poetry,
Q: Arnold's limitations and thoroughly acquainted with continental literature, he compares
For all his championing of disinterestedness, Arnold was unable to English literature to French and German literature, adopting the
practice disinterestedness in all his essays. In his essay on Shelley disinterested approach he had learned from Sainte-Beuve.
particularly he displayed a lamentable lack of disinterestedness. Shelley's Arnold's objective approach to criticism and his view that historical and
moral views were too much for the Victorian Arnold. In his essay on biographical study are unnecessary was very influential on the new
Keats too Arnold failed to be disinterested. The sentimental letters of criticism. His emphasis on the importance of tradition also influenced F.
Keats to Fanny Brawne were too much for him. R. Leavis, and T. S. Eliot.
Arnold sometimes became a satirist, and as a satirical critic saw things Eliot is also indebted to Arnold for his classicism, and for his objective
too quickly, too summarily. In spite of their charm, the essays are approach which paved the way for Eliot to say that poetry is not an
characterised by egotism and, as Tilotson says, 'the attention is directed, expression of personality but an escape from personality, because it is
not on his object but on himself and his objects together'. not an expression of emotions but an escape from emotions.
Arnold makes clear his disapproval of the vagaries of some of the Although Arnold disapproved of the Romantics' approach to poetry, their
Romantic poets. Perhaps he would have agreed with Goethe, who saw propensity for allusiveness and symbolism, he also shows his
Romanticism as disease and Classicism as health. But Arnold occasionally appreciation the Romantics in his Essays in Criticism. He praises
looked at things with jaundiced eyes, and he overlooked the positive Wordsworth thus: 'Nature herself took the pen out of his hand and
features of Romanticism which posterity will not willingly let die, such as wrote with a bare, sheer penetrating power'. Arnold also valued poetry
its humanitarianism, love of nature, love of childhood, a sense of for its strong ideas, which he found to be the chief merit of
mysticism, faith in man with all his imperfections, and faith in man's Wordsworth's poetry. About Shelley he says that Shelley is 'A beautiful
unconquerable mind. but ineffectual angel beating in a void his luminous wings in vain'.
Arnold's inordinate love of classicism made him blind to the beauty of In an age when cheap literature caters to the taste of the common man,
lyricism. He ignored the importance of lyrical poems, which are one might fear that the classics will fade into insignificance. But Arnold is
subjective and which express the sentiments and the personality of the sure that the currency and the supremacy of the classics will be
poet. Judged by Arnold's standards, a large number of poets both

18
preserved in the modern age, not because of conscious effort on the part Alps". There may be an excellence in some minor poetry worthwhile on
of the readers, but because of the human instinct of self-preservation. its own account. Arnold expresses the view that good literature will
In the present day with the literary tradition over-burdened with never lose its currency. There might be some vulgarization and
imagery, myth, symbol and abstract jargon, it is refreshing to come back cheapening of literary values, as a result of the increase in numbers of
to Arnold and his like to encounter central questions about literature the common sort of readers, but the currency of good literature is
and life as they are perceived by a mature and civilised mind. ensured by, "the instinct of self-preservation in humanity." So strong is
Arnold’s faith in the value of poetry of the highest kind. Arnold declared
Criticism of his view point: that it would be much better to disregarded the mass of current
a. Arnold's criticism of life is often marred by his naive literature. By this method we can set apart the alive, the vital, and the
moralizing, by his inadequate perception of the relation between art and sincere from the shoddy, the showy and the insincere.
morality, and by his uncritical admiration of what he regarded as the He declared, "In poetry, it is the glory, the eternal honour that
golden sanity of the ancient Greeks. For all his championing of charlatanism shall find no entrance".
disinterestedness, Arnold was unable to practice disinterestedness in all
his essays. In his essay on Shelley particularly, he displayed a lamentable Q: A Study of Poetry Summary and Analysis
lack of disinterestedness. Shelley's moral views were too much for the 'A Study of Poetry' is a critical essay by Matthew Arnold. In this essay
Victorian Arnold. In his essay on Keats too Arnold failed to be Arnold criticizes the art of poetry as well as the art of criticism. Arnold
believes that the art of poetry is capable of high destinies. It is the art in
disinterested. The sentimental letters of Keats to Fanny Brawne were too
which the idea itself is the fact. He says that we should understand the
much for him. But Arnold's insistence on the standards and his concern
worth of poetry as it is poetry that shows us a mirror of life. Science,
over the relation between poetry and life make him one of the great
according to Arnold, is incomplete without poetry, and, religion and
modern critics.
philosophy will give way to poetry. Arnold terms poetry as a criticism of
b. George Sainsburry: A History of English Criticism: “all
life thereby refuting the accusation of Plato and says that as time goes
literature is the application of ideas of life and to say that poetry is the on man will continue to find comfort and solace in poetry.
application of ideas to life under conditions fixed for poetry, is simply a Arnold says that when one reads poetry he tends to estimate whether it
vain repetition. is of the best form or not. It happens in three ways- the real estimate,
c. T.S.Eliot: ‘His observation that ‘poetry is criticism of life’ is the historic estimate, and the personal estimate. The real estimate is an
repeating Aristotle. Nothing novel is contributed as a critic.’ unbiased viewpoint that takes into account both the historical context
and the creative faculty to judge the worth of poetry. But the real
Q: Touchstone Method by Methew Arnold estimate is often surpassed by the historic and personal estimate. The
Poetry is something which sustain, console and interpret life for us. historic estimate places the historical context above the value of the art
Arnold had given a very high position to poetry that it is a substitute for itself. The personal estimate on the other hand depends on the personal
religion. Arnold says "The strongest part of our religion today is its taste, the likes and dislikes of the reader which affects his judgment of
unconscious poetry". At this point, Arnold offers his theory of poetry. Arnold says that both these estimates tend to be fallacious.
Touchstone Method. The historic and personal estimate often overshadows the real estimate.
Arnold’s touchstone method is a comparative method of criticism. But Arnold also says that it is natural. The study of the historical
According to this method, in order to judge a poet's work properly, a background of poetry and its development often leads to the critic
critic should compare it to passages taken from works of great masters skipping over the shortcomings because of its historical significance.
of poetry, and that these passages should be applied as touchstones to Historic estimate raises poetry to a high pedestal and thus hinders one
other poetry. Even a single line or selected quotation will serve the from noticing its weaknesses. It is the historic estimate that leads to the
purpose. If the other work moves us in the same way as these lines and creation of classics and raises the poet to a nearly God like standard.
expressions do, then it is really a great work, otherwise not. Arnold says that if a poet is truly a classic his poetry will give the reader
Arnold wants us to avoid the false evaluation of the historic estimate real pleasure and enable him to compare and contrast other poetry
and the personal estimate, and to attain to a real estimate by learning to which are not of the same high standard. This according to Arnold is the
feel and enjoy the best work of the real classic, and thus to appreciate real estimate of poetry. Thus Arnold appeals to his readers to read
wide difference between it and all lesser work. If you want to know classics with an open eye and not be blind to its faults. This will enable
whether any poetic work is of a high quality, we should compare it with one to rate poetry with its proper value.
specimens of poetry of the highest quality. According to him the most Arnold here speaks about the idea of imitation. He says that whatever
useful method of discovering the worth of poetry is "to have always in one reads or knows keeps on coming back to him. Thus if a poet wants to
one’s mind lines and expressions of the great masters, and to apply them reach the high standards of the classics he might consciously or
as a touchstone to other poetry". The real classics can serve as the unconsciously imitate them. This is also true for critics who tend to
touchstone by which the merit of contemporary poetic work can be revert to the historic and personal estimate instead of an unbiased real
tested. This is the central idea of Arnold’s Touchstone Method. estimate. The historic estimate affects the study of ancient poets while
Arnold was basically a classicist. He admired the ancient Greek, Roman the personal estimate affects the study of modern or contemporary
and French authors as the models to be followed by the modern English poets.
authors. The old English like Shakespeare, Spenser or Milton were also Arnold proposes the ‘touchstone’ method of analyzing poetry in order to
to be taken as models. Arnold took selected passages from the modern determine whether it is of a high standard or not. He borrows this
authors and compared them with selected passages from the ancient method from Longinus who said in his idea of the sublime that if a
authors and thus decided their merits. This method was called Arnold's certain example of sublimity can please anyone regardless of habits,
Touchstone Method. He quoted the two lines from Milton; tastes or age and can please at all times then it can be considered as a
"And courage never to submit or yield true example of the sublime. This method was first suggested in England
And what is else not to be overcome" by Addison who said that he would have a man read classical works
It has been said that the sentiment or the moral here is noble, but that which have stood the test of time and place and also those modern
the diction and movement are faulty. Perhaps, in offering these two lines works which find high praise among contemporaries. If the man fails to
as a specimen of the highest poetry, Arnold just tripped. find any delight in them then he would conclude that it is not the author
However, this system of judgment has its own limitations. Arnold would who lacks quality but the reader who is incapable of discovering them.
probably have agreed that his method of comparing passage with a Arnold applies the touchstone method by taking examples from the time
passage is not a sufficient test for determining the value of a work as a tested classics and comparing them with other poetry to determine
whole. Arnold himself insisted that we must judge a poem by the 'total whether they possess the high poetic standard of the classics. He says
impression' and not by its fragments. But we can further extend this that the poems need not resemble or possess any similarity to the
method of comparison from passages to the poems as whole units. The touchstones. Once the critic has lodged the touchstones in his mind in
comparative method is an invaluable aid to appreciation of any kind of order to detect the possession of high poetic quality he will have the tact
art. It is helpful not merely thus to compare the masterpiece and the of finding it in other poetry that he compares to the touchstones. Arnold
lesser work, but the good with the not so good, the sincere with the not quotes Homer, Dante, Shakespeare and Milton in an attempt to
quite sincere, and so on. exemplify touchstone poetry. He says that the examples he has quoted
Arnold seems to go too far insisting all the time on work of the highest are very dissimilar to one another but they all possess a high poetic
excellence in literature. It is not fair to demand that "all hills should be
19
quality. He says that a critic need not labour in vain trying to explain the there is no place for CHARLATANISM in poetry. Charlatanism is for
greatness of poetry. He can do so by merely pointing at some specimens confusing the difference between excellent and inferior, sound and
of the highest poetic quality. Arnold says that the high quality of poetry unsound or only half sound, true and untrue or only half true. Judging
lies in its matter and its manner. He then goes by Aristotle’s observation with little differences has a paramount importance, so there is no place
and says that the best form of poetry possesses high truth and for charlatanism in poetry.
seriousness that makes up its subject matter along with superior diction Then Arnold tells about THREE KINDS OF ESTIMATES and these estimates
that marks its manner. However, Arnold mentions that the true force of are related to poetry and its reading. These estimates are:
this method lies in its application. He therefore urges critics to apply the  Historic Estimate
touchstone method to analyse and rate poetry.
