Literature Analysis

Verious Aspects of Matthew Arnold as A Poet

2024-09-11T08:00:00.001+05:30

Arnold's Wordsworthianism: Matthew Arnold is one of those poets in whose work Nature occupies a very important place. He has a romantic approach to Nature and is profoundly influenced by Wordsworth. Arnold seeks the Sanctuary of Nature with an almost Wordsworthian devotion. Nature to Arnold is very often an escape, a refuge from the fever and fret and the weariness and waste of life, from the infection of our mental strife'. In Self-Dependence he appeals to the sea and stars.

Like Wordsworth, Arnold turns to Nature to learn the moral lessons it teaches, "He placed himself as a reverent learner at her feet before he presumed to go forth to the world as an exponent of her teaching." Nature, according to him, shows us the secret of successful labour, 'of toil unsevered from tranquillity'. The forces of Nature are incessantly at work, and wholly concentrated in that work.

Sometimes Arnold repairs to Nature for the sake of doing so, for enjoying her quiet beauty and undisturbed harmony and bursts into lyrical rapture just as Wordsworth does on seeing the daffodils. This is evident in the following lines from Empedocles on Etna.

Difference between Wordsworth and Arnold in the Treatment of Nature: It is true that Wordsworth exercised a tremendous influence on Arnold's thoughts. Further in some of his poems like The Youth of Nature and Kensington Gardens Arnold echoes the sentiments of Wordsworth. It is also true that Arnold may be considered as devout as Wordsworth in his Nature-worship. Yet in spite of these, we cannot but note the essential difference between the viewpoints of the two poets. Wordsworth approaches and interprets Nature with an essentially ethical attitude. It is with religious awe that he regards her. Arnold does not find in Nature a divine and salutary being. He is not, like Wordsworth, a pantheist. Neither does he believe like Wordsworth that Nature is invested with a life and a personality. According to Stopford Brooke "Nature to Arnold is frequently the nature the modern science has revealed to us Nature as Matter in motion taking a variety of forms yet obeying certain fixed laws and principles".

Again Wordsworth deals with only the mild and beneficent aspects of Nature. Arnold not only sees the loveliness of her doings, but also her terror and dreadfulness. Arnold says that though man may learn from Nature, love and admire and enjoy, he must still bear in mind that Nature and Man can never be fast friends'.

In the sonnet, In Harmony with Nature, Arnold attacks Nature as cruel and fickle and tells man that 'man must begin.....where Nature ends' and that

'Man hath all which Nature hath, but more,

And in that more lie all his hopes of good'.

Elsewhere he warns that Nature "never was the friend of one, nor promised love she could not give". In other words, we are not to expect too much or ask impossible boons from Nature. For the first time this view of Nature enters into English poetry with Arnold. According to Grieson and Smith:

Arnold was a devout Wordsworthian but his view of Nature was not Wordsworth's. He understood and felt Wordsworth's healing power; his visionary power he did not understand, never having known in himself those visitations from the living God, which Wordsworth enjoyed in moments of ecstasy.

Similarly Arnold is unable to see Nature as the fountain head of hope, joy and light. While Wordsworth's poems reveal a feeling of rapturous joy, those of Arnold's only reveal a "peace of mere acquiescence; or if joy, only the joy of the stars as they perform their appointed shining". In Resignation, Arnold finds a constant source of peace rather than joy of Nature.

That general life, which does not cease,

Whose secret is not joy, but peace.

Arnold has Wordsworth's calm, but neither his cheerfulness nor his detachment. Wordsworth lives and thinks with the hills for his sole companions, but Arnold never rests in Nature alone. In the place of the steady optimism of Wordsworth we have in Arnold the sense that a destiny so rarely yielding great results. The life of man,

Though bearable seems hardly worth

This pomp of worlds, this pains of birth

Features of Arnold's Nature Poetry: Two of the prominent features of Arnold's nature poetry are exactness of observation and vividness of description. In fact, they go together for the one without the other lacks completeness. Like: Tennyson, Arnold gives detailed pictures of English scenery in his poems. They reveal his close observation and are remarkably accurate in their details. Hugh Walker says "In their wonderful accuracy, Arnold's references to Nature illustrate that consciousness of the intellect which is one of his most honourable distinctions". Flowers, lakes, mountains, roads, rivers, are all portrayed with accuracy and located with precision. The following examples highlight the minuteness and accuracy or Arnold's descriptions of Nature.

Arnold's pictures of Nature have the brightness and stillness necessary for a perfect reflection besides possessing the luster and the polish of careful craftsmanship.

Subdued and Serene Pictures of Nature: Another characteristic feature of Arnold's Nature poetry is his depiction of the quieter and subdued moods of Nature - the silences of Nature rather than her sounds. Lewis Jones says:

He loved Nature in her quieter and more subdued moods; he preferred her silences to her many voices, moonlight to sunlight, the sea retreating from the 'Moon-blanched land' with "its melancholy long withdrawing roar' to the sea in tumu't and storm.

Sohrab and Rustum begins when the first grey of morning of the east and ends as the shades of night envelop the solemn waste. Rugby Chapel begins in the autumn evening coldly, sadly descending. The vision of the Obermann appears to the poet when night gently runs down over him and the woods. Margaret is represented as hearing the far-off church bell at the bottom of the sea where the spent lights quiver and gleam. The sounds Arnold depicts are also soft. The murmur of the moving Nile, the tremulous cadence slow of the retreating tide, the quiet murmur of the midland deep-these are what Arnold prefers.

Arnold's Sensuous Love of Nature: Apart from his view of Nature as Matter and Law, Arnold looks at Nature from the sensuous and the aesthetic point of view. It is this subjective insight which makes him enjoy the various aspects of Nature and feel refreshed again.

In Lines Written in Kensington Gardens, the poet feels delighted at finding himself in the company of blowing daisies and fragrant grass.

Contrast between the Permanence of Nature and the Impermanence of Man: Arnold believes that Nature is grander than man. The quietude, calm and eternal quality of Nature is frequently contrasted with the disquietude, transient and futile life of ordinary men. In The Youth of Man the poet says:

We, O Nature, depart:

Thou survivest us: this,

This, I know, is the law.

(Line. 1-3)

Similarly, In The Youth of Nature, we have the idea that race after race, man, after man, have turned to dust but Nature remains eternal.

In The Youth of Nature, Nature is a metaphysical concept, not merely the sensuous world aesthetically perceived with the help of the eye and the ear. Arnold opines that it is not in our lives alone that Nature lives. The loveliness, the magic and grace of Nature abide beyond the reach of man, beyond the grasp of the singer who is less than this themes.

The Objects Frequently Described by Arnold: As a devout lover of Nature Arnold loves and writes tenderly of two pretty objects in Nature birds and flowers. He has a whole poem Philomela - the tawny-throated wanderer from a Grecian shore. Other birds mentioned passingly are the swallow, the rook the nightingale, the black-bird and the cuckoo. As for flowers, Arnold exhibits a very keen eye for them, almost alike that of a botanist. The blue convolvulus, the scented poppy, the frail-leafed white anemone, the dark bluebell, the white roses, orchises and lilies, the musk carnation, the chestnut flower and the gold-dusted snap-dragon, the cowslip, the daffodil, the May-flower and the primrose, all brighten and perfume Arnold's poetry.

Natural Objects as Symbols: Two frequently used symbols in his poetry are the moon and the water-rivers, lakes seas. They not only brighten and beautify the background but also lend a symbolic significance. The sea was for Arnold, the one element in which he discovered the deepest reflection of his own melancholy and sense of isolation. In Dover Beach, we have the following lines:

Only, from the long line of spray

Where the ebb meets the moon-blanched sanc,

Listen! you hear the grating roar

Of pebbles which the waves suck back, and fling.

At their return, up the high strand,

Shakespeare is compared to a colossus "planting his steadfast footsteps in the sea", We mortal millions are always "in the sea of life enisled".

In Human Life, the poet finds himself "on life's incognisable sea". In Resignation he is conscious of "seas of life and death". The moon-blanch'd green in The Scholar Gipsy, the 'moon-blanch'd land' in Dover Beach and the moon-blanch'd street in A Summer Night are all magically depicted. The sea in Arnold may stand variously for death or for eternity or for the 'Sea of Faith'. But most often it is the sea of life. Apart from the sea, references to various rivers like the Thames, the Nile, the Aar, the Rhone, the Oxus, the Helmunt, the Tejend, the Kohilk, and the Moorghab, occur frequently. According to his own statement, Arnold regarded water "as the mediator between the inanimate and man".

Another aspect of Arnold's Nature poetry is the loving care with which he describes the quiet and peaceful Oxford countryside especially in The Scholar Gipsy and Thyrsis. The Scholar Gypsy depicts 'the stripling Thames at Bablock-hithe', the distant Wychwood bowers, 'Godstone Bridge', 'homestead in the Cumner hills', the 'Fyfield Elm' and many such in detail. Thyrsis gives a sensuous description of the various flowers in Oxford country side.

Conclusion: Summing up Arnold's attitude towards Nature and the treatment of Nature in his poetry, we find that they are not fixed one. In conclusion, it may be said that the many-voiced Nature poetry of Arnold is striking and significant with an individuality of its own. Deriving nothing second-hand but everything directly from Nature, Arnold's homage to her in his poetry is more that of a grateful pupil than that of a reverential preacher.

Example Questions

Give an account of Arnold as a poet of Nature.

Write an essay on Arnold's Wordsworthianism.

Discuss Arnold's treatment of Nature in his poetry.

Estimate the importance of Nature as a theme in the poetry of Arnold.

Elegiac Note in Matthew Arnold's Poetry

2024-09-04T08:00:00.001+05:30

Introduction: The word 'elegy' is derived from the Greek word, 'elegos' which means a mournful poem. Usually it is a reflective poem which laments the death of somebody. An elegy is not an epitaph or a dirge; neither is it exactly a sister of tragedy. An elegy is a poetic attempt to perpetuate and also to decorate the memory of a dear departed-involving real passion and intense personal sorrow. The prevailing modern concept of the elegy is expressed well by Gayley: "It is a reflective lyric suggested by the fact or fancy of death. The emotion, personal or public, finds utterance in keen lament, to be allayed however by tranquil consideration of the mutability of life, the immutability of something that justifies life and death". Melancholy, then or sadness is the kernel of the elegy. This melancholy caused by the death or the disappearance of something decor, by something lost and gone, or absent and unattainable-expresses itself in lamentation. In its origin in poetry, this lamentation followed a certain metrical pattern - a distich of dactylic hexameter and pentameter and was set to music. However, elegy has now come to be primarily associated with its plaintive content and not its metrical pattern.

The Development of Elegy: The elegy, like many other poetic forms is derived from Greek poets, from the pastoral verse of writers like Theocritus, Bion and Moschus. The 'dirge', threnody, 'monody' and 'lament' are all variations on the same theme. They are generally shorter versions of the elegy. According to L.T. Lemon's classification "Dirges are intended to be sung; a threnody is song-like but not necessarily intended for musical accompaniment; a monody is spoken by a single person. Lament may refer to any song expressing deep sorrow". The advent of the Greek type of elegy into English poetry dates from the Elizabethan times. It was then, that the Pastoral Elegy, in which in the guise of a shepherd, and in a pastoral setting, the poet mourns for a companion, came into English literature. The Elizabethan elegy was a very varied and complex product-comprising of 'complaints', Threnodies', Dirges', and 'Laments'. After these we have some well known elegies in the 17th and 18th centuries John Milton's Lycidas, Alexander Pope's To the Memory of an Unfortunate Lady, Oliver Goldsmith's On the Death of a Mad Dog, Thomas Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard. In the 19th century elegiac verse became threnodic, serious and of noble poetic inspiration. The elegies written by Shelley, Tennyson, Arnold, Swinburne and Rossetti have a depth, poignancy and sublimity that indicate the highwater-mark of elegiac lament in English literature.

Matthew Arnold's Elegy and the Elegiac Mood: “Arnold is almost greatest as an elegiac poet". "The best of our elegiac poets"; "In the elegy, where his genius was quite at ease, he is excellent... Indeed all his best verse has this elegiac note, or nearly all" - such are the tributes showered upon Arnold in relation to the elegy and the elegiac mood. However, writing an elegy is one matter and having the elegiac mood is another. Arnold tops in both; the elegiac mood, especially was inherent in him, almost natural to him. The world he saw around him, induced nothing but the elegiac mood in him. "The heartbreak in the heart of things" knocked perpetually at his heart. The sixteen poems of Arnold normally included under the title Elegiac Poems" are not all elegies in the strictest sense of the word. Perfect elegy in the traditional manner, Arnold has written only one, Thyrsis. It is the only true elegy. Next in order come Rugby Chapel written to the memory of the poet's celebrated father, Westminster Abbey written on the occasion of the death of Dean Stanley, Memorial Verses on the passing away of Wordsworth, A Southern Night commemorating the poet's brother William Delafield Arnold and Requiescat mourning the untimely death of a young (anonymous) lady. After these! comes The Scholar Gipsy lamenting a dead age. Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse bemoaning the loss of serious religious life, Stanzas Composed at Carnac bewailing lost love, and the melancholy, long, withdrawing roar.

Most of his other poems possess only a plaintive content, an elegiac tone. The elegiac strain of Arnold is visible in 'Times' current strong leaves us ture to nothing long" (A Memory Picture), in 'Alone dwell for ever the kings of the Sea' (The Forsaken Merman), in that something that infects the world's (Resignation), in "The lovers meet, but meet too late' (Too Late), in The unplumb'd salt, estranging sea' (Isolation), in 'Sits Neckan with his harp of gold, and sings his plaintive soul (The Neckan), in 'How vain a thing is mortal love' (To Marguerite) and so on. Thus we see that Arnold has to his credit only one elegy proper but many more containing the elegiac note, the strain of sadness.

