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
call
Go, for they call you, shepherd, from the hill.
happy outside rage sound storms took troubled
He went; his piping took a troubled sound / Of storms that rage outside our happy ground.
cannot fire heart kindle mystery soul spirit
We cannot kindle when we will / The fire which in the heart resides, / The spirit bloweth and is still, / In mystery our soul abides.
governing
The governing idea of Hellenism is spontaneity of consciousness; that of Hebraism, strictness of conscience.
arises grand nature noble serious severity simplicity style subject treats
The grand style arises in poetry, when a noble nature, treats with simplicity or with severity a serious subject
expressive eyes lovely
Eyes too expressive to be blue, / Too lovely to be grey.
hum land low majestic mist river solitary
But the majestic river floated on, / Out of the mist and hum of that low land, / Into the frosty starlight, and there moved, / Rejoicing, through the hushed Chorasmian waste, / Under the solitary moon.
demands effort greatest teach
...what thwarts us and demands of us the greatest effort is also what can teach us most.
champ great horses salt tides toss white wild winds
Now the great winds shoreward blow, / Now the salt tides seaward flow; / Now the wild white horses play, / Champ and chafe and toss in the spray.
gives light notion perverse philistine resistance suits
Philistine gives the notion of something particularly stiff-necked and perverse in the resistance to light and its children; and therein it specially suits our middle-class.
beach dark shy
Shy traffickers, the dark Iberians come: / And on the beach undid his corded bales.
borne casual clearly deeply fruit insight light nor vague whose
Light half-believers of our casual creeds, who never deeply felt, nor clearly will d, whose insight never has borne fruit in deeds, whose vague resolves never have been fulfilled.
body folly thy
Let the victors, when they come, / When the forts of folly fall, / Find thy body by the wall.
bottom criticism poetry
Poetry is at bottom a criticism of life.