Arnold then speaks about French poetry which had a tremendous
 Personal Estimate
influence on the poetry of England. He differentiates between the poetry  Real Estimate
of northern France and the poetry of southern France. The poetry of HISTORIC ESTIMATE: It is fallacious estimate that deals with the poets of
southern France influenced Italian literature. But it is the poetry of past. When we are effected by a poet's historical background, we may
northern France that was dominant in Europe in the twelfth and easily consider his poetry of more importance than in reality it is. We
thirteenth century. This poetry came to England with the Anglo- must over-rate it. So, this type of fallacy is caused in judgement by
Normans and had a tremendous impact on English poetry. It was the Historic Estimate.
romance- poems of France that was popular during that time. But Arnold PERSONAL ESTIMATE: It is also fallacious estimate that deals with the
says that it did not have any special characteristics and lacked the high contemporary (modern) poets. Our personal affinities, likings and
truth, seriousness and diction of classic poetry and remain significant circumstances have great power to sway our estimate. Due to our
only from the historical point of view. personal likings we give more importance to that poetry which does not
Next Arnold speaks about Chaucer who was much influenced by French deserve that much importance. So second fallacy in our poetic
and Italian poetry. Arnold says that Chaucer’s poetic importance is a judgement is caused by personal estimate.
result of the real estimate and not the historic estimate. The superiority REAL ESTIMATE: Real Estimate is the only TRUE ESTIMATE which is not
of Chaucer’s verse lies both in his subject matter and his style. He writes effected by any kind of estimate. A sense for the best, the real
about human life and nature as he sees it. Arnold speaks highly of excellence, strength and joy can be drawn from it. It is present in our
Chaucer’s diction and calls it ‘liquid diction’ to emphasise the fluidity in minds and governs our estimate of what we read. We are sure of
the manner of Chaucer’s writing which he considers to be an irresistible frequent temptation to adopt the Historic estimate and Personal
virtue. Arnold however says that Chaucer is not a classic. He compares estimate which are fallacious but forget the Real Estimate.
Chaucer to Dante and points out that Chaucer lacks the high seriousness The benefit or Real Estimate is high and it is the benefit of clearly feeling
of the classics thereby depriving him of the high honour. and of deeply enjoying the real excellence, the true classic in poetry.
Next Arnold mentions Milton and Shakespeare and credits them as Everything depends on the reality of a poet's CLASSIC CHARACTER. If he
classics and moves on to speak about Dryden and Pope. According to the is a dubious classic, let us sift him, if he is a false classic, let us explode
historic estimate Dryden and Pope are no doubt great poets of the him. But if he is a REAL CLASSIC, if his work belongs to the class of the
eighteenth century. Arnold observes that Dryden and Pope were better VERY BEST, then the great thing for us is to feel and enjoy his work as
prose writers than poets. The restoration period faced the necessity of a deeply as we can.We must read our classic with open eyes and not with
fit prose with proper imaginative quality and this is what Dryden and eyes blinded with superstition. We must perceive when his work comes
Pope provided. Arnold therefore concludes that they are classics not of short and when it drops out of the class of very best. This type of
poetry but of prose. NEGATIVE CRITICISM enables us to have clearer sense and deeper
After Dryden and Pope Arnold speaks about Gray. Gray did not write enjoyment of what is REAL EXCELLENCE.
much but what he wrote has high poetic value. Arnold therefore But the question arises here is:
considers Gray to be a classic. How can one recognize or identify that "truly excellent" or
Arnold now speaks about Robert Burns in the late eighteenth century "really excellent" or "real classic" ?
and says that this is the period from which the personal estimate begins Arnold gives a method to identify the real classic and he gives the name
to affect the real estimate. Burns, according to Arnold, is a better poet in TOUCHSTONE METHOD to this method. It is a method TO JUDGE THE
Scottish than in English. Like Chaucer Arnold does not consider Burns to QUALITY OF POETRY. A goldsmith hit the gold against stone to know the
be a classic. He says that Burns too lacks the high seriousness desired of quality or purity of gold, he uses this method to know about the purities
poetry. He compares Burns to Chaucer and finds that Burns’ manner of and impurities of gold. In the same way, Arnold uses this method to
presentation is deeper than that of Chaucer. According to the real know about the qualities of poetry. It is a COMPARATIVE METHOD OF
estimate Burns lacks the high seriousness of the classics but his poetry CRITICISM. According to this method, in order to judge a poet's work
nevertheless has truthful substance and style. properly, a critic should compare it to the passages taken from the
works of great masters of poetry. Even a single line or selected quotation
Then Arnold moves on to speak about Byron, Shelley and Wordsworth can serve the purpose. If the other work moves us in the same way as
but does not pass any judgement on their poetry. Arnold believes that these lines and expressions do only then it is a real classic otherwise not.
his estimate of these poets will be influenced by his personal passion as To apply this method on various poets and ages, Arnold takes passages
they are closer to his age than the classics and also because their writings from the works of the great classics like Homer and Dante. The passages
are of a more personal nature. Finally Arnold speaks about the self- that Arnold takes, have these qualities in common:
preservation of the classics. Any amount of good literature will not be  The possession of the very highest poetical quality.
able to surpass the supremacy of the classics as they have already stood  Characters of high quality.
the test of time and people will continue to enjoy them for the ages to
come. Arnold says that this is the result of the self preserving nature of
 Both substance and matter on one hand, style and manner on
other hand, have a mark, accent of HIGH BEAUTY, WORTH
humanity. Human nature will remain the same throughout the ages and
and POWER.
those parts of the classics dealing with the subject will remain relevant at
all times thus preserving themselves from being lost in time.  High Truth and HIGH SERIOUSNESS.
By keeping these qualities in center, Arnold applies Touchstone Method
Q: A Study of Poetry | NOTE on CHAUCER first. According to Arnold, Chaucer is genuine source of joy
"For poetry the idea is everything; the rest is a world of illusion,of divine and strength. There is an excellence of style and subject in his poetry. He
illusion. Poetry attaches its emotion to the idea; the idea is fact" has divine fluidity of movement and diction. But he CAN NOT BE CALLED
This is said by Matthew Arnold.According to him IDEA is supreme and in A CLASSIC because his poetry lacks high seriousness which according to
poetry it is the idea that matters, that is attached by poetry through Aristotle is very important.
emotions. According to him THE FUNCTION OF POETRY is to interpret life After Chaucer, he applies the method on ELIZABETHAN AGE. Arnold says
for us, to console us, to sustain us. He says if SCIENCE IS APPEARANCE that all of us recognize it as great poetry. He says this because according
then the POETRY IS EXPRESSION. and there is no appearance without to him Shakespeare from Elizabethan and Milton from PURITAN AGE are
expression CLASSIC POETS. They have all the qualities including high truth and high
Then Arnold talks about setting our standard for poetry high. We must seriousness.
accustom ourselves to HIGH STANDARD and STRICT JUDGEMENT and Then he applies the method on THE AGE OF DRYDEN. This age is
regarded as superior to that of the others for 'sweetness of poetry'.
20
Dryden and Pope are the famous poets of this age. But this age was full matter and style must have the accent of “high beauty, worth and
of rules and regulations. The restrictions that were imposed on the poets power.”
were uniformity, regularity, precision and balance. This age is famous as 8. If the matter of a poet has truth and high seriousness, the manner
AGE OF PROSE and Arnold also says that Pope and Dryden are not poet and diction would also acquire the accent of superiority, the two are
classics but 'prose classics'. vitally connected together.
Then Arnold applies the method on GRAY. He is our CLASSIC POET 9. Arnold then undertakes a brief review of English poetry from Chaucer
according to Arnold. He lived with the great poets, with the Greeks, to Burn in order to apply practically the general principles laid down
studying and enjoying them and caught their poetic point of view and above and so to demonstrate their truth. The substances of Chaucer’s
poetic manner. He is scantiest and frailest of classics in our poetry but he poetry—his view of things and his criticism of life—has largeness,
is a classic. freedom, shrewdness, benignity. He surveys the world from a truly
Then he applies the method on BURNS. His poems deal with Scottish human
dress, Scottish manner and Scottish religion. The Scottish World is not point of view. But his poetry is wanting in high seriousness. His language,
beautiful one according to Arnold. Burns moralizes in some of his poems no doubt, causes difficulty, but this difficulty can be easily overcome.
and disregarded morality in actual life. So it seems insincere. His pathos Chaucer will be read more and more with the passing of time. But he is
is intolerable. Like Chaucer, he lacks high poetic seriousness. So he is not a classic. His poetry lacks the accent of a real classic. This can be
NOT A CLASSIC. easily verified through a comparison of a passage from Chaucer with one
In this way Arnold applies Touchstone Method on various poets and from Dante, the first poetic classic of Christendom. This is so because he
finds out that poets like SHAKESPEARE, MILTON and GRAY are CLASSIC has truth of substance but not ‘high seriousness’.