Thyrsis as a Pastoral Elegy: Thyrsis, which is Arnold's only elegy written in the traditional form is a pastoral elegy. It is a brief lyric of mourning and personal bereavement - at the death of his friend Arthur Hugh Clough. Here Arnold represents himself as a shepherd named Corydon, and Clough as Thyrsis. Both the names are taken from traditional pastoral poetry where, Corydon mourns the death of a shepherd. Pagan mythology has been artistically introduced and the references to Pluto, Proserpine, Daphnis and Lityersis heighten the beauty of the poem and lend it a genuine pastoral tone. Thyrsis reveals Arnold's passion for the past, his ardent love for the familiar countryside, his sorrow at the death of his beloved friend, his reflective melancholy leading to the decision of the stead-fast quest of his ideal. Carleton Stanley aptly points out, "if Arnold had written nothing but Thyrsis how great would be our debt to him. Much of Arnold is here: his rich scholarship, his love of natural beauty, his striving for perfection in life, his ardent desire for companionship in the great quest, his scorn of worldliness, pettiness and vulgar greed and his abiding melancholy". This poem is also a criticism of life - a criticism of contemporary Victorian life - its sordidness, materialism, doubts, distractions and perplexed questionings. That makes the elegy at once both personal and impersonal.

The Reasons for the Elegiac Note in Arnold's Poetry: There are great elegies in English literature. But in the case of Matthew Arnold, the entire body of his poetry is elegiac - sometimes personal and sometimes impersonal. No other poet returns so frequently to the elegiac form as Arnold does: He found in the elegy the outlet for his native melancholy of the 'Virgilian Cry' over the mournfulness of mortal destiny. The rapid industrialization and material civilization which resulted in the law of faith was deeply regretted by Arnold. His elegies are suffused with tears. He always heard,

The complaining millions of men.

Darken in labour and pain

The Victorian age was at the crossroads of history. The old moral and religious assurances of Christianity were crumbling with the onslaught of science and excessive materialism. The people of the age, Arnold felt, were,

Wandering between two worlds, one dead,

The other powerless to be born

Arnold's cry of anguish and philosophical melancholy was for the lost promises and beauty of the vanished faith. His Dover Beach is an example of the gloomiest thoughts that haunted him.

In The Scholar Gipsy Arnold laments the death of faith in the age of materialism. The poet finds in his age only "sick hurry" and "divided aims". The people are "vague half-believers in casual creeds". A deep melancholy undertone can be discerned throughout this impersonal elegy.

Apart from loss of faith, it is a sense of loneliness which heightens the poet's anguish. He is saddened at the thought that, we mortal millions live alone. Again in Obernann Once More, he says:

But now the old is out of date,

The new is not yet born

And who can be alone elate,

While the world lies forlorn?

Arnold's stoicism the philosophy of endurance amidst life's various ills is the effect of his untold suffering, and it colours even his love poems. The love poems of Arnold are thus elegiac in tone and the refrain throughout is one of separation. They mourn the death of love, in most cases unrequited. In isolation, in the sea of life a God, a God their severance ruled'. In Destiny the poet finds fault with 'powers that sport with Man', the powers that will not allow a happy union of lovers. In Human Life,

....chartered by some unknown Powers,

We stem across the sea of life by night,

Conclusion: According to Middleton Murry "Arnold's most consistent achievement was in the kind of poems which we call elegiac. It suited best with his own persistent mood of restrained grief for the life he could not accept and the soul which he could not make his own". Sadness or a pensive melancholy is the true note of Arnold's poetry. What Arnold says about Clough's poetry in Thyrsis, is truer still of Arnold's own poetry: "his piping took a troubled sound..", and again, "his rustic flute learnt a stormy note of men contention-tost, of men who groan". Indeed, Arnold is the unsurpassed master of the elegiac note in poetry.

Example Questions

Write an essay on the elegiac note in Arnold's poetry.

Arnold is the unsurpassed master of the elegiac note in poetry". Discuss

Arnold's genius was essentially elegiac". Elucidate.

Arnold found in the elegy the outlet of his native melancholy the Virgilian cry' over the mournfulness of mortal destiny". Discuss.

Melancholic Tone in Matthew Arnold's Poetry

2024-08-28T08:00:00.003+05:30

Introduction

Misery! we have known each other.

Like a sister and a brother

Living in the same lone home,

Many years...

These lines of Shelley with a little variation-melancholy in place of misery-may very well have been written by Arnold. Arnold, by universal consent, is one of the most melancholic poets of England. Melancholy is the chief characteristic quality of his poetry.

Melancholic Outlook: Looking upon the complex and conflicting life around him, Arnold could not count himself among the optimists. He could not, like Macaulay, put his faith in material progress and rest satisfied; nor could he, like Browning, believe God to be in Heaven and assume that 'all's right with the world. Most men, Arnold saw, live in a brazen prison.

Where in the sun's hot eye,

With heads bent o'er their toil, they languidly

Their lives to some unmeaning taskwork give,

Dreaming of naught beyond their prison wall. (A Summer Night, Line. 38-41)

He saw them burden with stick fatigue, languid doubt, casual creeds, divided aims, palsied hearts, repeated shocks, mental strife and the strange disease of modern life. Seeing all this Arnold experiences 'nameless feelings' course through him and experiencing thus he could not but confess: ... from time to time, vague and forlorn,

From the soul's subterranean depth upborne

As from an infinitely distant land,

Come airs, and floating echoes, and convey

A melancholy into all our day. (The Buried Life. Line. 73-6)

This was Arnold's melancholy - the result of his realisation of the 'something that infects the world' of the 'ground bone of human agony', of the 'heart break in the heart of things', of the still, sad music of humanity'.

Melancholy in Arnold's Poetry: Melancholy is there in all Arnold's poems from the gayest to the gravest, from the shortest to the longest. I feel a nameless sadness o'er me roll' - he confesses in The Buried Life. The foil'd searching of mortality' - is how he describes the attempts of critics to know the secret of Shakespeare's genius. "I struggle towards the light" - he cries in Absence. Hark what pain' - he says, referring to the song of the nightingale, in Philomela. 'And never once possess our soul before we die' - he says pathetically in A Southern Night. 'Immedicable pain' is a precious phrase in Obermann Once More. Oh, hide me in your gloom profoundly solemn seats of holy pain he appeals in The Grande Chartreuse. In the same poem he records the suffering of his age.

Even a child described in Arnold's To a Gipsy Child by the Seashore has lost all the joys of life. He feels the "clouds of doom" which are shrouding his life and the life to him is synonymous with "vanity of hope". Unlike Wordsworth's concept of a child as "trailing clouds of glory" from heaven, Arnold's child is in a vale of tears.

Arnold cannot share Browning's facile optimism that youth is good, and "best is yet to be". Rather he says in Growing Old

It is to spend long days

And not once feel that we are ever young.

It is to add, immured

In the hot prison of the present, month

To month with weary pain.

(Line. 21-5)

Similarly Youth's Agitations records the perpetual unhappiness of man. A young man thinks that youth is a period of agitation and longs for repose in his old age. When old he casts a longing, lingering look behind, and thinks that youth is distinctly better.

And sigh that one thing only has been lent

To youth and age in common-discontent.

(Line. 13-14)

Empedocles on Etna also reflects the melancholic note. Arnold himself says that in this poem, "a continuous state of mental distress is prolonged unrelieved by hope, or resistance; in which there is everything to be endured, nothing to be done." Caught irrevocably in the meshes of the time spirit, Arnold could not but weep. In A Summer Night, a question from an anguished heart is lonely heard. The poet asks,

Is there no life, but these alone?

Madman or slave, must man be one?

(Line. 74-75)

Again in Sohrab and Rustum there is a sense of tears in mortal things as this epic fragment deals with the death of a son at the hands of his own father.

The Cause of Arnold's Melancholy: Forlorn, sadness, pain, suffering, failure, loneliness, such words are frequently associated with Arnold's poetry. "Down in the depth of our life underneath all our activities, our interests, even our affections and our happiness he was conscious of an unceasing craving, a longing that can never be satisfied, to know and understand what life is and what the fate of man, a sense too that we are in the grasp of a power immeasurable and relentless against which it is vain to struggle; conscious too that this fruitless yearning is not in the individual breast alone, but is the deepest element in the life of our race, colouring all its story through all the centuries through which it dwells. upon the earth".This unsatisfied craving this fruitless yearning of humanity is one reason for Arnold's melancholy. The tragedy of Modern life is another cause. The Scholar Gipsy is an eloquent commentary upon the Victorian age, full of sick hurry and divided aims. There is a deep melancholy undertone throughout the poem:

For whom each year we see

Breeds new beginnings, disappointments new;

Who hesitate and falter life away,

And lose to-morrow the ground won to-day.

The inevitable loneliness of humanity is another cause of the melancholic note. 'In the sea of life enisled ... we mortal millions live alone'. An unplumbed, salt, estranging sea rolls between one soul and another. Not humanity alone but even the great powers of Nature themselves have the same loneliness: Alone the sun rises, and alone spring the great streams'.

A Glimmer of Hope and Optimism Underlying the Spirit of Melancholy: Arnold's melancholy is not however, a melancholy that detects and depresses, a melancholy that robs us of our strength and spirit and fills us with despair. Rather it is a wistful feeling that attempts to discover a secret way out of the forlorn, lonely and forsaken miasma around that seeks 'fugitive and gracious light, why to illumine', that finds "The aids to noble life are all within" and that realises the truth to 'resolve to be thyself: and know that he who finds himself, loses his misery'.

Arnold's melancholy and scepticism thus, is not without sunshine; his sadness not without gladness. Tinged with sorrow and touched with despair - he yet points to the reddening East heralding a happier day:

Conclusion: Arnold was ever haunted by that undertone in human life which to the reflective and meditative temperament is so apt to throb with perpetual melancholy. Amidst the universal rejoicings of the Victorian age, Arnold seems to be a supreme anachronism. He strikes a discordant note of melancholy. That explains Arnold's lack of popularity in his age. But though the ache is always there at the heart of Arnold's poetry, there is yet about it a cheerful and irradiating gladness, a gleam that helps the groping man of his way along the destined road.

Matthew Arnold's Theory of Poetry as Criticism of Life

2024-08-21T08:00:00.001+05:30

Arnold's Theory of Poetry: "Poetry" according to Matthew Arnold "is a criticism of life under the conditions fixed for such a criticism by the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty". Arnold does not specify what he means by the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty. But he does offer us hints regarding the qualities of high poetry. To Arnold, poetry is both the substance and matter on one hand, and the style and manner on the other. Both determine the quality of high poetry. The substance itself acquires its special character from possessing truth and seriousness while the style and manner of the best poetry depend upon their diction and their movement. Both matter and style are inseparably linked in the best poetry.

Application of Ideas to Life: Arnold elucidates the phrase "a criticism of life" by using another phrase, namely, "an application of ideas to life" application of grand ideas to life. But what are these ideas to be applied to? In other words what are the objects of poetry? Arnold replies, "they are actions, human actions possessing an inherent interest in themselves and which are to be communicated in an interesting manner by the art of the poet? And these actions must be those which most powerfully appeal to the great primary human affections. To those elementary feelings which subsist permanently in the race and which are independent of time".

Treatment of Moral Ideas: Lest there be some ambiguity even in this explanation Arnold further elucidated "criticism of life" as essentially a moral approach to poetry. Poetry to Arnold was not for mere entertainment. There are critics who have found fault with Arnold's definition and pointed out that poetry is not a mere criticism of life, but an idealised reconstruction of life. Arnold, in fact is Aristotelian in his approach to poetry. Aristotle emphasised that poetry is an imitation of life or rather an idealised recreation of it. Worsfold has clinched the issue of moral edification as the supreme object of poetry when he says, "The poet or novelist by creating ideal pictures of life provides an ideal standard with which the facts of real life can be contrasted". In short Arnold's theory of poetry can be summed up as follows:

(i) Poetry is criticism of life. Closely connected with this dictum is the application of ideas moral ideas to life.

(ii) The objects of poetry are human actions possessing an inherent interest in themselves and universally relevant in all places and times.

(iii) Subject and style both inseparably linked in the best poetry.

A Criticism of Life: Arnold defined poetry a 'criticism of life'. In his Essay on Joubert he wrote

There are the famous men of literature - the Homers, Dantes, Shakespeare's, of them we need not speak; their praise is forever and ever. Then there are the famous men of ability in literature. Their praise is in their own generation. And what makes this difference? The work of the two orders of men is at the bottom the same, a criticism of life. The end and aim of all literature, if one considers it attentively, is, in truth nothing but that. But the criticism which the men of genius pass upon human life is permanently acceptable to mankind; the criticism which the men of ability pas upon human life is transitorily acceptable.

Arnold has further elucidated, criticism of life' as the "noble and profound application of ideas to life" i.e. moral ideas. This definition has however raised a hornet's nest. Garrod interprets it by quoting Edward Caird who says that literature is a criticism of life exactly in the sense that a good man is a criticism of bad one". T.S. Eliot feels that the definition of poetry as a criticism of life is inadequate and 'frigid'. Oliver Elton says that criticism of life implies "something that would illumine and inspire us for the business of living". Poetry seeks to idealise the dull and drab life and thus casts a glow upon life and heightens it. Thus, the Nightingale of Keats is an idealised portrait of unattainable beauty. To beauty, must be added moral ideas. But Arnold did not use "moral idea" in the conventional sense.

Arnold's Concept of Moral Ideas: Arnold elucidated his concept of moral ideas in his essay on Wordsworth. By emphasising the moral approach, Arnold does not mean the composing of moral or didactic poems. Rather, according to Arnold, it is the question how to live and whatever comes under it, that is moral. It is the question, which most interests every man and with which, in some way or other, he is perpetually occupied with. Arnold quotes Milton:

Nor love thy life nor hate; but what thou liv'st

Live well; how long or short, permit to heaven.

In these lines the moral idea is easily perceived. So also in the following line from Keat's Ode on a Grecian Urn.

Forever wilt thou love, and she be fair

Again Shakespeare utters a moral idea when he says:

We are such stuff

As dreams are made of and our little life

Is round with a sleep.

Arnold, therefore, concluded:

A poetry of revolt against moral ideas is a poetry of revolt against life, a poetry of indifference towards moral ideas is a poetry of indifference towards life.

