Matthew arnold poems summary. Matthew Arnold: Poems Study Guide 2022-12-08
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Matthew Arnold was an English poet and cultural critic who was active in the mid-19th century. He is best known for his poetry, which often grapples with themes of love, loss, and the search for meaning in a rapidly changing world. In this essay, we will provide a summary of some of Arnold's most famous poems and explore the key themes and ideas that they address.
One of Arnold's most famous poems is "Dover Beach," which describes the experience of standing on the cliffs of Dover and looking out at the sea. In the poem, Arnold reflects on the beauty of the natural world and the sense of solitude and isolation that it can evoke. He also reflects on the ways in which the natural world can serve as a metaphor for the larger forces at play in the world, such as the passing of time and the ebb and flow of history.
Another notable poem by Arnold is "The Scholar Gipsy," which tells the story of a young scholar who leaves his academic pursuits behind to live the life of a wanderer. The poem reflects on the tension between the desire for knowledge and the desire for adventure, and explores the theme of the search for meaning and fulfillment in life.
Arnold's "Thyrsis," a pastoral elegy written in the wake of the death of his friend, Arthur Hugh Clough, is a poignant meditation on grief and loss. The poem uses the metaphor of a shepherd's lament to explore the pain of losing a loved one and the sense of loneliness and isolation that often follows such a loss.
One of Arnold's most famous poems is "The Buried Life," which reflects on the idea that we all have a deeper, more authentic self that is often buried beneath the distractions and obligations of everyday life. The poem encourages us to seek out and nurture this deeper self, and to live a life that is true to our authentic selves.
In summary, the poems of Matthew Arnold explore a wide range of themes, including love, loss, the search for meaning, and the tension between the desire for knowledge and the desire for adventure. Through his poetry, Arnold invites us to reflect on the beauty and mystery of the world around us, and to consider the ways in which we can live a more authentic and fulfilling life.
Matthew Arnold The Study of Poetry
He was the first critic to raise concerns about modern industrial society. The speaker laments this decline of faith through melancholy diction. Arnold drew on Aristotle's comparison of poetry and history, in which the ancient critic concluded that poetry was superior in terms of both truth and seriousness; Arnold hypothesised that the poem's high degree of matter and substance existed because it possessed a high degree of truth and seriousness. Arnold discovers in Burns a great deal of intensity and vitality that Chaucer's poetry lacks. Only once the reader has accomplished this will he be able to recognise and appreciate good poetry.
 the foremost immediate is just the facility of your time, which Arnold frequently mentions as a force greater than humans can control. Arnold also studied at Balliol College, Oxford University. It would thus not be wrong to claim that Chaucer is the 'father of our wonderful English poetry' and that true poetry begins with him. Because reading poetry has an effect on the mind and soul, Arnold advises that the reader be continually aware of what he is reading and make an assessment as to whether it is beneficial to him or not. He recalls a woman who once helped them with their boat, and is gloomy to understand she has disappeared also.
In 1844, after completing his undergraduate degree at Oxford, he returned to Rugby as a teacher of classics. Arnold regards Gray as a fragile classic among contemporary poets; he imitated the norms and styles of ancient Greek and Roman classical poets. He is adamant that every act of reading poetry should impart an appreciation for the sublime and a sense of delight. In "To Marguerite—Continued," for example, Arnold revises Donne's assertion that "No man is an island," suggesting that we "mortals" are indeed "in the sea of life enisled. Several of his remarks in this attempt were contentious at the time they were made.
Thyrsis By Matthew Arnold Poems Summary & Analysis
His ideas never originate in his mind, but are skilfully imitated. According to Arnold, the critique and study of this period's poetry make it impossible to go beyond historical assessments of the quality and value of the poetry written during this period. He continues by arguing that it is only via a close study of poetry that we can determine the level of poets and categorise them as good or terrible. He detects boldness in Burns' poetry, rendering it false and unsound in his estimation. Behind even the appearance of faith is the new order, and he hopes that they might use this moment to keep them together despite such uncertainty. Arnold was also a proponent of the idea that happiness comes from within, and that we should seek goodness within ourselves and accept external factors that are thrown at us.
New Poems also included many other works such as "A Wish,""Bacchanalia,""Austerity of Poetry,""East London,""West London," and "Epilogue to Lessing's Laocoon. His work also outclasses the French in terms of style and manner; his poem possesses a fluency of diction and a fluidity of flow that is lacking in the French. Most of the poem criticizes Clough, instead of honors his memory. However, the sixth line of each stanza is written in iambic trimeter instead. In contrast to Dante, Arnold asserts that Burns preaches through his poetry; his articulations do not arise from the depths of his soul and are hence shallow. Ward's General Introduction to The English Poets, is one of the most prominent works of literary humanism. In its expression of alienation, doubt, and melancholy, the poem is often interpreted as a remarkably forward-thinking precursor to 20th century crises of faith—like Existentialism and Absurdism.
Although Burns' poetry demonstrates the poet's triumph over the harsh Scottish landscape, the critic notes that his poetry does not do well when evaluated using the touchstone technique. Ah, love, let us be true To one another! The Sea of Faith Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furl'd. Additionally, he believes that poetry is the only legitimate technique of comprehending life. The poem expresses a crisis of faith, with the speaker acknowledging the diminished standing of Christianity, which the speaker sees as being unable to withstand the rising tide of scientific discovery. French poetry at this period was written in the language d'oil and langue d'oc dialects.
The poem also employs a lot of enjambment the poetic technique of leaving a sentence unfinished on one line, to continue and finish it on the next. Two of his complaints mirror those made in other poems. Arnold admits that while his poetry has "applications of ideas to life," they are not in accordance with the rules of poetic truth and beauty. The works of Shakespeare, Milton, Spenser, and Keats perpetuated this tradition of flexibility. Yeats, James Wright, Sylvia Plath, and Sharon Olds.
But more poignantly, Arnold sees within the countryside the way the fashionable world robs nature of its pastoral wonder. Matthew Arnold died in Liverpool in 1888. GradeSaver, 26 June 2014 Web. He makes an endeavour in his critique to move away from the exteriority of bourgeois existence and toward an interiority of the self. The latter will change because the landscape has, but the connection between the lads will remain steadfast because the elm does. And during a larger symbolic sense, it means the search for truth — that of both the scholar-gypsy and Arnold himself — is worth continuing. He was opposed to the era's rising scientific temper and positivism.
The speaker in the poem senses this change almost subconsciously, seeing and hearing it in the sea that the speaker is looking out upon. While the speaker knows his current despair might wax and wane with the seasons, Thyrsis will nevermore return. Arnold is concerned in this article with classifying English poets and determining which ones should be singled out as genuinely classic. After this, the reader may decide whether to accept or reject the artist and this work. Arnold asserts in the article that poetry is superior than science, religion, theology, and philosophy.
Its message - like that of many of his other poems - is that the world's mystery has declined in the face of modernity. Arnold's humanism suggested that he endowed poetry with the ability to sustain and pleasure man in the bleak limitations of contemporary living. Thus, the allusion to Socrates, a Greek playwright celebrated for his tragedies, is particularly apt. This is done purposefully to perpetuate the notion that art is beneficial. This is his principal criticism of Burns' poetry; it is insufficiently serious.