POETS while Chaucer, Dryden, Pope and Burns are not classics. 10. Shakespeare and Milton are our great poetical classics, but Dryden
Through this essay, Arnold wants to convey that we should not be and Pope are not poetical classics. “Dryden was the puissant and glorious
effected by Historical and Personal Estimate rather we should enjoy the founder, and Pope was the splendid high priest, of the age of prose and
REAL CLASSIC that belongs to the class of VERY BEST. We can clearly feel reason, of our excellent and indispensable 18th century.” But theirs is
and deeply enjoy the best by effecting ourselves only by REAL ESTIMATE. not the verse of men whose criticism of life has a high seriousness, or,
The best way to identify the real classic is to apply TOUCHSTONE even
METHOD by which we can clearly identify the wide difference between without that high seriousness, has poetic largeness, freedom, insight
the real classics and the others as Arnold identifies the difference benignity. Their application of ideas to life is not poetic application. They
between classics (Shakespeare, Milton, Gray) and others (Chaucer, are not classic of English poetry; they are classics of English prose.
Dryden, Pope, Burns). 11. The most singular and unique poet of the age of Pope and Dryden is
Gray. Gray is a poetic classic, but he is the scantiest of classics. He lived in
Q: Arnold as critic in the light of views expressed by the company of the great classics of Greece, and he caught their manner,
him in ‘The Study of Poetry’? and their view of life. His work is slighter and less perfect than it
Arnold expresses the following views in ‘The Study of aetry’:— would have been, and he lived in a more congenial age.
1. The future of poetry is immense. All our creeds and religions have 12. The poetry of Dryden and Pope is conceived and composed in their
been shaken. They have grown too much tide down to facts. But for wits, genuine poetry is conceived and composed in the soul, Gray’s
poetry the idea is everything. The stronger part of our religion today is its poetry was composed in the soul.
unconscious poetry. 13. Next, coming to Burns, Arnold points out that his real merit is to be
2. We should study poetry more and more, for poetry is capable of found in his Scotch poems. In his poetry, we do find the application of
higher uses. We have to turn to poetry to interpret life for us, to enclose ideas to life, and also that this application is a powerful one, made by a
us, and to sustain us. Without poetry our science will remain incomplete man of vigorous understanding and a master of language. He also has
and much that passes with us for religion and philosophy will be truth of substance. Burns is by far the greater force than Chaucer, though
replaced by poetry. he has less charm. But we do not find in Burns that accent of high
3. Poetry can fulfil its high function only if we keep high standards for it. seriousness which is born of absolute sincerity, and which characterizes
No Charlatanism should be allowed to enter poetry. Arnold then defines the poetry of the great classics. The poetry of Burns has truth of matter
poetry as “a criticism of life under the conditions fixed for that criticism and truth of manner, but not the accent of the poetic virtue of the
by the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty.” Arnold does not explain highest masters.
what these laws are. 14. Even in the case of Burns, one is likely to be misguided by the
4. Only the best poetry is capable of performing its task. Only that personal estimate. This danger is greater in the case of Byron, Shelley
poetry which is the criticism of life can be our support and stay, when and Wordsworth. Estimates of their poetry are likely, not only to be
other help fails us. So it is important that readers should learn to choose personal, but also, “personal with passion.” So Arnold does not take
the best. In choosing the best, the readers are warned against two kinds them up for consideration.
of fallacious judgment; the historic estimate and the personal estimate. 15. Having illustrated, practically, his touchstone method, Arnold
The expresses the view that good literature will never lose its currency. There
readers should learn to value it as it really is in itself. The historic might be some vulgarisation and cheapening of literary values, as a
estimate is likely to affect our judgment when we are dealing with result of the increase in numbers of the common sort of readers, but the
ancient poets, the personal estimate when we are dealing with our currency
contemporary poets. of good literature is ensured by, “the instinct of self-preservation in
5. Readers should insist on the real estimate, which means a humanity.” So strong is Arnold’s faith in the value of poetry of the
recognition and discovery of the highest qualities which produce the best highest kind.
poetry. It should be a real classic and not a false classic. A true classic is
one which belongs to the class of the very best, and such poetry we must Q: Summary of The Study of Poetry:
“feel and enjoy as deeply as we can.” In his anthology of English poetry, Arnold illustrates the allegedly
6. It is not necessary to lay down what in the abstract constitute the objective critical judgment of which he speaks in “The Function of
features of a high quality of poetry. It is as much better to study concrete Criticism at the Present Time” in terms of his selection of those poets
example, to take specimens of poetry of the high, the very highest worthy in his view of being anthologised. In his preface to the anthology,
quality, and to say that the features of the highest poetry are what we he clarifies what he means by ‘judgment’ by turning his attention in
find here. Short passages and single lines from Homer, Dante, particular to the questions of literary history and canons. The main
Shakespeare, Milton criteria informing Arnold’s approach to literary history here are
and others may be memorised and applied as a touchstone to test the literature’s higher truth (i.e. the degree to which a work captures not the
worth of the poems we want to read. The other poetry must not be realities of this world but ideals, that is, the perfection found in the
required to resemble them; but if the touchstone quotations are used world beyond
with tact, they will enable the reader to detect the presence or this and which is the standard by which we ought to organise life in the
absence of the highest poetic quality. here and now) and its moral value (i.e the impact for good which
7. However, in order to satisfy those who emphasize that some criteria literature has on the reader). Only works that meet these criteria ought
of excellence should be laid down. Arnold points out that excellence of to be part of that canon of works worthy of being studied.
poetry lies both in its matter or substance and in its manner or style. But

21
Using metaphors concerning rivers in what would prove subsequently to
be a very influential way, Arnold begins by arguing that the “stream of Q: The Future of Poetry:
English poetry” is only one “contributory stream to the world river of In The Study of Poetry, (1888) which opens his Essays in Criticism: Second
poetry”. He argues that we should “conceive of poetry worthily, and series, in support of the future of poetry. He writes, “THE FUTURE of
more highly than it has been the custom”, that is, as “capable of higher poetry is immense, because in poetry, our race, as time goes on, will find
uses, and called to higher destinies, than those in general which man has an ever surer and surer stay. There is not a creed which is not shaken.
assigned to it hitherto”. He contends that we must “turn to poetry to But for poetry the idea is everything; the rest is a world of illusion, of
interpret life for us, to console us, to sustain us” because, as Wordsworth divine illusion. Poetry attaches its
put it, it is the ‘breath and finer spirit of all knowledge’ as a result of emotion to the idea; the idea is the fact. The strongest part of our
which it is superior to science, philosophy, and religion. To be “capable religion to-day is its unconscious poetry.”
of fulfilling such high destinies”, however, poetry must be “of a high We have to turn to poetry to interpret life for us, to console us, to
order of excellence”. In poetry, for this reason, the “distinction between sustain us. Without poetry, our science will appear incomplete; and most
excellent and inferior, sound and unsound or only half-sound, true and of what now passes with us for religion and philosophy will be replaced
untrue or only half-true, is of paramount importance”. It is in poetry that by poetry. Science is incomplete without poetry.
conveys the “criticism of life” and which meets the “conditions fixed . . . Wordsworth truly calls poetry ‘the breath and finer spirit of all
by the laws of poetic truth and beauty” that the “spirit of our race will knowledge’; poetry ‘the impassioned expression which is in the
find . . . its consolation and stay”. The criticism of life “will be of power in countenance of all science’
proportion as the poetry conveying it is excellent, rather than inferior, After giving this importance to poetry, he moves ahead to define canon
sound rather than unsound or half-sound, true rather than untrue or for good poetry. To say in his own words, “But if we conceive thus highly
halftrue”. The “best poetry” is that which has a “power of forming, of the destinies of poetry, we must also set our standard for poetry high,
sustaining, and delighting us, as nothing else can”. Its “most precious since poetry, to be capable of fulfilling such high destinies, must be
benefit” is a “clearer, deeper sense of the best in poetry, and of the poetry of a high order of excellence.”
strength and joy to be drawn from it”. This sense should “govern our Quoting from an anecdote (Napolean and Sainte-Beuve) he writes,
estimate of what we read”. Arnold contrasts this, what he terms the “charlatanism might be found everywhere else, but not in the field of
“real estimate”, with “two other kinds of estimate, the historic estimate poetry, because in poetry the distinction between sound and unsound,
and the personal estimate”, which are both “fallacies”. The former or only half-sound, truth and untruth, or only half-truth, between the
calculates a poet’s merit on historical grounds, that is, by “regarding a excellent and the inferior, is of paramount importance”. For Arnold there
poet’s work as a stage” in the “course and development of a nation’s is no place for charlatanism in poetry. To him “poetry is the criticism of
language, thought, and poetry” (this is view advanced by Hippolyte life, governed by the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty”. It is in the
Taine). The latter calculates a poet’s merit on the basis of our “personal criticism of life that the spirit of our race will find its stay and
affinities, likings and circumstances” which may make us “overrate the consolation. The extent to which the spirit of mankind finds its stay and
object of our interest” because the work in question “is, or has been, of consolation is proportional to the power of a poem's criticism of life, and
high importance” to us personally. Many people, Arnold argues, skip “in the power of the criticism of life is in direct proportion to the extent to
obedience to mere tradition and habit, from one famous name or work which the poem is genuine and free from charlatanism.
in its national poetry to another, ignorant of what it misses, and of the Thus he is of the view that, “the best poetry is what we want; the best
reason for keeping what it keeps, and of the whole process of growth in poetry will be found to have a power of forming, sustaining, and
poetry”. All this misses, however, the indispensability of recognising the delighting us, as nothing else can”.