Arnold's Poetry as a Criticism of Life: No poet was as critical of the Victorian age as Arnold. Hugh Walker says "Arnold's much-condemned definition of poetry as 'a criticism of life' is at least true of his own poetry". Like Browning, Arnold could not say

God's in his Heaven

And all's right with the world.

He found his age barren and sterile. Material advancement had led to spiritual degeneration and Arnold's verse is deeply critical of this. In all his deepest poems, in Thyrsis and The Scholar Gipsy, in Resignation, in the Obermann poems, in A Southern Night, Arnold is passing judgement on life and his age, the life of his country, the lives of individual men. In Dover Beach Arnold strikes a note of sadness when he compares men to an ignorant army clashing in a darkling plain. Having lost faith, man's life on earth is enveloped in the darkness of despair and skepticism and lost in the gloom without knowing its meaning and. In his philosophical poem Empedocles on Etna too, the poet pictures the dilemma of his time through his mouthpiece, Empedocles. The 'skeptical philosopher, at one time very powerful in Sicily but now 'the weary man, the banished citizen', climbs his way to the summit of Etna and reasons his way from despair to suicide. At the same time he muses on man's sad lot and the fate of the soul after death.

Thyrsis: Thyrsis also offers us a criticism of life i.e., a moral comment on the complicated problem of modern life which vex the mind of the poet and his friends torn by conflicts and cut off from their moorings due to uncertainties and lack of faith. The poct is moved by the insatiable hunger of the human spirit for a sustaining faith and knowledge and a yearning for spiritual calm and poise. "Arnold's serenity is the quiet seclusion of a melancholy soul" and he found solace in the healing power of Nature. This is the message of Thyrsis. The following passage from Thyrsis is another example of the treatment of a moral idea and of a criticism of life.

Yes, thou art gone! and round me too the night:

In ever-nearing circle weaves her shade.

I see her veil draw soft across the day,

I feel her slowly chilling breath invade

The cheek grown thin, the brown hair sprent with grey:

I feel her finger light

Laid pausefully upon life's headlong train;

The foot less prompt to meet the morning dew,

The heart less bounding at emotion new,

And hope, once crush'd, less quick to spring again. (Line. 131-140)

Although the poet here speaks of his personal feelings and his personal reaction to the advent of old age, there is no doubt about the universal truth of these lines.

The Scholar Gipsy: It is this poem which admirably illustrates Arnold's application of his theory of poetry as a criticism of life". In it the life of the soul - whose springs are inward and the life of the world-division and distraction of fever and unrest; of pleasures and passion of intellectual lights and crosslights, are contrasted". The curse of modern life is that we are:

Vague-half-believers of our casual creeds

Who never deeply felt, nor clearly will'd

Whose insight never has borne fruit in deeds,

Whose weak resolves never have been fulfill'd

Who hesitate and falter life away,

And lose to-morrow the ground won to-day (Line. 172-179)

The modern life is one of 'sick hurry' and divided aims' and this dries up the spirit of man. After diagnosing the disease of modern life, Arnold offers his remedy. The Scholar Gipsy, for example, chooses to live away from the sick hurry and divided aims of life. He has no hankering after the material pleasures and passions of life. He seeks spiritual illumination from the Gipsies among whom he has sought refuge from the torment of civilization.

He has "one aim, one business, one desire. In other words, Arnold's teaching in The Scholar Gipsy, as in many other poems, is that people should seek to "see life steadily and see it whole" and that "the aids to noble life are all within". However, Arnold's criticism of life is not always acceptable. The idealism of the Scholar Gipsy is actually a kind of escapism from life and escapism is never a virtue. According to Eliot "The life pictured in The Scholar Gipsy, however, pleasing and attractive it may be made to look in poetry, can hardly be recommended as the ideal life, for there is nothing in it heroic". Arnold's drawback also was that the brightside of the age included his notice.

Conclusion: Arnold believed that Europe in his time, principally needed criticism, and he gave his criticism in verse as well as in prose. In A Southern Night, the fate of his brother, dying in exile in the attempt to return to England becomes the text for a sermon on the restless energy of the English; in the Epilogue to Lessing's Lacoon we have a discussion of the principles of the arts of music, painting and poetry. In his verse, Goethe, Byron, Wordsworth and Senancour are all Cxamined with wonderful insight (Memorial Verses). Even his elegiac poetry is never limited to a simple expression of grief; it always becomes reflective and philosophical. Sometimes the directly critical element is uppermost as in Memorial Verses and Heine's Grave. Thus, Arnold's poetry is chiefly a poetry of criticism not only of art and literature but of life itself.

Example Questions

Examine some of the poems of Arnold in the light of his remark that poetry is "a criticism of life".

Examine Arnold's poetic theories and show to what extent his practice as a poet conforms to those theories.

Arnold defined poetry as a criticism of life'. Discuss this with reference to The Scholar Gipsy, Thyrsis and other poems of Arnold.

Enunciate Arnold's Theory of poetry.

Estimate Arnold's poetry as the criticism of life.

Quiet Work: by Matthew Arnold - Summary and Analysis

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This sonnet, an early work, first appeared in 1848. It was the first poem in the anthology, Strayed Reveller and Other Poems, under the title Sonnet. In the 1853 volume of the poems, even the title was dropped. It gave the impression that the theory of poetry of Arnold, as exemplified in the volume followed the principles of this sonnet. In 1869, the piece acquired the title, Quiet Work.

We find Arnold's attitude to nature, at least his caring attitude, clearly in the poem. The influence of Wordsworth is unmistakable. In Self Dependence also Arnold has expressed similar views as in.

SUMMARY

Arnold declares that he has to learn a lesson from Nature. It is a lesson which is passed on through every activity of Nature like the common wind. Nature propagates the message of quiet work. This message can be noticed in all activities of nature. Man, should work hard in this worldly life, but there is no need that the sick hurry and fretful fever should go along with work. Instead he should remain calm and unperturbed. The aim must be toil unsevered from tranquillity. Nature indulges in unending toil, but remains calm and serene. It is this quiet work of Nature that the poet likes to learn from her. The ordinary people who do not have any sagacity or wisdom think that quiet work is impossible, and that work and serenity conflict with each other. But according to the poet steadfast devotion to work without discarding serenity should be man's ideal. Steady work and serenity are not at all irreconcilable. Work done in tranquillity is better than the work done in fret and fever. The materialistic civilization is causing a lot of sound and fury that is not conducive to serenity. But real and lasting progress is possible only when tranquillity is present. Nature's work is fully reconciled with serenity and it is worthwhile man emulates Nature. Contrasting man's work with Nature's Arnold says that she had admirably reconciled the twin concept of work and serenity, while man does his work amidst a lot of sound and fury, fever and fret. Thus Nature puts the fruitless and fitful human activity to shame. She is always active and fruitful and teaches man the supreme lesson of quiet work.

CRITICAL APPRECIATION AND ANALYSIS

In the poem, Quiet Work we find Arnold's attitude to Nature, especially that of his earlier period, as almost a Wordsworthian. Here we find him indulging in some philosophic speculation. Without spiritualizing or intellectualizing Nature, he sees charm in her work. Truthfully and accurately he presents his observations. He sees in nature an unfailing source of peace and calm, but not of joy. Here he differs from Wordsworth who finds joy pervading in Nature though Arnold is mostly Wordsworthian in this poem. Wordsworth has expressed similar views as that expressed by Arnold. Arnold's philosophy of 'toil unsevered from Serenity' is definitely Wordsworthian. Human life is full of toil in the midst of sound and fury. Arnold seeks some sort of escape from the fretful society by following Nature's quiet work. He wants mankind to emulate the quiet but ceaseless work of Nature and achieve peace and calm.

Coleridge's Biographia Literaria has something similar to this poem in language and spirit. Coleridge writes,

Should anyone interrogate her (Nature), how she works.., she will reply, it behoves thee not to disquiet me with interrogatories, but to understand in silence even as I am silent, and work without words.

From Arnold's Note Book it is known that he read Carlyle's works seriously. A passage from Goethe appeared in Carlyle's Critical and Miscellaneous Essays.

The translation into English is given below:

Like as a star

That maketh not haste

That taketh not rest

Be each one fulfilling

His God given best.

One finds clear echo of Goethe's lines in Quiet Work. The poem shows Arnold's classical attitude. As a true classicist he believes in serenity, not in the romantic, emotional, exuberance.

This sonnet is Petrarchan in form. The end of the octave (the first eight lines) gives a clearly distinct change of thought, characteristic of Petrarchan sonnets. The Sestet (The latter the six lines) contrasts the quiet work of Nature with the fretful work of man.

LINE BY LINE EXPLANATIONS

I. One lesson ... enmity. Line. 3-4

Here Arnold describes the lesson that Nature teaches man continuously. She teaches the twin duty in one lesson: hard work and tranquillity are to go hand in hand. To the average man work and tranquillity are irreconcilable. The poet disagrees with that common view. He has noticed that Nature continuously does her duty in serenity. The blowing of the wind, the shining of the sun and the moon and all the activities go on endlessly but in serenity. Nature is not agitated over her work, neither does she complain that work is hard.

2. Of Toil ... rivalry. Line. 5-9

Here Arnold tells that mankind has failed to learn any lesson from Nature. Her work is hard, does the work ceaselessly and yet she remains calm and serene. Quite differently, man does his work fitfully, often fruitlessly, but complains about the difficulty of his work. Nature, on the other hand, does not have anything to complain, though she put forth permanent achievements. The poet has learnt from Nature that work done in peace and calmness is superior to work done in fret and fever.

3. Still do ... is gone. Line. 11-14

Here Arnold glorifies nature as an ideal teacher. Nature is ceaselessly at work, but she retains her tranquility. The poet contrasts the fitful and fruitless work of man with that of Nature which is always fruitful and serene. The forces of Nature, like the wind, the planetary movements, climatic changes etc. are constantly at work. They put the fitful human activity to shame. Man often fails, but Nature never fails. The elements of Nature have been working from time immemorial and that work will continue to a time, even after the possible extinction of man.

To A Friend: by Matthew Arnold - Summary and Analysis

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Who prop, thou ask'st, in these bad days, my mind?

He much, the old man, who clearest-sould of men,

Saw The Wide Prospect, and the Asian Fen,

And Tmoius' hill, and Smyrna 's bay, though blind.

Much he, whose friendship I not long since won,

That halting slave, who in Nicopolis

Taught Arrian, when Vespasian's brutal son

Clear'd Rome of what most sharn'd him. But be his

My special thanks, whose even-balanc'd soul,

From first youth tested up to extreme old age,

Business could not make dull, nor Passion wild:

Who saw life steadily, and saw it whole:

The mellow glory of the Attic stage;

Singer of sweet Colonus, and its child.

INTRODUCTION

One of Arnold's early works, this sonnet is addressed to Arthur Hugh Clough whom he commemorated in Thyrsis, later, after the latter's death. Arnold wrote about Clough as follows "...he possessed ... two invaluable literary qualities - a true sense for his object of study, and a single-hearted care for it. He had both: but he had the second even more eminently than the first. He greatly developed the first through means of the second. In the study of art, poetry or philosophy, he had the most undivided and disinterested love for his subject in itself, the greatest aversion to mixing up with it anything accidental or personal. His interest was in literature itself; and it was this which gave so rare a stamp to his character which kept him so free from all taint of littleness: In the saturnalia of ignoble personal passions, of which the struggle for literary success, in old and crowded communities, offers so sad a spectacle, he never mingled. He had not yet traduced his friends, nor flattered his enemies, nor disparaged what he admired, nor praised what he despised.. In him... is the Homeric simplicity of his literary life".

Clough and Arnold were close to each other for a time. Both had their education at Rugby under Dr. Thomas Arnold, and both were at Oxford, though not together. Later in life the friends drifted apart. Clough had great appreciation for Arnold, but he didn't like this piece addressed to him. Clough dubbed Arnold's classicism, an escapism. Reviewing the poem in The North American Review, Clough had said,

"Not by turning and twisting his eyes, in the hope of seeing things as Homer, but by seeing them, by accepting them as he sees them and faithfully depicting accordingly, will he attain the object he desires".

Arnold writes about three great Greeks whom he admired, and whose thoughts supplied him with spiritual sustenance! Homer, Sophocles and Epictetus. They were his guiding philosophers. His views on Homer comes out often and again in his writings, prose as well as poetry. He admired the out of door freshness, life, naturalness and buoyant rapidity". In his lecture On Translating Homer, Arnold gives supreme praise to the bard: "Homer himself is eternally interesting; he is a greater poetical power than even Sophocles or Aeschylus".

Sophocles too fascinated Arnold. This is what he has to say about the sagely Greek dramatist.

If in the body of Athenians of that time there was ... the utmost energy of mature manhood, public and private; the most entire freedom, the most unprejudiced and intelligent observation of human affairs - in Sophocles there is the same energy, the same maturity, the same freedom, the same intelligent observation; but all these idealized and glorified by the grace and light shed over them from the noblest poetical feeling. And, therefore, I have ventured to say of Sophocles, that he 'saw life steadily and saw it whole'

In Dover Beach too one can find Arnold's admiration for Sophocles over-flowing.

Sophocles long ago

Heard it on the Aegean, and it brought

Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow

Of human misery.

SUMMARY

Arnold imagines his friend Clough asking the poet a question, as to what is the force, that sustains him in the bad days of Victorian materialism. When traditional values are in the decline; life is losing its purpose. But there are sources of strength for him and Arnold tells about them. Arnold thinks that Homer the blind epic poet of Greece is a greatest source of strength, and support, to mankind.

Wise and noble, Homer, had a true insight into life and its problems. He was the person of the clearest mental vision. Though he was blind and lived in Greece, he could see the drama of life in the continents of Europe and Asia which he portrayed in his epics. On reading those great works Arnold gets consolation and strength.

Epictetus, the ancient Greek philosopher is another from whom Arnold draws his strength. The lame philosopher who lived in Nicopoles was the teacher of Arrian. But emperor Domitian, the cruel son of emperor Vespasian banished him and that act, remains a blot on that tyrant.

