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
goes hills knows life sea thinks
And then he thinks he knows The hills where his life rose, And the sea where it goes
born man river ship wanderer
A wanderer is man from his birth. / He was born in a ship / On the breast of the river of Time.
floor shine stars whose
From whose floor the new-bathed stars / Emerge, and shine upon the Aral Sea.
bring cannot cease cure doctor fame full ill nor phrase shake
Nor bring to see me cease to live,/ Some doctor full of phrase and fame,/ To shake his sapient head, and give/ The ill he cannot cure a name.
call
Go, for they call you, shepherd, from the hill.
cool crossing fingers slow stream swings thames thy trailing
Crossing the stripling Thames at Bablock-hithe, / Trailing in the cool stream thy fingers wet, / As the slow punt swings round.
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.
bottom criticism poetry
Poetry is at bottom a criticism of life.
beach dark shy
Shy traffickers, the dark Iberians come: / And on the beach undid his corded bales.
emotion heart less quick spring
The heart less bounding at emotion new, / The hope, once crushed, less quick to spring again.
near neighbor patience sad
With close-lipped Patience for our only friend, Sad Patience, too near neighbor to Despair.
attic glory life mellow saw
Who saw life steadily, and saw it whole: / The mellow glory of the Attic stage.
demands effort greatest teach
...what thwarts us and demands of us the greatest effort is also what can teach us most.
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