“reality of the poet’s classic character”, that is, the test whether his work In this essay he also cautions the critic that in forming a genuine and
“belongs to the class of the very best” and that appreciation of the “wide disinterested estimate of the poet under consideration he should not be
difference between it and all work which has not the same character”. influenced by historical or personal judgements, historical judgements
Arnold points out that “tracing historic origins and historical being fallacious because we regard ancient poets with excessive
relationships” is not totally unimportant and that to some degree veneration, and personal judgements being fallacious when we are
personal choice enters into any attempt to anthologise works. However, biased towards a contemporary poet. If a poet is a 'dubious classic, let us
the ‘real estimate,’ from which derives the “benefit of clearly feeling and sift him; if he is a false classic, let us explode him. But if he is a real
of deeply enjoying the really excellent, the truly classic in poetry” ought classic, if his work belongs to the class of the very best . . . enjoy his
to be the literary historian’s objective. work'. He observes: “But this real estimate, the only true one, is liable to
The question arises: how exactly does one recognise the poet’s classic be superseded, if we are not watchful, by two other kinds of estimate,
character? How should one determine whether a given poet meets those the historic estimate and the personal estimate, both of which are
criteria which allow him to be ranked mong the best? The answer: the fallacious.
critic must compare the work in question to the established classics, brief Arnold explains these fallacies in detail. He writes, “a poet or a poem
“passages, even single lines” drawn from which serve as a “touchstone” may count to us historically, they may count to us on grounds personal
for assessment purposes. They, when memorised, function as an to ourselves, and they may count to us really. The course of
“infallible touchstone for detecting the presence or absence of high development of a nation’s language, thought, and poetry, is profoundly
poetic quality, and also the degree of this quality, in all other poetry”. interesting; and by regarding a poet’s work as a stage in this course of
Having to hand “concrete examples” and “specimens of poetry of . . . the development we may easily bring ourselves to make it of more
very highest quality” suffices to “keep clear and sound our judgments importance as poetry than in itself it really is, we may come to use a
about poetry, to save us from fallacious estimates of it, to conduct us to language of quite exaggerated praise in criticizing it; in short, to overrate
a real estimate”. Given that the “characters of a high quality are what is it.
expressed there”, Arnold contends that poetic quality is “far better So arises in our poetic judgments the fallacy caused by the estimate
recognised by being felt in the poetry of a master, than by being perused which we may call historic.” He quotes words of M.Charles, editor of
in the prose of the critic”. magazine, to prove his point. M.Charles wrote, ‘the cloud of glory
However, what exactly does it mean to say that this or that work playing round a classic is a mist as dangerous to the future of a literature
possesses a ‘high poetic quality’? Arnold answers that poetic quality as it is intolerable for the purposes of history’. As examples of erroneous
resides in both the “substance and matter” and the “style and manner” judgements he says that the 17th century court tragedies of the French
which are “inseparable” from and “vitally connected” to each other. The were spoken of with exaggerated praise, until Pellisson
former consists in what he terms somewhat vaguely as a “higher truth reproached them for want of the true poetic stamp, and another critic,
and a higher seriousness” while the latter consists in the equally vague Charles d' Hricault, said that 17th century French poetry had received
“diction and movement”. For the work to posses poetic quality, both undue and undeserving veneration. Arnold says the critics seem to
substance and style must be present. In the early twentieth century, the substitute 'a halo for physiognomy and a statue in the place where there
influential British critic F. R. Leavis would apply Arnold’s criteria to the was once a man. They give us a human personage no larger than God
study of British literature in his famous work of literary history and seated amidst his perfect work, like Jupiter on Olympus.'
canonformation, The Great Tradition. The Leavisite canon, his views on He further writes, “then, again, a poet or poem may count to us on
who was in and who was out, the necessity, for example, to abandon grounds personal to ourselves. Our personal affinities, likings and
Milton in favour of Donne, Joyce in favour of Lawrence, shaped the circumstances, have great power to sway our estimate of this or that
views of generations of subsequent critics even here in the Caribbean. poet’s work, and to make us attach more importance to it as poetry than

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in itself it really possesses, because to us it is, or has been, of high accent is. He says we would ourselves feel it, for it is the mark or
importance. Here also we overrate the object of our interest, and apply accent of all high poetry. If the matter of a poet has truth and high
to it a language of praise which is quite exaggerated. And thus we get the seriousness, the manner and diction would also acquire the accent of
source of a second fallacy in our poetic judgments—the fallacy caused by superiority. The two are vitally connected together.
an estimate which we may call personal”. Arnold then undertakes a brief review of English poetry from Chaucer
So to judge a good poetry wherein our estimate is not affected by to Burns in order to apply practically the general principles laid down
fallacies, we should look for following attributes in the poetry:
above and so to demonstrate their truth. The substance of Chaucer’s
1. The matter and substance of the poetry, and its manner and style.
poetry--his view of things and his criticism of life--has “largeness,
Both of these, the substance and matter on the one hand, the style and
freedom, shrewdness, benignity.” He surveys the world from a truly
manner on the other, have a mark, an accent, of high beauty, worth, and
power. human point of view. But his poetry is wanting in “high seriousness”.
2. Only one thing we may add as to the substance and matter of poetry, His language, no doubt, causes difficulty, but this difficulty can be
guiding ourselves by Aristotle’s profound observation that the easily overcome. Chaucer will be read more and more with the
superiority of poetry over history consists in its possessing a higher truth passing of time. But he is not a classic; his poetry lacks the accent of a
and a higher seriousness . Let us add, therefore, to what we have said, real classic. This can be easily verified through a comparison of a
this: that the substances and matter of the best poetry acquire their passage from Chaucer with one from Dante, the first poetic classic of
special character from possessing, in an eminent degree, truth and Christendom. This is so because he has the truth of substance but not
seriousness. “high seriousness”.
Thus, the superior character of truth and seriousness, in the matter and Shakespeare and Milton are our great poetical classics, but Dryden
substance of the best poetry, is inseparable from the superiority of and Pope are not poetical classics.
diction and movement marking its style and manner. “Dryden was the puissant and glorious founder; Pope was the
So, a poet’s criticism of life may have such truth and power that it splendid high priest of the age of reason and prose, of our excellent
triumphs over its world and delights us. and indispensable 18th century.”
Later in the essay he adds, for supreme poetical success more is required
But theirs is not the verse of men whose criticism of life has a serious
than the powerful application of ideas to life; it must be an application
seriousness, has poetic largeness, freedom, insight, benignity. Their
under the conditions fixed by the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty.
application of ideas to life is not poetic application, they are not
Those laws fix as an essential condition, in the poet’s treatment of such
matters as are here in question, high seriousness;—the high seriousness classics of English poetry; they are classics of English prose.
which comes from absolute sincerity. The most singular and unique poet of the age of Pope and Dryden is
-- Gray. Gray is a poetic classic, but lie is the scantiest of classics. He
The Study of Poetry: ALL (CSS FORUM NOTES) lived in the company of great classics of Greece, and he caught their
He starts with asserting that the future of poetry is immense. All our manners, and their views of life. His work is slighter and less perfect
creed and religion have been shaken. They have grown too much tied than it would have been, had he lived in a congenial age. Elsewhere,
down to facts. But for poetry the idea is everything. The strongest part Arnold tells us that the difference between genuine poetry and the
of our religion today is its unconscious poetry. We should study poetry poetry of Pope, Dryden, and other poets of their school, is briefly this:
more and more, for poetry is capable of higher uses. We have to turn “Their poetry is conceived and composed in their wits; genuine poetry
to poetry “to interpret life for us, to console us, and to sustain us.” is conceived and composed in the soul.”
Without poetry science will remain incomplete and much that passes Gray’s poetry was so composed.
with us for religion and philosophy will be replaced by poetry. Next coming to Burns, Arnold points out that his real merit is to be
Poetry can fulfill its high function only if we keep a high standard for found in his Scottish poems. In his poetry, we do find the application
it. No charlatanism should be allowed to enter poetry. Arnold then of ideas to life, and also that his application is a powerful one, made
defines poetry as: by a man of vigorous understanding and master of language. He also
“A criticism of life under the conditions fixed for that criticism by the has truth of substance. Burns is by far the greater force than Chaucer,
laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty.” though he has less charm. But we do not find in Burns that accent of
Only the best poetry is capable of performing this task. Only that high seriousness which is born out of absolute sincerity, and which
poetry which is the criticism of life can be our support and stay, when characterizes the poetry of the great classics. The poetry of Burns has
other helps fail us. So, it is important that readers should learn to truth of matter and truth of manner, but not the accent of the poetic
choose the best. In choosing the best, the readers are warned against virtue of the highest masters. Even in the case of Burns, one is likely to
two kinds of fallacious judgments: be misguided by the personal estimate. This danger is even greater in
The historic estimate and the personal estimate. the case of Byron, Shelley and Wordsworth. Estimates of their poetry
The readers should learn to value poetry as it really is in itself. The are likely not only to be personal, but also “personal with passion”. So
historic estimate is likely to affect our judgment when we are dealing Arnold does not take them up for consideration.
with ancient poets, the personal estimate when we are dealing with Having illustrated practically his touchstone method, Arnold expresses
our contemporary poets. Readers should insist on the real estimate, the view that good literature will never lose its currency. There might
which means a recognition and discovery of the highest qualities be some vulgarization and cheapening of literary values, as a result of
which produce the best poetry. It should be a real classic and not a the increase in numbers of the common sort of readers, but the
false classic. A true classic is one which belongs to the class of the very currency of good literature is ensured by “the instinct of self-
best and such poetry we must feel and enjoy as deeply as we can. preservation in humanity”.