To the next, Sophocles, Arnold is deeply indebted. His was an evenly balanced outlook of life and he had a remarkable moral integrity and intellectual excellence. Sagely and sensible he retained a serenity of mind from early youth to ripe old age. That child of Greece brought in great glory to the whole of the motherland as the sweetest dramatist who wrote Oepus at Colonus.

CRITICAL APPRECIATION AND ANALYSIS

Arnold was one of the most sensitive writers of the Victorian age. The pomp and glory that the material prosperity has brought to England was of no enchantment to him. The crass materialism and the scientific progress of the age led to skepticism. The age old values of life were declining and he uttered in disappointment. These are damned times". Arnold's soul could not feel easy with life. The feverish fret and hectic excitement the men of the world were seeking, make him shudder.

His sensitive mind was distressed deeply and the resulting frustration and despair were recorded in a few poems. To a Friend is one such poem.

Where could he find consolation to calm his mind and strength to steady himself in the journey of life? He turned to the classical past, to the ancient Greece. Homer, Epictetus and Sophocles could guide him. Their sagely wisdom could give him a purpose in life, and give him hope in the encircling gloom and disillusionment. Of the three, Sophocles's spell on him was greatest for he 'saw life and saw it whole'.

In the poem, we find Arnold upholding the values of classicism. All around in contemporary literature there was found romantic excess and exuberance of passion, which was not to his liking. So he looks back in time when restraint and order used to be the sought for aims, in literature. Art for Arts sake was anathema for him. Literature according to him must be related to life. His dictum that poetry is criticism of life amply illustrates this point. This sonnet is to be seen as a criticism of Victorian way of life and its values where majority of the people worshipped the money-god. The more the age prospered materially, the more it deteriorated morally and spiritually.

Arnold shows his appreciation for Homer, Epictetus and Sophocles who stood steadfastly for certain values in life. Though they were not conscious moralists, they upheld the dignity of moral and intellectual principles and thereby exhorted man to fresh adventures and to excellence in life.

With the characteristic brevity of sonnet, Arnold sums up the qualities of the trio whom he admires very much. He very well exemplifies the classical brevity, order, restraint and felicity of expression.

We find beautiful criticism of life in this short poem. This life Arnold saw around him is, in biblical words, weighed in the balance and found wanting. The majority of the people in the world are frivolous, seeking the materialistic success as the sole purpose of life. But Arnold knows that there are a few heroic souls too in this world, those who are the helpers of mankind. Theirs is the ideal life, not that of the Victorians. All these ideas are compressed into fourteen lines of this sonnet. There is criticism of life in it and there is beauty in that criticism, making it a literary piece of great artistic quality.

LINE BY LINE EXPLANATIONS

1. Who prop ..... though blind. Line. 1-4

In the first quatrain of the octave of the sonnet To a Friend, Arnold imagines his some time close friend Arthur Clough asking him what sustains the poet's life during the bad times of Victorian age. The answer is given in the sonnet: Homer, Epictetus and Sophocles and their thoughts.

In the first quarter the poet deals with Homer and his greatness. The grand old sagely poet was blind, still he had clear insight into the life of people of the continents of Asia and Europe. Asian Fen refers to the muddy areas created by the rivers of Asia Minor. Txiolus hell is in the modern Turkey which was in Asiatic Greece during Homer's time. Smyrna bay is a gulf in the Aegean sea near Smyrna, the birthplace of Homer.

Homer was said to be a blind bard. But his insight into life and its problems is unequalled among poets or visionaries. Though he could not see with his physical eye, Arnold implies that his vision at a mental plane enabled to understand the problems of people of Asia and Europe.

2. Much he ..... sham'd him, Line. 5-8

The quoted lines are from the second quartet of the octave of the sonnet, To a Friend. Here Arnold pays his tribute to Epictetus the philosopher. He is one of the classical trio who gave consolation and strength to the poet.

Epictetus was born lame, in the city of Nicopolis. He was a philosopher in the stoic tradition, and the teacher of another philosopher, Arrian. Emperor Domitian, son of emperor Vespasian banished him from the country and the banishment was considered to be one of the shameful acts of his. Arnold's praise of Epictetus is remarkable for its restraint. Yet his nobility clearly brought out by his banishment by a tyrant. The steadfast belief in truth only could have been the cause of the banishment. As it was affected by an emperor known to be a tyrant, one can conclude that the philosopher stood for noble qualities.

3. But to his ..... its child

In the sextet of the Sonnet, To a Friend, Arnold pays the most glowing tribute to Sophocles, the Greek dramatist. He considered the extant plays of Sophocles, as the depository of wisdom and mature understanding of the problems of life.

Arnold extends special thanks to Sophocles for the balanced view of life of that sagely poet which remained with him from his youth to his ripe old age.

The troubles of life did not make his clear vision dull at all. Neither did passion make it go wild. He saw life without any prejudice and he saw it in its entirety. He brought in great glory to the Greek drama. His play Oedipus at Colonus is as dear as sweet music to mankind.

Arnold expresses special thanks to Sophocles because he has derived great consolation and strength from him. He has very often, through his writings acknowledged his indebtedness to that dramatist. In Dover Beach, he says how Sophocles heard the eternal note of sadness of human misery and portrayed them in his plays. Arnold was irresistibly drawn to Sophocles and his view of life that is found in his plays.

A Summer Night: by Matthew Arnold - Summary and Analysis

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INTRODUCTION

A Summer Night by Matthew Arnold was first published in 1852 and appeared in the 1853 volume. The identity of the exact setting of the poem and the lady mentioned in it is not established beyond doubt. Some critics think that its inspiration and the experience mentioned owe their origin to a night in Switzerland near Lake Thun. But others like Prof. Kenneth Allot rejects this on the ground that Arnold mentions spring tide in the poem. Lake Thun, being land-locked possibly could not have the tidal effect in it. Perhaps in the poem Arnold is thinking of Frances Lucy Wightman and his courtship with her. Professor Saintsbury has this to say about the poem: "There is a cheering doctrine of mystical optimism which will have it that a sufficiently intense devotion to any ideal never fails of at least one moment of consummate realisation and enjoyment. Such a moment is granted to Matthew Arnold when he wrote A Summer Night. Whether that rather vague life-philosophy of his, that erection of a melancholy agnosticism plus asceticism into a creed, was anything more than a not ungraceful or undignified will-worship of Pride, we need not here argue out......here it rings not only faithfully, but almost triumphantly. The lips are touched at last: the eyes are thoroughly opened to see what the lips shall speak: the brain almost unconsciously frames and fills the adequate and inevitable scheme. And, as always at these right poetic moments, the minor felicities follow the major. The false rhymes are nowhere; the imperfect phrases, the title sham simplicities or pedantries, hide themselves; and the poet is free, from the splendid opening landscape through the meditative exposition, and the fine picture of the ship-wreck to the magnificent final invocation of the 'Clearness divine'.

LINE BY LINE SUMMARY

Line. 1-10: In the deserted moon blanch'd street: The poem begins with a rather melancholic picture of a deserted street bathed in moonshine. As the poet walks through the street he could hear the echo of his own footsteps making him conscious of his loneliness. The white windows he looks at remain unopened and silent. They appear to be disapproving of him. Then, through the gap among the housetops he could see the moon, against a background of the dew filled sky, that extends to the horizon.

Line. 11-25: The disquiet of the poet: The moon and the sky brings to his mind the memory of a similar night at a far away place. The headland jutted into the sea lit by the very bright moon. The high tide made the dazzling water flow fast. The row of white houses remained like a girdle to the shining sea. Behind the houses could be seen the mountains in the distance. The restless to and fro pacing, and the throbbing of heart which he feels now was present on that occasion too. The same bright and calm moon too was there.

Line. 26-33: The calm moon's message: The moon seems to ask whether the poet has the same disquiet in him that neither dies out nor frees him from the troubled thoughts; does it only make him alternate between overwhelming passion and a feeling of numbness born out of the influence of the worldly life.

Line. 34-50: The slavish life: The poet is not certain whether he should continue to live with his own identity or to live a life like the rest of the people of the world. Most men live as if they are in a prison, enslaved by their daily toil. They use up all their energy in meaningless tasks. They cannot think of anything beyond their own limited life experience. Year after year, they do their tiring work making themselves gloomy. The unhappiness of the mind is so great that they reach a miserable and unblest death. Even death is not able to free them from their miseries.

Line. 51-73: The romantic life: Other men are there who escape from the narrow kind of life described earlier. Freed from the narrow life they indulge into a whimsical life style. They do not know what their quest is and go after some unknown goals. In their pursuit they face all sorts of difficulties. They continue their pursuit until they meet with their inevitable doom. The sea voyage in this section represents human life. The mariner who sails in the sea without any particular goal is the romantic adventurer who meets his doom by drowning in his own sea of passion.

Line. 74-92: The noble destiny of man: The author asks whether there is a third alternative other than the life of the slave or of the person mad with passion. He suggests that a life of plainness and clearness will be a life without any unhappiness. He wants mankind to learn a lesson from the heavens. In the pure dark regions of heaven there is no inaction, but there is a calm without troubles arising out of passion. The heavenly objects, though are of a noble position, do their duty steadfastly, free from the baser activities. The stars may have had their own share of desires and longings along with the possible resultant frustrations, but they remain far above the humans. From them man can learn how clear his soul can be, how vast his mental horizons can grow, and how noble his destiny is. He can fulfill his promises despite the human limitations.

CRITICAL APPRECIATION AND ANALYSIS

The Summer Night is among the important philosophic poems of Matthew Arnold where his attitude to life comes out very clearly. In the two stanzas at the beginning of the poem, Arnold depicts the disquiet and the restlessness he felt in a summer night. He had experienced the same feelings during another night in another place at a former time. The bright moon too was there on that occasion. The peculiar restlessness of his heart would neither die down nor grow intense into a wild passion.

Then comes a description of two kinds of human beings. Most of the humans spend their whole life toiling hard in the customary way but without achieving anything tangible. They are the slaves of custom. Those who escape this slavery are the second type: the romantic adventurers. Without any clear goal before them they indulge into adventurous activities and meet their doom drowning in the sea of their own passion.

In the concluding part Arnold says there must be a third alternative to life - other than that of the slave and the mad man. The man should learn a lesson from the heavenly objects which fulfill their duty, all the time remaining calm and untroubled. Watching the heavenly objects, man can understand how vast and clear are his mental horizons and what a noble role man has to play in this world.

Great poetry according to his own definition: Arnold himself defined poetry as criticism of life. In this poem Arnold's philosophy of life, or attitude to life comes out. We see the result of the poet's meditations on man and his life. He doesn't approve of the dreary customary life most people lead in this world; there is an undertone of bitter sarcasm at such a life. The poem has a moral and the didacticism becomes clear towards the end. The exact ideal Arnold tries to display before the readers is vague or obscure; but he clearly states that man should have noble or high aspirations.

The Arnoldian melancholy: The characteristic melancholy found in Arnold's other poems are present here too. The melancholy he feels at present was there with him, on a previous occasion at a different place too. The poem is built upon this idea that,

... the same restless pacings to and fro,

And the same vainly-throbbing heart was there.

And the same bright calm moon.

(Line. 23-5)

After depicting the ever present restlessness he contrasts it with the calm and tranquillity of the heaven and heavenly objects. The disquietude, the restiessness and the melancholy vanishes in the end giving way to a mood of hopefulness. If only man learns a lesson from the calm and tranquility the heavens display, then he will be able to live a life without passion and can aim at nobler goals. Surely it is an optimistic view but it lacks the vigour and radiance; one can say it is a kind of subdued optimism.

The Style: The picturesque description of the night skyscape in the beginning of the poem is haunting. With the words and phrases like 'deserted moon blanch'd street, 'lonely rings the echo', 'windows which I gaze at, frown', and repellent as the world, he succeeds in bringing in a mood of melancholy. Recalling the previous scene, he pictures a night sca-scape, of an equally sad mood.

In describing the life of the slave of the custom, the poet uses an extended metaphor. Man who leads a life just like the other man is considered a slave and customs make the prison walls. The romantic adventurer, the 'mad man', again is presented through another extended metaphor as a mariner who steers his ship over the stormy sea, without any clear destination in mind, destined to doom. He disappears in the tempest of his own passionate living;

.....then the tempest strikes him, and between

The lightning bursts is seen

Only a driving wreck,

And sterner comes the roar

Of sea and wind, and through the deepening gloom

Fainter and fainter wreck and helmsman loom,

And he too disappears, and comes no more.

(Line. 62-73)

The felicity of the language of the poem is noteworthy. Some of the long syllabled phrases do sound Homeric, or Epic like. 'Moon blanched street', 'far horizon's rein', 'spring tide's brimming flow', blue haze-cradled mountains', 'vainly throbbing heart', old unquiet breast', 'waves of mournful thought', 'some false impossible shore' are some of them. Then there are the aphoristic lines like:

Is there no life but these alone?

Madman or slave, must man be one?

How fair a lot to fill

Is left to each man still.

Arnold uses free verse; verse of various metre and rhythm are combined, in this poem. The verse swings along with case and power, agreeing with the changing thought-development. But the sheer musical quality of the lyric-form is beyond reach of Arnold. No wonder some critics thought him to be one without an ear for the musical.

The poem has an exquisite opening, and a sublime end, but the middle is brazenly bitter. The acidity with which he disparages the slave type of people is really cruel.

...most men in a brazen prison live.

............................................................

Dreaming of naught beyond their prison wall.

His opinion of the romantic adventurer too is pungent.

...where'er his heart

Listeth will sail

No does he know how there prevail

And then the tempest strikes him;

(Line. 37-62)

The question "Madman or slave, must man be one?" is surely impregnated with pessimism.

LINE BY LINE EXPLANATIONS

1. In the deserted ..... heaven disclose. Line. 1-10

A Summer Night has a sublime beginning. The first line sets the mood of the poem, that of melancholy with the words 'deserted' and 'moon blanch'd'. The poet is walking through the deserted streets alone during a night and the echo of his own footsteps accentuates the feeling of loneliness. He looks at the silent and white windows, but they appear as unopening as the unsympathetic world itself. Then, suddenly, the poet gets a beautiful view of the moon through a gap among the house tops, against a dewy dark background of the sky extending up to the horizon.

