Matthew Arnold
Matthew Arnold
Matthew Arnoldwas an English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the famed headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold, literary professor, and William Delafield Arnold, novelist and colonial administrator. Matthew Arnold has been characterised as a sage writer, a type of writer who chastises and instructs the reader on contemporary social issues...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth24 December 1822
god law tendencies
For science, God is simply the stream of tendency by which all things seek to fulfill the law of their being.
patience despair neighbour
Sad Patience, too near neighbour to despair.
life men world
To hear the world applaud the hollow ghost Which blamed the living man.
genius may energy
Genius is mainly an affair of energy, and poetry is mainly an affair of genius; therefore a nation whose spirit is characterized by energy may well be imminent in poetry - and we have Shakespeare.
time men rivers
A wanderer is man from his birth. He was born in a ship On the breast of the river of Time.
time healing europe
Time may restore us in his course Goethe's sage mind and Byron's force: But where will Europe's latter hour Again find Wordsworth's healing power?
sight soul hustle
And see all sights from pole to pole, And glance, and nod, and hustle by; And never once possess our soul Before we die.
beautiful wise strong
The will is free; Strong is the soul, and wise, and beautiful; The seeds of godlike power are in us still; Gods are we, bards, saints, heroes, if we will!
men law light
Nature's great law, and the law of all men's minds? To its own impulse every creature stirs: Live by thy light, and Earth will live by hers.
son men wind
Nature, with equal mind, Sees all her sons at play, Sees man control the wind, The wind sweep man away.
fall waiting heaven
Waiting for the spark from heaven to fall.
chance ill ought
We do not what we ought; What we ought not, we do; And lean upon the thought That chance will bring us through; But our own acts, for good or ill, are mightier powers.
today religion-today unconscious
The strongest part of a religion today is its unconscious poetry
kings dumb modern
The kings of modern thought are dumb.