It is not necessary to lay down what in the abstract constitute the So strong is Arnold’s faith in the value of poetry of the highest kind.
features of high quality of poetry. It is much better to study concrete Hence, he believes that only in the spirit of poetry our race will find its
examples, to take specimens of poetry of the high, the very highest last source of consolation and stay.
qualities, and to say, the features of highest poetry are what we find Poetry as Superior to All Knowledge:
here. Short passages and single lines from Homer, Dante, The Study of Poetry is Arnold’s most famous work of literary criticism
Shakespeare, Milton and others may be memorized and applied as as it is fundamentally concerned with poetry’s high destiny. He is of
touchstones to test the worth of the poems we want to read. This the view that poetry can be our sustenance and stay in an era where
other poetry must not be required to resemble them; but if the religious beliefs are fast losing their hold. As discussed above, Arnold
touchstone-quotations are used with tact, they will enable the reader lived in a materialistic world where advancement of science had led
to detect the presence or absence of the highest poetic quality. society in a strange darkness. Importance of religion was submerged.
However, in order to satisfy those who insist that some criteria of People were becoming fact seekers. A gap was being developed and
excellence should be laid down, Arnold points out that excellence of he believed that poetry could fill that gap by noble and profound
poetry lies “both in its matter or its substance and in its manner or application of ideas to life which should be of moral nature.
style.” But matter and style must have the accent of high beauty, Therefore, he believes that with the passing of time mankind will
worth and power. But Arnold does not define what this mark or discover that they have to turn to poetry in order to interpret life and

23
to console and sustain themselves as science and philosophy will genuine and noble, and free from charlatanism.
eventually prove flimsy and unstable. He demanded that poetry Arnold than defines the true canons for the best poetry. The best
should serve a greater purpose instead of becoming a mere medium poetry is that which is according to the reader’s desire or wish. Arnold
of gaining pleasure and appreciating beauty. He claims that poetry is illustrates this in following words:
superior to philosophy, science and religion because religion attaches “The best poetry is what we want, the best poetry will be found to
its emotions to ideas and ideas are infallible and science in his view is have power of forming, sustaining and delighting us and nothing else
incomplete without poetry. can.”
One of the characteristic qualities of poetry mentioned by Arnold in Arnold states three different kinds of estimates that govern the
this essay is a sound representation of life and ideas without any reader’s mind while evaluating any piece of literature, especially
attempt to falsify the facts. He further points out that another poetry. These are:
characteristic of great poetry is the application of ideas to criticism of Real estimate
life. He endorses Wordsworth’s view that “poetry is the impassioned Historical estimate
expression which is the countenance of all science” and calls poetry Personal estimate
the breath and finer spirit of knowledge. According to Arnold, the According to him the most precious benefit to be collected from best
greatness of Wordsworth lies in his powerful application of the poetry is “clearer and deeper sense of best” and “the strength and joy
subject of ideas to man, nature and human life. Another quality to be drawn from it”. This sense must be present in every reader’s
attributed to great poetry by him is that of high seriousness. Aristotle mind while searching for the best in poetry, and to enjoy it. This sense
was of the view that poetry was superior to history due to the should govern our estimate that what should we read. This estimate is
former’s qualities of higher truth and higher seriousness. What we called the real estimate of poetry.
judge from Arnold’s essay is that “high seriousness” is concerned with Arnold contrasts the real estimate to “two other kinds of estimate”,
sad reality and this quality is possessed by the poetry which deals with the historic estimate and the personal estimate. The real estimate of
the tragic aspects of life. Arnold further illustrates this view by giving the poetry can be superseded by these two “fallacious” estimates. He
examples of Dante, Shakespeare and Milton’s poetry. says that these two estimates should be discarded while evaluating
Therefore we must know how to distinguish the best poetry from the poetry; he cautions the critic that in forming a genuine and
inferior, the genuine from the counterfeit and to do this we must disinterested estimate of the poet under consideration, he should not
steep ourselves in the work of the acknowledged masters. be influenced by historical or personal judgments.
Charlatanism and the Fallacies: Historical estimate is regarded fallacious, because we regard ancient
Arnold, after apotheosizing poetry in his essay, suggests that poetry poet excessive veneration. It calculates the poet’s merit on “historical
must be of high order of excellence to fulfill its high destinies. The grounds’, that is, by regarding a poets work as a stage in the course of
Study of Poetry clearly enunciates that the people must accustom development of nation’s language, thought and poetry. The historical
themselves with “high standards” and “strict judgments”, in order to estimate is likely to affect our judgments and language when we are
avoid fallacies of highly regarding certain poems and poet. Poetry analyzing ancient poets. Arnold states this in essay, in following
should not be valued on basis of the value of certain poets in history. words:
It must not be evaluated on the basis of personal affinities or likings. It “The course of development of nation’s language, thought and poetry,
presents methods for discerning only the classical and the best poets is profoundly interesting, and by regarding a poet’s work as a stage in
and poetry. this course of development, we may easily bring to ourselves to make
Arnold analyses the role of the critic while judging any poetry. Before it of more importance as poetry than in itself it really is, we may come
Mathew Arnold, the critics valued poetry based on the beauties and to use a language of quite exaggerated praise in criticizing it; in short,
defects in it. While Mathew Arnold sees the critic as the social to over rate it.”
benefactor who strictly judges the poetry of higher order of Personal estimate is another fallacy while criticizing poetry. It
excellence. Aristotle analyzes the work of art, but Mathew Arnold in calculates a poet’s merit on the basis of personal affinities, liking or
study of poetry analyzes the role of critic. Aristotle gives us the circumstances, which may make us over-rate the object of personal
principles which govern the making of the poem, the other gives interest because the work in question “is, or has been of high
principles by which poems should be selected as superior or inferior importance to us personally”. We may over-rate the object of our
and made known to the world. Aristotle’s critics own allegiance to the interest, and can praise it in quite exaggerated language and grant it
artist but Arnold’s critic own allegiance to the art (poetry) and the more value or importance than it really possess. Personal estimate is
society. Art should be given value which it possesses in itself. Arnold regarded fallacious, because it makes people biased towards their
views poetry as the criticism of life. contemporary poets.
According to Arnold, there is no place for charlatanism in poetry. A As example of erroneous judgments, he says that the 17th century
charlatan is defined as the flamboyant deceiver who attracts others French court tragedies were spoken with exaggerated praise, until
with tricks or jokes. Charlatanism in poetry confuses or removes the Pellison reproached them for want of free poetic stamp, and another
distinction between excellent and inferior, sound and unsound, true critic Charles d’ Hericault, said that the 17th century French poetry
and untrue or only half true. In this essay, Arnold clearly rejects had received excessive veneration. Arnold says that the critic seems to
charlatanism in poetry in following words: substitute, a halo for physiognomy, and a statue in place, where there
“In poetry, which is thought and art in one, it is the glory, the eternal was once a man.
honor that charlatanism finds no entrance that this noble sphere be Many people, Arnold argues, skip in obedience to mere tradition and
kept inviolate and inviolable.” habit , from one famous name or work in its national poetry to
Arnold supports his idea for the nobility in poetry by recalling the another, ignorant of what it misses, and of the reason for keeping
Saint Beuve’s reply to napoleon, Arnold states the Saint Beuve’s reply what it keeps, and of the whole process of growth in poetry. All this
to Napoleon when he said him that charlatanism is found in misses, however the indispensability of recognizing the “reality of
everything. Saint Beuve replied to this that charlatanism might be poet’s classical character” that is’ the test whether it belongs to the
found in everything except poetry, because in poetry the distinction class of very best and that appreciation of the wide difference
between the superior and inferior and noble and ignoble is of between it and all the works which has not the same character.
paramount importance. Arnold regards poetry as criticism of life in Arnold points out that tracing historical origins in works of poetry is
true sense. Poetry can reflect the true spirits of life when it will be not totally unimportant and that to some degrees personal choice
free of any kind of corruption or ignobility. He regards poetry as “the enters into any attempt to anthologize the works. However, the ‘real
criticism of life governed by poetic truth and poetic beauty”. estimate’, from which derives the benefit of clearly feeling and deeply
According to him the spirits of our age will find stay and consolation enjoying the very best, the true classic in poetry ought to be the
by this true criticism of life. The extent to which the consolation, literary historian’s objective.
comfort, solace in poetry is obtained is proportional to the power of Poetry as the Criticism of Life
poem’s criticism of life. It means that the measure to which a poem is

24
In his essay, ‘The Study of Poetry’ Matthew Arnold has presented Eliot also criticizes Arnold on the latter’s occupation with only great
poetry as a criticism of life. In the beginning of his essay he states: “In poetry. Adhering to this principle, we might end up dealing with only a
poetry as criticism of life, under conditions fixed for such criticism by small part of the total poetry.