The passage is highly suggestive even to the point of becoming symbolie. The street is life itself and the loneliness is that any thinking mind feels in this world. The echo of the feet could be the memories of his own past actions and his meditations over it. The phrase 'Moon blanch'd' gives a melancholy colour to human life. Then he gets a beautiful sight of the Moon in the skies, which heaven discloses. The ironic isolation of man in this well populated world is a pet theme of Arnold, often repeated. Isolation, tells of the life of the mortal millions in the sea 'enisled'. The same idea appears in a different setting here. The line reminds one of the Scholar Gipsy waiting for heaven send moments to comprehend wisdom and truth. The words, "but see...the moon" gives the impression of a sublime scene appearing before the poet, almost like a flash from heaven. This beginning rather forces upon the poet the conclusion that Nature can restore the calm which allows man to possess his soul".

2. Host thou ..... word's sway? Line. 27-33

After describing a moon blanch'd night scene Arnold thinks of another similar moonlit night that remains in his memory. Then the poet says that the moon appears to be asking him some questions about the restlessness of his: Has he got the same restlessness which he once had, even now? That restlessness which neither dies down nor allows the spirit to a noble fluctuation that frees from passion and the benumbing influence or routine of life? In simpler words the questions are the following. Are you still having the restless mind and a peaceless spirit? Are you not dullened by the influence of custom by contact with convention and by habit and your feelings? Have you got that enthusiasm which carries you out of your thoughts and which subjects you to constant changes?

Arnold is always conscious of the incapacitating disquietude that affects the thinking man. He is equally aware of the great heights to which human soul can rise if it is not benumbed by passion and enslaved by the dreary customs of the world.

3. For most men ..... prison wall. Line. 37-41

Arnold thinks that most men in the world live a life imprisoned by their own custom-imposed routine. Their life is narrow and limited. They live in strong prisons doing hard tasks without realizing the purpose of such work. They are not able to think of anything beyond the narrow field of their own dreary experience.

After beginning the poem with a sublime description Arnold goes into a bitter disparagement of the usual life most people live. Majority of humans are the slaves of custom. They imprison themselves within the strong walls of customs and habits. They do not have a strong imagination to have high aspirations in life. Arnold always disparaged people who lead such a life. He has qualified people of low taste and imagination as Philistins and throughout his life he fought a war against Philistinism. But the pungent criticism directed against most people is the world and calling them slaves in an act approaching pessimism. However towards the end of the poem, after disparaging the slaves and the madman Arnold indulges into an obvious optimism.

4. And as ..... still unblest. Line. 42-50

Here Arnold continues to disparage those people who lead a slavish life, imprisoned by customs and habits. They feel the pressure of gloomy and depressing thoughts which they unsuccessfully fight. They are unable to escape from their custom-built prison; neither can they ennoble themselves with fresh experience. They become gloomy as they find their labour becoming rewardless. Pressed by their unhappy thoughts, they face death, still unburdened, and without getting at the meaning of life.

5. And the rest ..... cones no more. Line. 51-73

After disparaging the slaves of custom Arnold turns his attention to the romantic adventurer. They are the ones who have escaped from the slavish life most people live. But they lead an uncontrolled life led by their passions. They are like mariners sailing their ships through a perilous sea. However, they do not have a clear destination to sail to. Neither they know the currents and cross currents that flow in the sea. But without losing heart he goes forward to an unknown destination. But the tempest grow wilder and he disappears and is seen no more.

The concept that life is a voyage across the sea of time is an old man and his thinking. Arnold by extending the metaphor, brings out very beautifully, the similarity between the romantic adventurer and mariner in a tempestuous sea. The tempest stands for passion in man. The romantic man is like a mariner who tries to reach an unknown destination across the sea; both are aimless, one in life and the other in sea. But both are at least courageous in moving away from the dreary customs and habits. Both want to achieve something though they do not know what they want to achieve. As the mariner mentioned is not knowledgeable about the trade winds the romantic adventurer is unaware of the current and cross currents affect man's life in this world. The pale master ... with anguish'd face and troubled hair' is an apt description of a romantic person torn by his passions. The tempest that strikes him is the intensity of his own passions that inevitably lead to his doom. Through the extended metaphor Arnold succeeds in pointing out that the romantic man's life is equally meaningless as that of the one who is the slave of custom.

6. Ye Heavens ... dust and soil Line. 78-82

After describing the life of custom's slave and the mad romantic, Arnold hints at the possibility of a third alternative life without passion. For leading such a life the plainness and clearness of the skies can give guidance to man.

The heavenly object in the sky shows no sign of inaction. At the same time they remain calm. Though they do great work they do so dispassionately and in an untroubled manner. Though they are very noble they take part in the worldly duties. But they do their duty without being contaminated by earthly evils.

Arnold's idea of an ideal life comes out clear through these lines and those that follows. There will not be any inaction in him; but he indulges into action, dispassionately, untroubled. The duty they do, is noble, but they keep in touch with the lowly and the ordinary, but without being touched by the squalor found in the world.

Perhaps Arnold was influenced by the Bhagawad Gita, which he recommended to Clough as a tool to discipline the latter's mind. What Arnold considers as noble life, is that Gita upholds, a dispassionate life, where one does his duty disregarding the reward one may get.

7. I will not ..... each man still. Line. 83-92.

In the optimistic conclusion of A summer Night, Arnold suggests that mankind should learn a lesson from the heavenly objects and lead a life of plainness and clarity without passion.

The poet does not think that the heavenly objects retain even a small part of the throbbings of broken hopes and unfulfilled ambitions, that are found amongst human beings. He thinks the heavenly objects do have a message for man. Placed far above the reach of humans, the stars appear to show to man, how one can have noble aspirations and desires and still be plain and clear. How good it can be to remain free like them and do one's duty. Each man has his duty to fulfill, and it will be wonderful to do one's duty dispassionately.

Here we find the thought of Bhagawad Gita permeating the conclusion of the poem. It is for man to do his job dispassionately. He should not think of the reward for his actions.

Thyrsis: by Matthew Arnold Summary and Analysis

2024-07-24T08:00:00.001+05:30

INTRODUCTION

The Friends: From 1845 to 1848 Arnold and Clough were together at Oxford. They were rather intimate friends and there are internal pieces of evidence in the poem establishing that fact. They roved through in the Oxford countryside together. Together they sought the Truth, and both started to write their poems at Oxford. However their relationship became less intimate later and by 1853 "it was only an affectionate formality". Arnold appreciated the sincerity but he didn't approve of his conception of the function of poetry. He once wrote to him "I doubt your being an artist", and advised him to undergo the discipline of reading the Bhagawad Gita. The gulf between the two remained till Clough's death at Florence in 1861. But there was no loss of personal affection between the two at any time.

The Origin of the Poem: On the death of Clough, Mrs. Clough wrote to Arnold to write an obituary note in the columns of The Daily News. Arnold replied "That I cannot do. But I shall some day in some way or other relieve myself of what I think about him". Later he declined to write a memoir for Mrs. Clough's edition of the prose works of her husband. One should think his mind was set on writing a pastoral poem in honour of his friend. There is internal evidence in Thyrsis to think that Arnold had been reading and re-reading Theocritus and Moschus, two celebrated pastoral poets. He spent about two years in the preparation and writing of the poem and it appeared in the April issue of Macmillan's Magazine. The mode of the poem and its Oxford setting make it appear a sequel to The Scholar Gipsy written in 1853. Garrod writes about it. "Five years lie between the poem and its occasion, two years were spent in the composition of it; thirteen years separate it, from the poem to which it is the Sequel". Milton wrote his Lycidas immediately on the death of his friend Edward King. Shelley wrote his Adonais, too, immediately after the death of Keats. Perhaps, Tennyson, who wrote his In Memoriam 17 years after Arthur Hallam's death set a precedent to Arnold. In his lecture on Homer, Last Words, Arnold has said all he had to say about Clough. The lecture coincided with the death. Then he didn't want to say anything more until he decided on the form through which he should honour his friend.

LINE BY LINE SUMMARY

Stanza 1. Line. 1-10: The poet is in the Oxford countryside and he notices the changes that have taken place all around. The two villages of Hinkseys, (North and South) have become different. The haunted house which was in the village street is no more there. The signboard, Sybilla, announcing an inn too is gone: also gone are the twisted chimneys from the houses. He wonders whether the hills around too have changed. He is not at all a stranger to the place, for he used to come here often in olden days in the company Corydon. Corydon was alive at that time.

Stanza 2. Line. 11-20: He thinks that he stands somewhere on the path that passes Childsworth Farm going up the hill where the elm tree stood. Behind the hill a glorious sun-sets could be seen. The elm tree used to be very prominent on the hill top. From there one could get a good view of Ilsley Downs, the valley, the three dams and the vigorous Thames. It is winter time, the evening is warm and the air is humid. Though the trees are leafless the purple coloured branches appear tender. The sweet city (Oxford) of dreaming spires too can be seen in the distance. That city doesn't need summer to look beautiful.

Stanza 3. Line. 21-30: Oxford which looked always lovely is lovely tonight also. He feels, as he is wandering through the place, that he has lost the former intimacy with the place. Earlier he could move around the place even blindfolded, at any time, day or night. Since he came with him (Thyrsis) last, he hasn't come to the place. In the west there was the single magnificent elm tree. Now it is not there, and they (Corydon & Thyrsis) value the tree very highly. They used to say that as long as the tree remained, the Scholar Gipsy whom they appreciated could not die. As long as the tree was alive, he too must remain in the Oxford countryside.

Stanza 4. Line. 31-40: His visits to the place have become very rare now-a-days. But there was a time when he knew even minute details of the place. He used to make acquaintance with the villagers during the time of threshing and hay-making. They (Thyrsis & Corydon) started writing their poetry too in this place. But alas, for very long, he has not written any poem at all. He had to give up the pleasure of a poet sadly, and enter the crowded worldly life.

Stanza 5. Line. 41-50: But Thyrsis felt unhappy at Oxford and he left the place on his own. Surely he loved the simple joys that Oxford could offer and his mates. But some dark shadow of (intellectual) troubles fell on tie downs as well as on the students of the university. Some unhappy incidents of life there, made him a troubled person, and he left the place. Ever since his departure, his poems sounded unquiet, foreshadowing the turbulent changes happening outside the university. But before devastating changes occurred in the society, he died.

Stanza 6. Line. 51-60: On a tempest-torn June morning, after the advent of the season when flower blooms aplenty, and before the time of roses and the longest day (21st June), when the garden-paths and lawns were filled of red and white, he heard the farewell cry of the cuckoo bird; coming through the wind-tossed and rain-washed trees: "the flowering season is gone and I too must go with it.

Stanza 7. Line. 61-70: Oh quick despairer, why should you go? The glory of midsummer will be here soon. The perfumed carnations will bloom in profusion; there will be golden snapdragons and Sweet-William that smells of the country cottages; stocks will spread its scent and roses will shine along the path; jasmines will be blossoming on trellises bordering the windows; and there will be parties of men and women enjoying the full moon and the bright evening star, under peaceful garden trees.

Stanza 8. Line. 71-80: But the light hearted visitor (the cuckoo) doesn't heed to the appeal, and he is gone. But it does not matter much. Next spring he will be back again, when the hedges are white with flowers, ferns and bluebells sway near forest paths, and when the smell of newly-mowed hay spreads around. But Thyrsis will not come again, to write a different kind of poetry, one of a smoother strain that will compel the world to listen. Thyrsis is not conquered by Corydon but by Time. (In Virgil's Eclogue Corydon defeated Thyrsis in a singing contest between the two).

Stanza 8. Line. 81-90: It is a pity that Corydon does not have Thyrsis now to compete against. When the shepherd of Sicily lost a friend, some of the friends would go to the nether world blowing sad notes on their pipes, appealing to Pluto to restore their friend. (It happened when Bion died.) The singer would cross the forbidden river, soften the severity of Pluto's mind, and charm Proserpine, who was born in Sicily. He would play the flute even like Orpheus, and regain the life of his friend.

Stanza 10. Line. 91-100: When the Sicilians sang to win the favour of Proserpine they had an advantage. She had been a native of Sicily and she knew every sacred streams, every white field of Enna, every red coloured rose; and she loved the Sicilian flute and the Sicilian songs. But our poor Thames, and the cowslips-flowers of Cumner hills are not familiar to her. Our songs of lament could only annoy her.

Stanza 11. Line. 101-110: Though he knows that the words of his lament would be a meaningless effort, he would give expression to his grief in their old familiar hill top where the elm tree stood. He has a better right than any other to find out the hill. He knows where the daffodils are to be found and where the Fyfield tree (One was used as Maypole to dance around on May-day) is; he also knows where fritillaries grow on grasslands beside the river (Thames) above Oxford in Enshaim and below in Sanford. Further he knows all the sedge bordered streams that flow into river Thames.

Stanza 12. Line. 111-120: He is more familiar with the slopes of the hill than any other. Many deep dells in this dear countryside, which during earlier days were full flowerbearing thorns and trees, cowslips and long spiked orchises have vanished. They have given way to farmlands. Only here and there near the streams a few primroses, are to be seen surviving as orphans.

Stanza 13. Line. 121-130: He thinks of the old time when a girl was to be seen at the boatman's door, above the locks helping party going for boating. They unfastened their boats and they towed their boats alongside meadows, while swallows darted and water gnats flitted on the surface of water. The grass mowers suspended their work to watch the waves made by the boats made the riverside grass sway. They are all gone. And so also are you (Thyrsis).

Stanza 14. Line. 131-140: Yes you are now dead. The passage of time is bringing my death too nearer. He can see her shadow coming closer, as the cheeks grow thinner and the hair grow greyer. He can feel the touch of death, as walking in the early morning becomes difficult and the mind becomes less responsive to emotions. And hope once frustrated doesn't spring back quickly.