the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty, the spirit of our race will Matthew Arnold talks of deriving pleasure from poetry. But according
find, as time goes by and as other helps fail, its consolation and stay.” to critics he is actually biased towards morality – a fact that is evident
Thus, according to him poetry is governed by the laws of poetic truth from his view that poetry would replace religion. “More and more
and poetic beauty. mankind will discover that we have to turn to poetry to interpret life
Poetic truth is a characteristic quality of the matter and substance of for us”, he writes. Apart from all the negative criticism directed
poetry. It means a sound representation of life. In other words, it is a against Arnold we cannot deny that he has very beautifully related
true depiction of life without any attempt to falsify the facts. Poetic literature to life. As Douglas Bush rightly points out that literature is
beauty is contained in the manner and style. It is marked by not an end in itself for Arnold. It only adds to the beauty of life and
excellence of diction and flow of verse. While talking of Chaucer, answers the question ‘How to live?’ Arnold is such a person, who does
Arnold mentions fluidity of diction and verse. Poetic beauty springs not live to read, but reads to live.
from right words in the right order. The Touchstone Method:
Poetic truth and poetic beauty are inter-related and cannot be “Poetry is interpretative by having natural magic in it, and moral
separated from one another.” The superior character of truth and profundity.”
seriousness in the matter and substance of best poetry, is inseparable Arnold’s touchstone method is a comparative method of criticism.
from the superiority of diction and movement marking its manner and According to this method, in order to judge a poet's work properly, a
style”, says Arnold. If a poem is lacking in the qualities of poetic truth critic should compare it to passages taken from works of great
and high seriousness, it cannot possess the excellence of diction and masters of poetry, and that these passages should be applied as
movement, and vice-versa touchstones to other poetry. Even a single line or selected quotation
In his estimate of Burns and Wordsworth, Arnold points out that will serve the purpose. If the other work moves us in the same way as
another characteristic of great poetry is application of ideas to these lines and expressions do, then it is really a great work,
criticism of life. The greatness of Wordsworth lies in his powerful otherwise not. This method was recommended by Arnold to
application of the subject of ideas to man, nature and human life. overcome the shortcomings of the personal and historical estimates
Ideas according to Arnold are moral ideas. of a poem. Both historical and personal estimate go in vain. In
Another quality attributed to great poetry by Arnold is that of ‘high personal estimate, we cannot wholly leave out the personal and
seriousness’. Although he does not fully explain the term, we gather subjective factors. In historical estimate, historical importance often
quite a lot of information from his statement. Aristotle was of the makes us rate a work as higher than it really deserves. In order to
view that poetry is superior to history due to the former’s qualities of form a real estimate, one should have the ability to distinguish a real
higher truth and higher seriousness. What we judge from Arnold’s classic. At this point, Arnold offers his theory of Touchstone Method.
essay is that high-seriousness is concerned with the sad reality. This A real classic, says Arnold, is a work, which belongs to the class of the
quality is possessed by poetry which deals with the tragic aspects of very best. It can be recognized by placing it beside the known classics
life. Even the examples given by Arnold from Dante, Shakespeare and of the world. Those known classics can serve as the touchstone by
Milton’s poetry illustrate this view. For instance, dying Hamlet’s which the merit of contemporary poetic work can be tested.
request to Horatio: The best way to know the class, to which a work belongs in terms of
“If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart the excellence of art, Arnold recommends, is:
Absent thee from felicity awhile, “… to have always in one’s mind lines and expression of the great
And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain masters, and to apply them as a touchstone to the poetry.”
To tell my story…” This is the central idea of Arnold’s Touchstone Method.
Regarding the concept of criticism of life, it needs to be understood Matthew Arnold's Touchstone Method of Criticism was really a
what Arnold meant by the phrase – “criticism of life”. It does not comparative system of criticism. Arnold was basically a classicist. He
mean carping at or unnecessarily finding faults with life. The admired the ancient Greek, Roman and French authors as the models
suggestion itself is unsound that it means a criticism of society and its to be followed by the modern English authors. The old English like
follies. Criticism of life means a healthy interpretation of life. It means Shakespeare, Spenser or Milton were also to be taken as models.
an evaluation, sympathetic sharing in and feeling for. The theory of Arnold took selected passages from the modern authors and
poetry given Arnold has been challenged on many accounts. Arnold compared them with selected passages from the ancient authors and
does not consider Burns a great poet because in his poetry Burns thus decided their merits. This method was called Arnold's
presents an ugly life. Arnold was of the view that a poet has the Touchstone Method.
advantage of portraying a beautiful life in his poetry. Eliot attacked However, this system of judgment has its own limitations. The
this opinion. He believed that the poet has not the advantage of method of comparing passage with a passage is not a sufficient test
describing a beautiful life but has rather an advantage of having the for determining the value of a work as a whole. Arnold himself
capacity to look beneath both ugliness and beauty. It is the power to insisted that we must judge a poem by the 'total impression' and not
look beyond boredom, horror and glory. by its fragments. But we can further extend this method of
While teaching of the concept of poetic beauty, Arnold mentions comparison from passages to the poems as whole units. The
excellence of diction but does not explain what it is. As regards the comparative method is an invaluable aid to appreciation of any kind
flow in verse or the fluidity in movement, Arnold probably does not of art. It is helpful not merely thus to compare the masterpiece and
realize that the use of coarseness is sometimes intentional to create a the lesser work, but the good with the not so good, the sincere with
specific effect. Smoothness need not be the only one; harshness and the not quite sincere, and so on.
ruggedness are equally great qualities, when used to create special Those who do not agree with this theory of comparative criticism say
effects. that Arnold is too austere, too exacting in comparing a simple modern
Matthew Arnold does not fully explain the term ‘high seriousness’. It poet with the ancient master poet. It is not fair to expect that all hills
should also be remembered here that seriousness should not at all be may be Alps. The mass of current literature is much better
considered synonymous with solemnity. The serious and humorous disregarded. By this method we can set apart the alive, the vital, the
can exist together. sincere from the shoddy, the showy and the insincere.
Another view put forward by Arnold that has been under the shadow Arnold’s view of greatness in poetry and what a literary critic should
of criticism is that of ‘ideas’. We might very well like to believe that look for are summed up as follows:
what Arnold wants to say is that an author, while interpreting life for “… it is important, therefore, to hold fast to this: that poetry is at
us, might also use a moral idea to convey a moral lesson. But what bottom a criticism of life; that the greatness of a poet lies in his
Arnold believes is that there is a pre-conceived idea on which the poet powerful and beautiful application of ideas to life, to the question:
bases his evaluation. how to live.”

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On Chaucer: not only to be serious, but also seen to be serious. Arnold seems to
Matthew Arnold is an admirer of Chaucer’s poetry. He remarks that demand solemn rhetoric. If we interpret “high seriousness” in this
Chaucer’s power of fascination is enduring. light, we can only say that Chaucer’s poetry lacks it, for Chaucer was
“He will be read far more generally than he is read now.” anything but “solemn”. However, if we consider “high seriousness” in
The only problem that we come across is the difficulty of following his a broader light, Chaucer’s observation of life, his insight into its
language. Chaucer’s superiority lies in the fact that “we suddenly feel passions and weaknesses, its virtues and strength is truly great. If we
ourselves to be in another world”. His superiority is both in the strictly accept Matthew Arnold’s contention, then we will have to
substance of his poetry and in the style of his poetry. deny “high seriousness” to all comic writers, even to Moliere and
“His view of life [weltanschauung] is large, free, simple, clear and Cervantes.
kindly. He has shown the power to survey the world from a central, a On the Age of Dryden:
human point of view.” “The difference between genuine poetry and the poetry of Dryden,
The best example is his Prologue to the Canterbury Tales. Matthew Pope, and all their school, is briefly this; their poetry is conceived and
Arnold quotes here the words of Dryden who remarked about it; composed in their wits, genuine poetry is conceived and composed in
“Here is God’s plenty”. Arnold continues to remark that Chaucer is a the soul.” – Matthew Arnold
perpetual fountain of good sense. Chaucer’s poetry has truth of John Dryden (1631–1700) was an English poet, literary critic,
substance; “Chaucer is the father of our splendid English poetry.” By translator and playwright who was made Poet Laureate in 1668. He is
the lovely charm of his diction, the lovely charm of his movement, he seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a
makes an epoch and founds a tradition. We follow this tradition in point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the “Age
Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton and Keats. “In these poets we feel the of Dryden”. Walter Scottish called him “Glorious John”. John Dryden
virtue.” And the virtue is irresistible. was the greatest English poet of the seventeenth century. After
In spite of all these merits, Arnold says that Chaucer is not one of William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, he was the greatest playwright.
greatest classics. He has not their accent. To strengthen his argument And he has no peer as a writer of prose, especially literary criticism,
Arnold compares Chaucer with the Italian classic Dante. Arnold says and as a translator. John Dryden was an English writer who was the
that Chaucer lacks not only the accent of Dante but also the high dominant literary figure in Restoration England. Most of his
seriousness. contemporaries based their style of writing on innovations introduced
“Homer’s criticism of life has it, Shakespeare’s has it, Dante’s has it. by Dryden in poetry, drama, and literary criticism.
But Chaucer’s has not.” The age of Dryden is regarded as superior to that of the others for
Thus in his critical essay The Study of Poetry Matthew Arnold “sweetness of poetry”. Arnold asks whether Dryden and Pope, poets
comments not only on the merits of Chaucer’s poetry, but also on the of great merit, are truly the poetical classics of the 18th century. He
short-comings. He glorifies Chaucer with the remark, “With him is says Dryden's post-script to the readers in his translation of The
born our real poetry.” According to Matthew Arnold, Chaucer’s Aeneid reveals the fact that in prose writing he is even better than
criticism of life has “largeness, freedom, shrewdness and benignity”, Milton and Chapman.
but it lacks “high seriousness”. The term “high seriousness” which Just as the laxity in religious matters during the Restoration period
Arnold says marks the works of Homer. Also, Dante and Milton and was a direct outcome of the strict discipline of the Puritans, in the
Wordsworth, apparently employed this “high seriousness” which same way in order to control the dangerous sway of imagination
entails a sustained magnificence of artistic conception and execution found in the poetry of the Metaphysicals, to counteract “the
accompanied by deep morality and spiritual values. dangerous prevalence of imagination”, the poets of the 18th century
It must be remembered that Arnold laid a great deal of importance on introduced certain regulations. The restrictions that were imposed on
the “human actions” as the proper subjects of poetry. His contention the poets were “uniformity, regularity, precision, and balance”. These
of “high seriousness” is inevitably bound up with this. His concept of restrictions curbed the growth of poetry, and encouraged the growth
poetry being a “criticism of life” is quite satisfied by Chaucer. of prose.
Chaucer’s poetry is steeped with life, and yet there is basic sanity and Hence we can regard Dryden “as the glorious founder, and Pope as
order in his vision which Arnold should not have missed. the splendid high priest, of the age of prose and reason, our
The fun and comedy in Chaucer’s writing often blinds one to his basic indispensable 18th century.” Their poetry was that of the builders of
greatness. His vision is truly Christian in its broad and forgiving an age of prose and reason. Arnold says that Pope and Dryden are not
tolerance. His vision of the earth ranges from one of amused delight poet classics, but the “prose classics” of the 18th century
to one of grave compassion. His fresh goodwill and kindly common
sense, his sense of joy and warmth are communicated through his On Thomas Gray:
poetry especially in The Canterbury Tales. But behind the fun and “He is the scantiest and frailest of the classics in our poetry, but he is a
tolerance there is a sane moral view. Chaucer’s tolerance is not born classic.” – Matthew Arnold
of moral leniency or from a desire to excuse or mitigate the Born in eighteenth-century London, Thomas Gray became one of
worldliness of the characters as he saw them. The Monk’s travesty of those few names in English literature that despite a considerably short
the cloister in the name of gracious living finds no exoneration from oeuvre are remembered and celebrated to this date. Often said to
Chaucer, nor is Chaucer appreciative of the wickedness of the have been born in the wrong age and time, Gray led a highly troubled
Summoner and the Pardoner. His tolerance is based on deep and dissatisfied life, and suffered from frequent bouts of melancholia
conviction of human frailty, and his medium of looking at it is irony, and depression. But troubled as he was and the little which he wrote,
not inventive. he wrote incredibly well. Mostly remembered for his magnum opus,
When we read the pen portraits of the pilgrims, we can see how Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, Gray wrote the kind of poetry
clearly Chaucer has suggested the values they live by and what they where substance and form, thought and structure perfectly
look for. In these values—the chivalry of the Knight, the Monk’s love corroborate each other.
for hunting, the Doctor’s love of gold, the poor Parson’s holy thought Often the subject of many critical evaluations, Arnold, in his Study of
and work, the Clerk’s love for learning and teaching—lies Chaucer’s Poetry and in several other commentaries, argue that Thomas Gray,
subtle moral judgment. often misunderstood and wrongly judged, belonged to the rare
When Arnold quotes a line from Chaucer as truly classic, he chooses a species of writers who never “spoke out”.
line expressive of stoic resignation. “O martir seeded to virginitee” “"He never spoke out." In these four words is contained the whole
from the Prioress’s tale. Indeed, all the lines quoted by Arnold as history of Gray, both as a man and as a poet.” ¬– Matthew Arnold
“touchstones” have the ring of stoic resignation. Thus, Arnold’s own For Arnold, Gray never “spoke out” rather words fell naturally and
view seems biased in favor of the obviously solemn and didactic. spontaneously from his pen. During his evaluation of the eighteenth-
In fact, Arnold’s concept of poetry does not seem to include the genre century, Arnold argues that it was not Dryden and Pope who were the
of comedy. The term “high seriousness” has been interpreted to mean poetical classics representative of their age, rather Gray who could be
seriousness in the more obvious sense. The poet’s criticism of life is called the ultimate poetical classic of his century. In another

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commentary, Arnold enumerates different opinions that critics over was necessary for a democratic age. Shairp had indeed seen Burns as
time have had about Gray: a poet sympathetic to the people and to the cause of democracy and
“Cowper writes: "I have been reading Gray's works, and think him the equality. Arnold seizes the chance to talk about Burns because he
only poet since Shakespeare entitled to the character of sublime. wants to say, as he does at the end of the essay, that only the best
Perhaps you will remember that I once had a different opinion of him. poetry is adequate for a democratic age. Along with the names of
I was prejudiced." Adam Smith says: "Gray joins to the sublimity of Dryden and Pope, Matthew Arnold also mentions the name of Robert
Milton the elegance and harmony of Pope; and nothing is wanting to Burns. Burns’ English poems are simple to read. But the real Burns is
render him, perhaps, the first poet in the English language, but to of course in his Scottish poems.
have written a little more." And, to come nearer to our own times, Sir “By his English poetry Burns in general belongs to the 18th century,
James Mackintosh speaks of Gray thus: "Of all English poets he was and has little importance for us. Evidently this is not the real Burns, or
the most finished artist. He attained the highest degree of splendor of his name and fame would have disappeared long ago. Nor in
which poetical style seemed to be capable."” Clarinda’s love-poet, Sylvander, the real Burns either. The real Burns is
Another reason for Gray not “speaking out” or writing enough is often of course in his Scottish poems. Let us boldly say that of much of this
said to be due to his being born in the wrong age. Eighteenth-century poetry, a poetry dealing perpetually with Scottish drink, Scottish
literature was gradually discovering the genre of prose and its religion and Scottish manners; he has a tenderness for it. Many of his
possibilities. The greatest writers that the century produced were admirers will tell us that we have Burns, convivial, genuine, delightful,
prose writers, as Arnold states in his discussion on the age of Dryden. here.”
In such an age, Gray, who was a born poet, could not blossom or Burns’ “real poems”, according to Arnold, are those that deal with
flower the way he deserved to. Thus, Arnold writes: “Scottish way of life, Scottish drinks, Scottish religion and Scottish
“Gray, a born poet, fell upon an age of prose. He fell upon an age manners.” A Scottish man may be familiar with such things, but for an
whose task was such as to call forth in general men's powers of outsider these may sound personal. For supreme practical success
understanding, wit and cleverness, rather than their deepest powers more is required. In the opinion of Arnold, Burns comes short of the
of mind and soul. As regards literary production, the task of the high seriousness of the great classics, and something remains wanting
eighteenth century in England was not the poetic interpretation of the in his poetry.
world; its task was to create a plain, clear, straightforward, efficient Leeze me on drink! It gies us mair Than either school or college; It
prose.” kindles wit, it waukens lair, It pangs us fou’o knowledge Be’t whisky
And so: gill or penny wheep Or any stronger potion, It never fails, on drinking
“Coming when he did and endowed as he was, he was a man born out deep, To kittle up our notion
of date, a man whose full spiritual flowering was impossible.” According to Arnold, there is an element of bacchanalianism in Burn’s
But despite the fact that Gray did not enjoy a satisfying and long poetry. He refers to many of Burns’ stanzas, and comments:
literary career, he managed to leave the coming generations with a “There is a great deal of that sort of thing in Burns, and it is
small treasure of some of the finest verse ever written in the English unsatisfactory, not because it is bacchanalian poetry, but because it
language. For Arnold, Gray remains the most representative poet of has not that accent of sincerity which bacchanalian poetry, to do it
the early eighteenth-century before the Romantics. Thomas Gray justice, very often has. There is something in it of bravado, something
never “spoke out” because he never had to and because he couldn’t which makes us feel that we have not the man speaking to us with his
bring himself to. His poetry flowed from him naturally, expectantly real voice; as in the famous song For a’ that and a’ that:
and inevitably. Arnold comments: A prince can make a belted knight, A marquis, duke, and a’ that; But
“Compared, not with the work of the great masters of the golden ages an honest man’s aboon his might, Guid faith he mauna fa’ that! For a’
of poetry, but with the poetry of his own contemporaries in general, that, and a’ that, Their dignities and a’ that, Are higher rank than a’
Gray may be said to have reached, in his style, the excellence at which that.
he aimed.” To sum up Arnold’s views on Burns, Arnold does not see Burns as
Passed away at the age of 54, Gray’s Elegy is the poet’s most loved belonging to the rank of the ultimate classics in English literature, as,
work, and a poem that could be safely attributed to the poet and to once again, Burns’ poetry lacks “high seriousness”. Burn’s poetry is
the man himself. frivolous, bacchanalian and passionate and is devoid of all the merits
that characterize classic poetry. But despite his flaws, Burns remains
The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, one of those poets in whose work intensity of passion and spirit
The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea, merge splendidly and whose work astounds as well as please.