Stanza 15. Line. 141-150: Long and difficult seems the path of progress; earlier in his youth the path appeared easy and short. The uphill journey to Truth appeared smooth and effortless during the happy dawn of his life. Now it - Truth-remains on unattainable peaks hidden in clouds. The fort in which evil stays is being made stronger by the worldly minded people. He finds no meaning in this earthly life, for life grows strange. You have achieved perpetual rest in death, which has its charms. The poet welcomes old age as it brings him nearer to the stage (death) in which you are now in.

Stanza 16 Line. 151-160: Let me avoid being noticed. The quietness of this upland is suddenly disturbed. A group of Oxford hunters are returning home, as jovial and noisy as in olden days. They are returning from their hunting with their Berkshire hounds. Let me run away from them, and cross into the distant field. Yes it is done. Now, against the glory of the orange and violet sunset, can be seen, on the ridge of the hill, the Tree.

Stanza 17. Line. 161-170: I consider the tree as a good omen. Evening is putting on the veil; the white fog is spreading among the bush. The colour of the evening western sky vanishes and stars are growing brighter. Lights begin to appear in the widely spread out farmhouses. Though I cannot reach the Signal Tree tonight the sight is an omen. Thyrsis, hear the news, from your distant resting place in the valley of Arno, where you sleep eternally, forgetful of the earthly life, under the pale flowered Oleanders.

Stanza 18. Line. 171-180: Thyrsis, you hear it: Our Tree exists there. But it is useless for him. These English fields, this darkening countryside and the lovely upward-pointing tree are of no good to him. He has gone from this place of prickly shrubs wrapped in mist, he has fled to the pleasant country in the South, where the climate is more agreeable. You are wandering with the scared retinue of Mother Nature within some Apennine mountainous valley. I am sure, among the divine retinue, none is as pure a soul as you are, Thyrsis.

Stanza 19. Line. 181-190: You hear many immortal songs of old. You hear the Lytyerses, song which Daphnis sings in a melodious voice when he reaped the hazardous corn in the hot fields of the Phrygian king. He sings of his flock in Sicily, his unhappy love affair with a jealous nymph, her blinding him, and how Mercury approached him and raised him to heaven from a fountain. He sings also about the golden skies.

Stanza 20. Line. 191-200: You have gone leaving me lonely in these fields. However, I will not be disheartened as long as I can see under the soft English sky, that singular elm tree in the western horizon. That sight makes it clear that our Scholar Gipsy is wandering in these fields, outliving you. He is known to be wandering these places where soft wooly sheep eat their hay, among woods where anemones bloom till as late as May. Then why can't I too be a wanderer here?

Stanza 21. Line. 201-210: The Scholar Gipsy seeks the knowledge which is difficult to acquire because of its elusiveness. I too seek it; it cannot be acquired with gold, property and other possessions, or with the support of flattering friends. It is not bought or sold in market places of the world. Often the passage of time takes the seeker closer to this death but no near to his goal. However he (The Scholar Gipsy) pursues his goal, alone away from other humans, without followers, but with an inspired eagerness, and with un-diminishing hope.

Stanza 22. Line. 211-220: You also, Thyrsis, was on a quest like that. You wandered with me, in the quest, for a short while. Your fellow-men didn't appreciate you. When they thought you were feeble, this quest gave you strength. When they gave you trouble, your quest brought you peace. And you, in your happy youth, came to this rough Cumner hills, the fir true lined Hurst. The height of your powers, and the bloom of your life acquired a glory here. Even now this dear place gives strength to people like me.

Stanza 23. Line. 221-230: It is immaterial that your poetical voice could not keep for long its joyous country tone; it acquired a turbulent tone describing the inner conflicts and the groaning of human beings. They failed to appeal and you stopped your attempts at poetry. Yet you always had the right vision and you could not remain with the worldly lot. You left the ordinary men and went on your wandering search till it was night.

Stanza 24. Line. 231-240: Living a life amidst the city's noise within earshot of the bells of the sheep, a life different from that I led with you before, I visit this place only very scarcely. Through the harsh and oppressive noise of the town, I get an occasional whispering message from you, and it dispels my world-weariness and doubts: "Why do you feel weak? I wandered (in search of truth) till I died. Go on wandering. The light we searched for is still shining. If you want any proof for it, see, the tree still grows atop the hill and our Gipsy Scholar still wanders over the dear countryside."

CRITICAL APPRECIATION AND ANALYSIS

Arnold himself called the poem Thyrsis a "monody, to commemorate the author's friend, Arthur Hugh Clough who died at Florence, 1861". However the author was conscious of a strange fact, that very little of Clough could be seen in a poem, lamenting his death. The poem is more about the Oxford countryside through which both Clough and Arnold wandered during their university days. The poet once wrote to this closest friend in later life, J.C. Sharp in the month of the publication of Thyrsis as follows: "It had long been in my mind to connect Clough with the Cumnor country and when I began I was carried irresistibly into this form. You say truly enough that there is much in Clough (the whole prophet side. in fact) which one cannot deal with in this way; and one has the feeling if one reads the poem as a memorial poem, that not enough is said about Clough in it. I feel this so much that I do not send the poem to Mrs. Clough. Still Clough had this idyllic side too: to deal with this suited my desire to deal again with that Cumnor country. Anyway only so could I treat the matter this time". In the poem he does not lament Clough either as a personal friend or as a fellow poet. In neither capacity Clough was dear to Arnold. But he was dear to Arnold as "the embodiment of Oxford" in the thirties and forties of the nineteenth century. Arnold's passion for Oxford countryside is parallel to that of Wordsworth for the Lake District and of Hardy for Wessex. He loved that sweet city of dreaming spires. She does not need June to be lovely. At Oxford was his height of strength, his golden prime. In the poem he feels unhappy over his own unproductiveness.

Ah me! this many a year

My pipe is lost, my shepherd's holiday;

Needs must I lose them, needs with heavy heart

Into the world and wave of men depart;

(Line. 36-39)

This loss of creative powers of his own, is what Arnold really laments in the poem. True, the death of Clough revived this feeling of loss of creative power. He had lamented the loss, 13 years back in Scholar Gipsy. Then it was the reading of Glanvil's Vanity of Dogmatizing that revived that special mood. Garrod has this to say: "I doubt if so late, at a time when his power in poetry was intermittent Matthew Arnold could have achieved the supreme success of Thyrsis, were it not that subject took him back to The Scholar Gipsy - period, and to a period yet earlier, the period of his undergraduate youth. His power is lifted high by the immense in flooding of distant memories". Trilling has described Thyrsis as a "memorial of a vanished youth and of a nearly vanished mood no less than a vanished friend". Arnold's elegies are not at all laments for the individual not even in Rugby Chapel and A Southern Night where the subjects are his own father and brother respectively. They are laments for a vanished glory. Even the Oxford of Thyrsis is not quite the place of his days. He starts the poem telling of the change:

How changed is here each spot man makes or fills!

In the two Hinkseys nothing keeps the same;

The village-street its haunted mansion lacks,

And from the sign is gone Sibylla's name,

And from the roofs the twisted chimney-stacks;

Are ye too changed ye hills?

(Line. 1-6)

Even the much fancied elm three is gone.

That single elm-tree bright

Against the west - I miss it! is it gone?

(Line. 26-27)

So he addresses his dead friend, Thyrsis and says, "They all are gone, and thou art gone as well".

Arnold as well laments a vanished age as his dead friend.

Too Little of Clough in Thyrsis: Arnold himself knew that Thyrsis was going to. be a different kind of elegy. According to Trilling, the poem is, "in some ways a strange commemoration. Not that it gives but one side of Clough, the troubled side, but it celebrates the weakness of that side. Its theme is that Thyrsis of his own will went away' unable to wait out the high winds of doctrine.

While Arnold upholds the strength of character of that "Oxford scholar poor in the The Scholar Gipsy, he has only pity for the mental conflict of Clough.

Some life of men unblest

He knew, which made him droop, and fill'd his head.

He went; his piping took a troubled sound

Of storms that rage outside our happy ground;

He could not wait their passing, he is dead! (Line. 46-50)

His poems were different from that time onwards. It had developed a stormy note and no one appreciated them. Clough's poems

Kept not for long its happy, country tone,

Lost it too soon, and learnt a stormy note

Of men contention-tost, of men who groan,

Which task'd thy pipe too sore, and tired thy throat

It fail'd, and thou wast mute; (Line. 222-226)

Truly, Arnold sheds tears over the weakness of the departed dear friend. However, there is one virtue that the poet sees in him; it will more than compensate all the short-comings. Clough was of a pure and subtle soul who always "had visions of our light". Memory associated with him was a matter of inspiration to the poet. The last lines of the poem glorify Clough in no uncertain terms. He hears Clough speaking:

Let in thy voice a whisper often come:

To chase fatigue and fear,

Why faintest thou? I wandered till I died.

Roam on! the light we sought is shining still.

Dost thou ask proof? Our tree yet crowns the hill

Our Scholar travels yet the loved hillside.

Here at last we get a manly image of Clough; not only manly but also angeltic.

The Oxford Countryside: Picturing Clough either as a poet or prophet was not the aim of Arnold in Thyrsis. His aim was to associate Clough with the Oxford which was dear to both of them. It is apt to consider the poem as an attempt at glorifying Oxford. Possibly Arnold would not have written such a poem if Clough were not connected with Oxford. While Clough remains very shadowy in the poem, Oxford blooms into a vividly living scene. As the poet moves from corner to corner in the Oxford countryside, it is not the memory of his friend that comes to his mind. Instead the poet recaptures his own happy times spent in the place. His love for the area, his longing to linger around in the Hinkseys, by the path beside Childsworth Farm, on the western hill where the elm tree stands. the meadows of Wytham flats and all over the beloved haunt. According to Garrod the photographically true description of the place gives to Thyrsis an element of beauty wanting in our other elegies. Thirteen years earlier, in Scholar Gipsy, Matthew Arnold had tried his hand upon the Oxford scene. If Thyrsis and The Scholar Gipsy had no other merits, yet there are in landscape, and the fine sentiment with which they particularise, with which they fix natural details--these two talents alone-might vindicate for Matthew Arnold a place with the greatest posts; Gray's Elegy, Collins' Ode to Evening, Keats' Ode to Autumn, it is with compositions of that supreme order that these two poems must be ranged.

Verity says that;

Thyrsis ... presents an idealised picture of university life, and perhaps for sincerity and true feeling begotten of love for the scenes described the advantage rests which the hand that wrote the famous panegyric and apostrophe in the preface to the essays in criticism.

Pastoral with a Difference: By setting the poem in the countryside made famous by the university, Arnold succeeds in removing the characteristic artificiality of a pastoral poem from Thyrsis. In a pastoral elegy, a poet supposes himself and his friends to be shepherds, in a rustic field. The shepherds, the field, the pipe and all other paraphernalia are creations of the poet's fancy. They are often symbolic, standing for someone else or something else. In Thyrsis the pasture is the university countryside, the shepherds Arnold and Clough, the flock their common pursuits, and the shepherd pipes their poetic gifts. While the whole setting in Lycidas or Adonais is feigned, it is very real in Thyrsis, all from actual observation" as Arnold himself wrote to this mother. A mere convention in other pastorals rise up with all the warmth of reality, before the readers. The Hinkseys are there; Childsworth farm and Isley Downs are there; the Vale, the three lone weirs, and that sweet city with her dreaming spires in the distance is there". When Arnold says,

....once I knew each field, each flower, each stick: (Line. 32)

I know the wood which hides the daffodil.

I know the Fyfield tree,

I know what white, what purple fritillaries

The grassy harvest of the river-fields,

Above by Ensham, down by Sandford yields, (Line. 105-109)

We know he says it from his memory. Arnold, in the company of Clough and others often had roved through that dear countryside.

In descriptions like:

Where is the girl, who, by the boatman's door

Above the locks, above the boating throng,

Unmoord our skiff when, through the Wytham flats,

Red loosestrife and blond meadow-sweet, among

And darting swallows and light water-gnats,

We track'd the shy Thames shore? (Line. 121-126)

The descriptions are no mere conventions for its own sake. Anyone familiar with Oxford will find that all those are realistic descriptions based on acute observation. To an Oxon, or to a lover of Oxford the appeal is irresistible.

Style: Arnold himself remarked about Thyrsis: 'It is probably too quiet a poem for the general taste, but I think it will stand wear'. Its descriptions of Oxford, all idyllic, account for much of the charm of the poem. But the elegiac is not unimportant either. Lucas mentions in Ten Victorian Poets, Not even Adonais had a nobler dirge than the death of Thyrsis drew from the son of that Arnold under whom he had begun his (Clough's) troubled experience of life." The diction of the poem is so artless as to be almost heedless. The spell of perfect felicitous expressions like, abound in the poem.

Arnold's classical self-restraint, makes him suppress his feelings and the poem attains the quickness of thought and tone. The opening, harping on the changes that has happened to the countryside, sets the tone of the poem. The time of the beginning of the poem, a warm winter-day evening is as quiet as the same hour when in Gray's Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard.

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day

Then the poet makes an imaginary trip around the dear countryside. The 'eve lets down her veil' and the town's harsh heart-wearing roar' is in the far distance. The quietness is broken only on two occasions. First when,

After those again there is peace, serene calm and quietness. In describing the countryside and its scenic beauty and in his semi-philosophic musings, the prevailing mood is that of serenity.

Stanzas 6, 7 and 8 were especially dear to Arnold's mother. The parting cry of the cuckoo was really heard by Arnold in the garden at Woodford. The poet's favourite extended simile, the Homeric simile, is profitably carried through all the three stanzas. Strictly it is not a simile, but an an extended metaphor. The echo of Moschus' Lament for Bion is clear in the 8th stanza. Moschus says:

"when mallows or the pale green parsley, or the curling anise perish in the garden, they are reborn in another year. But alas when we men... are once dead, we sleep an unending unawakening sleep.."

The charm of these stanzas are independent of Oxford. Also they show the sincere grief Arnold felt, at the death of Clough. The last line of stanza eight, 'For Time, not Corydon, hath conquer'd thee', alludes to the poetic contest between Thyrsis and Corydon, mentioned in Vergil's Eclogue.