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way, Conclusion:
And leaves the world to darkness and to me. Matthew Arnold, one of foremost critic of 19th century, is often
regarded as father of modern English criticism. Arnold’s work as a
On Burns: literary critic started with Preface to Poems in 1853. It is a kind of
Robert Burns, as Douglas Bush and R. H. Super observed, gets a manifesto of his critical creed. It reflects classicism as well his views on
surprising amount of attention in Arnold's discussion of poets in The grand poetic style. His most famous piece of literary criticism is his
Study of Poetry. There are three explanations of the prominence of essay The Study of Poetry. In this work he talks about poetry’s “high
Burns in Arnold's major essay on poetry. Firstly, Arnold is returning to destiny”. He believes “mankind will discover that we have to turn
the question that had interested him in exchanges with Clough, the poetry to interpret life for us, to console us, to sustain us”. Arnold
connection between emotion and artistic form. In a letter in which lived in a materialistic world where advancement of science has had
Arnold touched on revolution and the relations between labor and led society in a strange darkness. Importance of religion was
capital, he breaks off abruptly to discuss Burns as an artist. Apparently submerged. People were becoming fact seekers. A gap was being
in reply to Clough, Arnold says, “Burns is certainly an artist implicitly”. developed and Arnold believed poetry could fill that gap. In his
The “fiery, reckless energy” of Burns is noted in The Study of Poetry as words:
well as his “sense of the pathos of things”. “Our religion has materialized itself in the fact, and the fact is now
Arnold's concern with the admirers of Burns, however, suggests a failing it. But for poetry the idea is everything, the rest is world of
second explanation, that Arnold is responding to the work of his old illusion, of divine illusion.”
friend John Campbell Shairp. Shairp, as the Oxford Professor of Arnold wrote:
Poetry, had given an Oxford lecture on Burns, and in 1879 had “Without poetry our science will appear incomplete; and most of
published a monograph on Burns; in both, Shairp praised Burns as the what now passes with religion and philosophy will be replaced by
Scottish national poet and the poet who celebrated the Scottish poetry.”
peasantry. Arnold's discussion of Burns in The Study of Poetry may be He had a definite aim in writing poetry. It was the “criticism of life”. By
seen as a part of an argument connected with a larger question that the “criticism of life”, he meant “noble and profound application of
had concerned Arnold in all of his criticism: the kind of poetry that ideas of life”. He said poetry should serve a greater purpose instead of

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becoming a mere medium of gaining pleasure and appreciating rejects them as classics as like Chaucer; their poetry lacks the "high
beauty. According to him, the best poetry is criticism of life, abiding seriousness" that must be present in great poetry.
laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty. By poetic truth he meant
representation of life in true way. By poetic beauty he meant manner Q: Explain and Illustrate the remark that Chaucer’s
and style of poetry. He said that a poet should be a man with whole point of view is that of a Humourist.
enormous experience. His intellect should be highly developed by According to Matthew Arnold (in his essay The Study of
means of enormous reading and deep critical thinking. Arnold said Poetry) Chaucer's criticism of life has largeness, freedom, shrewdness
that poetry is an “application of ideas to life”. If the application of and benignity, but it lacks "high seriousness". The term "high
ideas is powerful the poetry will become great. He also laid emphasis seriousness" which Arnold says marks the works of Homer. Dante and
on the quality of “high seriousness”. It comes with sincerity which the Milton and Wordsworth, apparently implies a sustained magnificence of
poet feels for his subject. Many critics disagreed with Arnold on this artistic conception and execution accompanied by deep morality and
point. T.S. Elliot, a great poet himself, disagreed with this view by spiritual values.
saying that Arnold’s view is “frigid to anyone who has felt the full It must be remembered that Arnold laid a great deal of importance on
surprise and elevation of new experience in poetry”. Arnold’s classic the "actions, human actions" as the proper subjects of poetry. His
poets include Dante, Milton, Homer and Shakespeare. He quotes the contention of "high seriousness" is inevitably bound up with this. His
famous line of Milton: concept of poetry being a "criticism of life" is quite satisfied by Chaucer.
Nor thy life nor hate; but what thou livest Chaucer's poetry is steeped with life, and yet there is basic sanity and
order in his vision which Arnold should not have missed.
Live well: how long or short, permit to heaven
The fun and comedy in Chaucer's writing often blinds one to his basic
Arnold said poetry should deal with ideas not facts. Ideas should be
greatness. His vision is truly Christian in its broad and forgiving tolerance.
moral. He said morality should not be taken in narrow sense. He said His vision of the earth ranges from one of amused delight to one of grave
“poetry of revolt against life; a poetry of indifference towards moral compassion. His fresh goodwill and kindly common sense, his sense of
idea is a poetry of indifference towards life”. joy and warmth are communicated through his poetry especially in The
Using metaphors concerning rivers in what would prove subsequently Canterbury Tales. But behind the fun and tolerance there is a sane moral
to be a very influential way; Arnold, furthermore, argued that the view. Chaucer's tolerance is not born of moral leniency or from a desire
“stream of English poetry” is only one “contributory stream to the to excuse or mitigate the worldliness of the characters as he saw them.
world river of poetry”. He argued that we should “conceive of poetry The Monk's travesty of the cloister in the name of gracious living finds no
worthily, and more highly than it has been the custom”, that is, as exoneration from Chaucer, nor is Chaucer appreciative of the wickedness
“capable of higher uses, and called to higher destinies, than those in of the Summonier and the Pardoner. His tolerance is based on deep
general which man has assigned to it hitherto”. He contends that we conviction of human fraility, and his medium of looking at it is irony, not
must “turn to poetry to interpret life for us, to console us, to sustain inventive.
us” because, as Wordsworth put it, it is the ‘breath and finer spirit of When we read the pen portraits of the pilgrims, we can see how clearly
all knowledge’ as a result of which it is superior to science, philosophy, Chaucer has suggested the values they live by and what they look for. In
and religion. To be “capable of fulfilling such high destinies”, however, these values—the chivalry of the Knight, the Monk's love for hunting, the
Doctor's love of gold, the poor Parson's holy thought and work, the
poetry must be “of a high order of excellence”. In poetry, for this
Clerk's love for learning and teaching—lies Chaucer's subtle moral
reason, the “distinction between excellent and inferior, sound and
judgement.
unsound or only half-sound, true and untrue or only half-true, is of When Arnold quotes a line from Chaucer as truly classic, he chooses a
paramount importance”. line expressive of stoic resignation. "O martir seeded to virginitee" from
It is in poetry that conveys the “criticism of life”. The criticism of life the Prioress's tale. Indeed, all the lines quoted by Arnold as
“will be of power in proportion as the poetry conveying it is excellent, "touchstones" have the ring of stoic resignation. Thus, Arnold's own view
rather than inferior, sound rather than unsound or half-sound, true seems biased in favour of the obviously solemn and didactic. In fact,
rather than untrue or half-true”. The “best poetry” is that which has a Arnold's concept of poetry does not seem to include the genre of
“power of forming, sustaining, and delighting us, as nothing else can”. comedy. The term "high seriousness" has been interpreted to mean
Its “most precious benefit” is a “clearer, deeper sense of the best in seriousness in the more obvious sense. The poet's criticism of life is not
poetry, and of the strength and joy to be drawn from it”. This sense only to be serious, but also seen to be serious. Arnold seems to demand
should “govern our estimate of what we read”. Arnold contrasts this, solemn rhetoric. If we interpret "high seriousness" in this light, we can
what he terms the “real estimate”, with two other kinds of estimate, only say that Chaucer's poetry lacks it, for Chaucer was anything but
the historic estimate and the personal estimate, which are both "solemn". However, if we consider "high seriousness" in a broader light,
“fallacies”. The former calculates a poet’s merit on historical grounds, Chaucer's observation of life, his insight into its passions and
that is, by “regarding a poet’s work as a stage” in the “course and weaknesses, its virtues and strength is truly great. If we strictly accept
Matthew Arnold's contention, then we will have to deny "high
development of a nation’s language, thought, and poetry”. The latter
seriousness" to all comic writers, even to Moliere and Cervantes.
calculates a poet’s merit on the basis of our “personal affinities, likings
and circumstances” which may make us “overrate the object of our
Q: Arnold's assessment of Chaucer and Burns in "The
interest” because the work in question “is, or has been, of high
Study of Poetry" -
importance” to us personally.
"The Study of Poetry" is a famous critical work by Matthew Arnold, a
Arnold’s most important achievement in The Study of Poetry would great Victorian poet, literary critic, and also an educationist. In this
have to be the establishment of his system of literary criticism—the essay, Arnold asserts that Burns and Chaucer are not great classics. He
touchstone method. It is a comparative analysis which entails the here gives plausible reason behind his assertion.
valorization of modern texts by comparing them to the works of such According to Arnold, poetry is at the bottom 'a criticism of life'.
greats as Shakespeare, Milton etc. Though criticized by many critics He says that great poetry must have "a power of forming, sustaining, and
for its rigidity, Arnold’s theory of proper criticism is one of the most delighting us, as nothing else can." And he also adds that in order to be a
important elements in his essay. classic, the poet must be able to fill us and our life with joy and delight
After giving an elaborate account of the function and nature of poetry and also guide is toward the right way.
and criticism, Arnold gives a critical account of many of the classics in Accoding to Arnold, "Chaucer is not one of the great classics."
English literature. He traverses through great names like that of Though Chaucer has a 'poetic truth of substance' and 'poetic truth of
Chaucer, Gray, Dryden, and Burns. About Chaucer, Arnold says that style', 'he has not their accent'. Arnold says that, "the substance of
though he is one of the greatest classics of English poetry, he lacks the Chaucer's poetry, his view of things and his criticism of life, has
"high seriousness" that is found in the likes of Shakespeare and largeness, freedom, shrewdness, benignity, but it has not their high
Milton. On Dryden, Arnold says that he is one of the finest prose seriousness." Arnold praises his 'divine liquidness of diction', 'divine
fluidity of movement', but does not place him among the classics. He
writers of English language and proper prose began from him. Arnold
also praises him by saying that "With him is born out real poetry" and
complements Gray and Burns for their great poetry, but again he
"Chaucer is the father of our splendid English poetry." But he is not like
the 'great classics'.
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 He even does not place Burns among the classics. He says,
"Burns, like Chaucer, comes short of the high seriousness of the great
classics." And he also asserts, "virtue of matter and manner which goes
with that high seriousness is wanting to his work." He claims that Burns
has the 'truth of matter and truth of manner', but he has not "the accent
or the poetic virtue of the highest masters."

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