Often Thyrsis is compared with two other elegies in English, Milton's Lycidas and Shelley's Adonais. The fact that the poem is mentioned along with these great elegies itself is a tribute to Arnold's achievement. Perhaps Thyrsis is greater than the other two in two ways: in the reality of the scene and in the depth of the feeling. Sure it is not so highly strung a piece like Lycidas neither does it possess the intensity of passion found in Adonais. Perhaps it is difficult to compare them and adjudge which is the greatest. All three will remain as sublime examples of pastoral elegy in English Literature.

Pictorial qualities: The exquisite and detailed nature-description in Thyrsis is one of the great attractions of the poem. Arnold as an young Oxon along with Clough and others had roved the Oxford countryside and the memory of those rovings remained dear in his memory. The descriptions we get in Thyrsis (and also in The Scholar Gipsy) are drawn from actual observations. The cowslips growing thick on the slopes, the copses and briers aflame under the setting sun, woods that hide the daffodils, white and purple fritillaries, dingles studded with trees in bloom, orchises, primroses on brookside appearing as orphans of the flowery prime, all are recreated in the poem from poet's own memory.

The idyllic plains from where Prosperine was abducted comes alive before the readers imagination. The boatman's girl who unmoored the boat will haunt the memory of any reader with sensibility. And the picture of Wytham flats, made lively with

Red loosestrife and blond meadow-sweet among,

And darting swallows, and light water-gnats, (Line. 124-125)

Will remain in memory as a rural masterpiece of a great painter. Then there is the cinematographically live picture of the mowers, who as the tiny swell

Of our boat passing heav'd the river-grass,

Stood with suspended scythe to see us pass? (Line. 128-129)

The Oxford riders returning home, as in old days, jovial and talking is another scene in motion. And then there is the sighting of the tree against a glorious sun-set:

Back'd by the sunset, which doth glorify

The orange and pale violet evening-sky

Bare on its lonely ridge, the Tree! the Tree! (Line. 158-60)

True this is a static picture. But a motion picture follows:

..Eve lets down her veil,

The white fog creeps from bush to bush about,

The west unflushes, the high stars grow bright,

And in the scattered farms the lights come out. (Line. 161-164)

Surely the static graphical and the cinematographic combine here.

Nature in Thyrsis: Arnold's love for nature and his accurate observation power are evident in the poem. As in other nature poems of his, Arnold dwells chiefly on the calm and tranquil aspect of nature. He appears to draw some sort of comfort from the contact with Nature. The calm is effectively contrasted with noise of human life. In the fourth stanza we find him feeling sad at the loss of his creativity because he departed from nature into the "world and wave of men"

Whenever special haunts of Oxford come before his mind Arnold becomes nostalgic. The 13th stanza beginning with, where is the girl, displays not only his passion for Oxford life, but also for the charms Nature can afford. When the Oxford riders appear on the scene.

Arnold's dislike for the way of the world and his longing to seek the soothing company of Nature is amply clear here. In the last stanza he feels sorry he cannot be with Nature more often.

Too rare, too rare, grow now my visits here!

'mid city-noise, not, as with thee of yore,

Thyrsis, in reach of sheep-bells in my home! (Line. 231-233)

Then he yearns for a whisper from his gone companion to reach through the great 'town's harsh, heart wearying roar". In all these we find Arnold clearly showing his preference to a life close to Nature over the harsh and wearying city life.

The Reminiscence in the Poem: In Thyrsis Arnold laments the death of a vanished age and culture as much as the death of Clough. The poet's letter to his friend J.C. Sharp clearly shows this aspect of the poem.

He wrote,

It had long been in my mind to connect Clough with the Cumner country...

The poem starts with the expression of regret for the changes that had happened to Oxford countryside.

Then he gives a sensuous description of the various flowers that abound in the place. The thirteenth too is full of reminiscence associated with boating, boatman's girl and the scythers watching the speeding Oxford boats swaying the, grass on the shores of Thames.

The picture of Oxford scholars returning from a hunt should have been gleaned from the memory of the hunts he himself took part years back. Perhaps the reminiscences, most relevant to the thought-content of the poem are that of the signal tree, which was on a ridge on a hill west of Oxford and the legend associated with The Scholar Gipsy. Arnold has succeeded in making both of them effective symbols.

High Seriousness and Criticism of Life: Poetry according to Arnold is criticism of life. But to make great poetry there must be high seriousness associated with the criticism. While Arnold apparently laments a personal loss in Thyrsis there is also relevant criticism of life in it, throughout. The materialism of the Victorians is very well disparaged when the poet with subdued sarcasm says that the gracious light of Truth cannot be hid by wealth.

This does not come with houses or with gold,

With place, with honour, and a flattering crew:

"Tis not in the world's market bought and sold.

With high seriousness befitting great poetry Arnold strikes at the root of earthly vanity and says:

And strange and vain the earthly turmoil grows. (Line. 148)

A religious meaning too can be red into the poem. Arnold the classicist alludes to the eternal life in the nether world, in which Greeks believed. Arnold's poetic fancy accepts the Greek belief in the immortality of the soul. Thyrsis is in a 'southern country, to which he has fled' and he is beside the,

...broad lucent Arno vale

(For there thine earth-forgetting eyelids keep

The morningless and unawakening sleep Under the flowery oleanders pale.)

(Line. 167-70)

He is with Proserpine, in Italy where her rape took place and where Clough was buried. (He was buried in Florence) However his immortality is real in another way too. He is as immortal as the Gipsy Scholar, who never quits his quest for truth, waiting for heaven sent moments of get a glimpse of the ultimate Truth. Yes in Thyrsis there is criticism of life. Also there is high seriousness. And in that criticism, there is the watermark of great poetry.

LINE BY LINE EXPLANATIONS

1. This winter-eve ..... heightening. Stanza 2. Line. 16-20

Here Arnold, the poet, gives the settings of the poem. In the beginning of the poem he has mentioned the changes he has noticed in the Oxford countryside. Then he establishes the identity of the locality where he is at the moment. It is near Childsworth farm.

It is winter time, and the time is the evening and the weather is warm and humid. Trees remain leafless, but the tender and purple things of copse and bushes give the impression that it is spring time. The city of Oxford and its dreaming spires could be seen from the place. The city looks beautiful and the poet comments that Oxford is beautiful in all seasons. Even without the blossoms of June and its colour, Oxford is beautiful.

Arnold's love for his Alma Mater is deep. He has given expression to his love for Oxford, especially to its towers and spires, through his two Oxford poems. Thyrsis and The Scholar Gipsy in verse and through the preface he wrote to Essays in criticism, first series:

The spires probably according to Arnold, are dreaming of its lost glory, the glory of a vanished age. In the Preface too he imagines the Oxford towers as dreaming of its medieval glory.

In selecting evening as the time for the 'action' of the poem Arnold appears to be following Thomas Gray. His Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard starts when the curfew tolls the knell of parting day: Probably evening with the approaching darkness is the appropriate time to deal with things elegiac.

2. Lovely all times ..... lived on. Stanza 3. Line. 21-30

Arnold continues with the tribute to Oxford in the previous stanza.

Oxford which is lovely always, remains lovely this night too. But the poet feels some loss of intimacy with the place. During former days he knew the whole area so well that he could travel anywhere blindfolded, any time during day or night. But now his visits have become very rare. There used to be a remarkably noticeable elm tree at the top of a western hill. It is not to be seen now. Is it gone, the poet asks. Clough and Arnold valued the tree highly. They believed the mythical idea that as long as the tree grew there the wandering Scholar also was alive. The legend of the Scholar Gypsy who went away from Oxford and joined a Gipsy group first appeared in print form, in Glanvil's book Vanity of Dagmatizing. Arnold in his Oxford Poems take the Scholar as the symbol of man's untiring quest for Truth. The lone tree on the western hill appears as the symbol of the Truth itself. The fanciful story of about the Oxford Scholar poor' has undergone an alchemical change in Arnold's poems.

3. Here, too ..... went away. Stanza 4. Line. 35-40

In these lines, Arnold reminisces his days at Oxford in Clough's company. Considering themselves as shepherds in the pastoral convention, the author says both Clough and he started writing poems at Oxford. Then he adds that during the many previous years he had not been writing any poetry at all. He was rather to part with the joy of poetic composition with a sad heart and take up the chores common people. But Thyrsis (Clough) went away on his own will.

'Shepherd's holiday', alludes to the poetically unproductive period of Arnold. Between 1857 and the year of publication of Thyrsis Arnold had not published any poetry. He was 47 when Thyrsis was published. 'Many were his interruptions'. "Of his own will went away" refers to the voluntary resignation of Clough from the fellowship at Oriel College, Oxford in the year 1848.

4. It irk'd him ..... he is dead! Stanza 5. Line. 41-50.

In this stanza the poet tells of the causes of Clough's departure from Oxford mentioned in the previous stanza. He tells of the cares and doubts that dampened the spirit of Clough.

Clough was an affable person who loved the simple charms the countryside could offer. He loved his friends deeply. But there was something that disturbed his tranquillity. The absence of joy in human life, and the problems humans have to face troubled him. Further he could not tolerate some of the dons of the university and the students and their evil ways. In the end he left Oxford. Then his poems developed a melancholy tone for they reflected the religious controversies that raged in and outside Oxford. Before those storms of controversies blew out he died.

Life of men unblest: For some time before Clough left, he was very much perturbed by the acute sufferings of the people of Ireland during the period known as 'potato famine'. His resignation might have been caused also by the religious controversies of the time revolving around the Oxford Movement.

Of Storms that rage outside our happy ground: It may be an allusion to the religious controversies of the time that were triggered by the Oxford Movement. Though it started in Oxford it had its impact on religion as a whole. Or perhaps the allusion could be to the religious controversies that arose out of the attempt to reconcile religion and science. Alternatively, it could be a reference to the Chartist Movement', of the working classes demeaning democratic measures such as universal suffrage. The movement disappeared after 1848, the year of Clough's resignation.

5. So have I .... go I. Stanza 6. Line. 57-60

Here Arnold puts forward the similarity between a Cuckoo and Clough. The cuckoo's parting cry is a parallel to "his piping", meaning Clough's poems that had a troubled note. The wet field' and 'vext garden trees' may stand for the controversies and troubles amidst which Clough wrote his poems. Clough was disappointed, just like Arnold, at the disappearance of an age without doubts and troubles. Like the cuckoo who went away when the bloom-season vanished Clough too went away from the world, when the glory of the past peaceful age disappeared.

This stanza along with the two that follow were very much to the liking of Arnold's mother. In a letter dated 7th April 1866, Arnold wrote to her The cuckoo on the wet June morning I heard in the garden at Woodford and all those three stanzas you like are reminiscences of Woodford". It is worth noticing that the cuckoo changes its note during June (Clough's poems acquired a sad tone) and this may be considered as its parting cry. But the cuckoo does not depart immediately after the change in tone. It migrates only a full month later. The last line sounds almost like the Fitzgerald translation of Omar Khayam's poem, Rubaiyat.

6. Alack for Corydon ..... from the dead. Stanza 9. Line. 81-90

In this stanza, the poet speaks of the effect of the death of Thyrsis on Corydon. The death of Clough has been a shock to Arnold. However, Arnold cannot bring his friend back from death's kingdom. The Sicilians could do that. When a friend died, one of the friends of the dead man would go to the nether world and restore him to life by the courtesy of the gods. He would cross the forbidden river, and please Pluto by his singing. Prosperine on hearing it would leap up with joy. She was a native of Sicily and so she decorated herself with Sicilian flowers. (Naturally she will show special sympathy for one of her country-men). Orpheus got back his wife Eurydice, by that method.

Bion, here stands for a dead Sicilian. He was a pastoral poet of Sicily who lived in the Ist century B.C. On his death, one of his pupils and a poet, Moschus, wrote a pastoral elegy Lament for Bion, That work has influenced Lycidas, Adonais and Thyrsis.

Proserpine: Daughter of Zeus and Demeter. Legend says that she was carried off by Pluto while gathering flowers in the vale of Enna in Sicily and made her queen of the underworld.

Orpheus: A legendary poet and singer of pre-Homeric, times. When his beloved wife Eurydice died, he went to Hades, pleased Pluto with his singing and according to one version of the story got his wife back.

Corydon no rival now: The allusion is to the 7th Eclogue of Vigil where the two shepherds Thyrsis and Corydon, as rivals, take part in a singing contest.

7. O easy access ..... plaint in vains. Stanza 10. Line. 91-100

Arnold here says that the advantage the Sicilian singers and poets had, is not available for the English poets. Prosperpine, herself being a Sicilian, would be sympathetic to her countrymen. She was familiar with the flowers and waters of Sicily, white lilies, and pink roses of Enna. She loved the Dorian flute and the Dorian tunes, but has not heard of river Thames and the cowslips-flowers of Cumner country. If the poet tries to please Prosperpine, the song would only irritate her.

Enna: The Greek legends say that Proserpine was abducted by Pluto while she had been gathering flowers in the field of Enna, in Sicily.

8. I know ..... flowery prime. Stanza 12. Line. 111-120

Arnold says that he will continue the search for truth which Clough and he jointly indulged in, in the Oxford countryside. The poet here rather boasts of his intimate knowledge of the locality. Then he expresses his sorrow at the change that has happened to the place. Once all the deep valleys were full of natural vegetation. Thorns, white-flowered trees, cowslips and orchises, abounded. But they have stopped blossoming since the time Thyrsis and Corydon went away from the place. In the place of natural vegetation, modern farms were developed. Now flowers, only primroses, are to be found near streams, and they appear as orphans of a flowery period. Critics have pointed out that in Thyrsis, Arnold laments not only the death of Clough but also a vanished age. That age is symbolised by the flowery prime of the Oxford countryside.

9. Thou hearest ..... golden skies. Stanza 19, Line. 181-190

The poet fancies that Clough now lives in the nether world, where life is better than in this world. He could hear the immortal harvest-songs of ancient times. Daphnis would be there, singing sweetly of his earthly life, how he came under the power Lityerses, the king of Phrygia, about his sheep, his unhappy love, his blindness, how he went to heaven from a fountain, and about the wonderful things in heaven.

Arnold appears to have combined two versions of the Daphnis story here. To quote the poet himself Daphnis, the ideal shepherd of Greek pastoral poetry followed his wife Piplea, who was carried off by robbers to Phyrgia. There he found her under the power of the king Lityerses. The king used to make strangers contest with him in reaping of corn and put them to death if he defeated them. Hercules came to help Daphnis and defeated the king in the contest and slew him. The Lityersis-song based on the story was one of the early plaintive songs Greek corn reapers used to sing. According to another legend he was struck with blindness by Nymph, whom he loved once but showed infidelity later. Mercury raised him to heaven and made a fountain in the place from where he ascended.

10. A fugitive ..... heart inspired. Stanza 21. Line. 201-210

Here Arnold brings in the Gipsy Scholar as an ideal, in the search for the ultimate truth. The Scholar is wandering the countryside searching for the gracious light of truth.

The poet too is in search of it. But it is not easy to arrive at it. It cannot be acquired through wealth, or position or honour or with the help of flattering followers. It is not a property that can be bought or sold. The seeker of truth should patiently continue the search, tireless, away from the pursuits of average men, often alone. The real seeker will go forward always under the inspiration of his own heart.

Perhaps the most serious thought content of the poem is found in this stanza. The Scholar Gipsy becomes the symbol of man's search for truth and wisdom. Arnold hints that the material minded Victorians are not likely to attain the ultimate truth. Here is "criticism of life", which is the watermark of great poetry. And that criticism is associated with a high seriousness. So we find Arnold is writing poetry true to his own dictum that poetry is criticism of life.

Rugby Chapel: by Matthew Arnold - Summary and Analysis

2024-07-17T08:00:00.001+05:30

INTRODUCTION

The poem was written adoring the poet's own father Dr. Thomas Arnold, the famous headmaster who made the Rugby School, the most respected one, even above Eton and' Westminster, during his headmastership. Dr. Arnold died in 1842, and was buried inside the Chapel of the Rugby School. But the poem was published only in 1867. There are some evidence to show that Arnold began the poem in 1857.

History of the Poem: Dr. Arnold made a name for himself and the school as the headmaster of Rugby. During his headmastership Rugby reached an eminence above Eton, Harrow and. Westminster, and he was considered a great educationist and social reformer. But after his death his reputation sank. In 1857, a former pupil of the School wrote the even now famous novel Tom Brown's Schooldays idolizing the great headmaster. The book was renewed in the Edinburgh Review wherein the reviewer Fitzjames Stephen ran down Dr. Arnold, describing him as a prig without any sense of humour who even went to the extremes in his earnest for training at the School. Arnold considered the criticism uncomplimentary and tried to vindicate his father through the Rugby Chapel. In a letter to his mother he wrote, "I knew dearest mother, that the Rugby Chapel poem would give you pleasure; often and often it had been in my mind to say it to you. It was Fitzjames Stephen's thesis, maintained in the Edinburgh Review, of papa's being a narrow bustling fanatic which moved me first to the poem. think I have done something to fix the true legend about papa..." But there is some discrepancy. The review appeared in January 1858; Arnold dated his poem in November 1857. Probably he started the poem in 1857 and left it. Later on reading the review he might have gone back to the poem. Even if it is an 1857 poem one wonders why Arnold wanted 15 years to commemorate his dead father.

A tribute by the son to the father, Rugby Chapel, is to be considered the belated tribute of a famous son to his famous father. But it is strange that the poem does not contain any thrill of personal emotion. It is like any other Arnoldian poem, some melancholy brooding, some generalization, some moralizing. There is plenty of the man in it, but there could have been more, possibly the man as seen from the son's affectionate view. The feeling for the father is rather subdued. However, there is plenty of feelings in the poem concerning human life as a whole. The subdued filial feeling and a sincere concern for the life of the fellow men give the poem a solemn sincerity rarely seen in poems written under similar circumstances. In 1855, Arnold wrote to his mother: "he was not only a good man saving his own soul by righteousness, but that he carried so many others with him and saved them, if they would let him, along with himself". The poem remains an elaboration of the idea mentioned above.

LINE BY LINE SUMMARY

Line. 1-13: It is an autumn evening and the leaves fall down sadly. The elm-trees in the school field are visible only faintly as the evening grows darker. Those few boys who are playing in the field are silent. Lights appear in the street and in the school room windows. Through the gathering darkness can be seen the chapel buildings inside which you, my father, lie buried.

Line. 14-25: Father lies there amidst the gloom of the autumn evening. The world gloom brings back to the mind the brightness of the vigorous nature of the father. In the gloom of many November nights the family had spent bright times in the father's company. He was such a person whose bright and cheerful nature could not be lessened by the season. The poet remains in the autumn evening and reminisces the earlier autumns he had spent in the company of the father.

Line. 26-36: Fifteen years are passed after his father's death, which happened suddenly in a summer morning. The children, who enjoyed the protection of the father as if they were under the shadow of a mighty Oak tree, have now spent fifteen years facing life and its problems without the father's guidance.

Line. 37-43: The poet wonders where the strong soul of his father is wandering at the present. He is sure that force would not be wasted. Some where in this work house, this universe, the strength of his father, possibly, is being made use of.

Line. 44-57: Surely, his spirit, conscious of his worldly life or otherwise, will be performing his duty, promptly and without getting tired. Still he will be encouraging the good to thrive and suppressing the evil. Those who live on the border between good and evil, not fully conscious of their duty are revived and rejuvenated by his messages. For this kind of work he used to do while he was alive.

Line. 58-72: Most men on earth live a meaningless life. They move around, eat, drink and talk. They love, they hate, they gather wealth and then they spend it. They struggle without a purpose and achieve nothing. In the end they die but afterwards nobody considers them more permanent than the waves that swelled for a moment and then disappear.

Line. 73-116: But some men are there who have lasting desire to know (the Truth), and with an ardent fire in then. They do not like the purposeless movement, putting in vain and meaningless effort. Surely some people like the poet, do not like to die without doing something substantial. After the physical death the good things they have done will be remembered. They have followed the path of righteousness relentlessly. Their path was not strewn with roses, but was uphill and full of thorns. While their companions slept they had been toiling hard. They had a clear goal to give them direction in their journey. They had to climb snow-clad mountains and cheerfully they started. As they reached higher, difficulties arose. Storm, thunder and lightning bewildered them. Fierce flowing torrents breached the track on which people used to tread. It was havoc for the party Many faltered and were lost in the storm. Only a few were left. With determination they struggled ahead and by nightfall they reached their goal, an inn, The innkeeper (host) beams a light to identify them and asks who are the ones coming in and who are the ones lost in the snow.

Line. 117-123: They sadly say that they have lost all their friends in the storm. They only bring themselves. The storm has swept away their friends, companions and others in the party.

Line. 124-134 But the poet's father would not have saved himself, reaching the goal alone, leaving the rest in the storm. The poet and others would feel tired of the difficulties and frightened of the dangers in life (on the way) and would have Jonged for death. But his father, still would have encouraged those who were afraid, giving a helping hand to the tired.

Line. 135-145 The poet's father would have been different. Even if stones on the way had wounded his feet and struggles and disappointments challenged his spirit he would have been cheerful and helpful to others. So he was destined to save the soul of many others. As a faithful shepherd he would come in bringing the disciples (sheep) home, safely.

Line. 145-161: Having seen the life of his father, the poet is ready to believe that noble people existed in the bygone ages. Earlier he thought that stories about pure-souled people were only myths. The present day shows men are without culture and they bluster and cringe. They are horrible, dreary and vileous. They are a contrast against the heroic people of virile nature, the really good ones.

Line. 162-170 The poet calls the noble people like his father, servants of God. But it is better to call them Sons of God for his father's relation with God the Father was not one of a servant. He knew the will of God and that God does not like any of his little children to be lost. If mankind has not already fainted and fallen dead, the credit should go to his father and people like him.

Line. 171-187: The poet pictures mankind as an army, marching across the rocks (difficulties) of the world, weakly, in a wavy line. They are proceeding to their goal, according to the plan of God. The path they have to tread is long and they have been marching for years. They feel terribly thirst and the surrounding rocks frighten them. In-fighting separates them into groups; the army appears to break up and vanish. But they have to remain united; or all of them will go astray and none of the group will survive; they will struggle uselessly among the rocks and fall dead, one by one in the wilderness.

Line. 188-208: During such a need of mankind to remain united, to the weak and dejected people the poet's father would appear as a saving angel, as a beacon of hope. Then there will no longer be any fatigue in their heart, weakness in the will and tiredness in the body. The moment he comes to the forefront, his voice is heard, and fear and despair will vanish from among them. As he moves among the line of the marchers, recalling the waywordly, refreshing the weary, and praising the brave, courage and order returns to the army. With flashing hope in their eyes and prayers in their lips they will follow his steps. He will find out the missing people, strengthen the ranks and make the army march to the boundary of the wasteland, to the kingdom of God.

CRITICAL APPRECIATION AND ANALYSIS

The poem Rugby Chapel written to commemorate the contribution of Thomas Arnold to mankind, is one of the most well known elegies of Matthew Arnold. The son considers the father an embodiment of purity, nobility, and moral earnestness. There may not be present in the poem the warmth and compelling filial. feeling. Then it is an intellectual poem and there is found the poet's concern for the whole of mankind abundantly. He pays glowing tribute to the father not for bringing up Matthew Arnold and his brothers and sisters affectionately, but for caring for all mankind. True, there are references like;

In the gloom of November we pass'd

Days not of gloom at thy side;

.....................and I stand

In the autumn evening, and thinky

Of bygone autumn with thee.

However it is perhaps the only one of such personal reference and the filial emotion is hidden under a studied understatement. Comparison of the headmaster-father to an Oak under whom they grew up.

We who till then in thy shade

Rested as under the boughs

Of a mighty oak, have endured

Sunshine and rain as we might

Bare, unshaded, alone

Lacking the shelter of thee

Also could be considered as very personal, but there We can as well be any of the followers of the great headmaser-Stanley or Clough or Cotton or even Thomas Hughes the author of Tom Brown's Schooldays.

Written after 15 years of the death of the father, the poem is truly emotion recollected in tranquillity. The school chapel in which the most famous of the nineteenth century headmaster was buried reminds the son of the greatness of the man. It is interesting to note that there is no serious mourning of the father in the poem. But the poet cries at the feebleness, the dejection and the purposelessness of his contemporaries. When mankind is marching without a purpose, troubled and frightened by the difficulties and dangers of life, his father appears like a saving angel. He gives courage to wavering ones by giving his helping hand. The son speaks of the father's selflessness illustrated by his desire to save the souls of others. That quality is made clear when he says;

But thou woulds't not alone

Be saved, my father! alone.

He would rather

...at the end of thy day,

O faithful shepherd! to come,

Bringing thy sheep in thy hand.

This is far from the religious fanaticism of which Fitzjames Stephen, the Edinburgh Review columnist disparaged the headmaster. It is pure humanitarianism of a noble mind which is pictured in the poem. True, the headmaster showed the humanitarianism with a religious zeal, a Christian zeal.

There is obvious didacticism in the Rugby Chapel. The poem is more of a statement of the poet's philosophy of life than an elegy. The author declares that purity of soul and nobility does not depend on saving one's own soul, but on saving other people's souls along with one's own. Viewed this way the senior Arnold was a pure soul and of a noble heart. The poet tries to tell that noble ideas and high ideals will make life meaningful. But the majority of the people in the world live without ideals. Then there are some idealists like the poet and his friends who:

Come to the end of our way,

To the lonely inn 'mid the rocks;

The innkeeper (God) asks them, whom else they have brought.

The answer is;

Sadly we answer: We bring

Only ourselves;

However, there were people like Thomas Arnold who cared for others as much as they cared for themselves. And the son has only praise for the father over this

Yours is the praise, if mankind

Hath not as yet in its march

Fainted, and fallen, and died;

Perhaps this is too much of a praise, justly to be reserved for people like Budha or Jesus or Confucius.

More than an elegy this poem contains humane ideas arising from deep meditation. We can as well say there is criticism of life in it, criticism of a very serious nature. Among his contemporaries, he finds langour in the heart, weakness in the work, and weariness on the brow. They can disappear when a noble spirit like Thomas Arnold is around. Certainly the betterment of the whole mankind is what the poet aims at.

The Scenic Description in the Beginning of the Poem: The word-pioture of the Rugby field and the chapel is quite touching for it sets and elegiac mood very effectively. The poem begins,

Coldly, sadly descends

The autumn evening.

Autumn is the season bringing in death and decay. Coldly and sadly are usually associated with death. The withered leaves and elms fading into dimness surely brings to mind the death and the resulting disappearance of a human being. The silence of the few boys in the field adds a solemnity to the scene. Then slowly Iights appear, first in the street, and then in the schoolrooms which can be seen through the windows. Then,

Through the gathering darkness, arise

The Chapel walls.

The architecture of the big churches and Chapels are designed to make the eye go upwards, perhaps heavenwards towards God. The poet's mentioning 'arise the chapel walls' makes the mind go heavenwards. Once the poet suggests the heavenward movement of the mind, he bangs as if banging a gong the words.

.... in whose bound

Thou, my father! art laid.

"Father art laid" are the last three bangs.

The Style: Restraint is the key quality of style in this poem. There is clarity born out of simplicity in its thought, and lucidity in diction. The intense sincerity of the poems perhaps is hidden in check by the author's classical leanings. However, it is not plain or bland poetry. There are figures of speech embellishing it here and there. The 'gloom' is suggestive of the restlessness and the resulting melancholy, which many thinking men of Arnold's time felt. However, when the father was alive, they had passed days, not of gloom. It suggestively brings forth the radiant nature of the senior man which is praised later overtly. Arnold's death is mentioned describing his 'reading 'the road of death. Then comes the metaphor where the father is considered an Oak in the shade of which the children lived. The mighty Oak is suggestive of the larger than life-image of the headmaster. The deadman's soul is said to be tarrying the shores of the unknown regions. This again is a metaphor suiting the matter discussed. The image of the father,

...upraisest with zeal

The humble good from the ground,

Sternly repressest the bad.

Too is very appropriate. The transient nature of man's life in this world is brought out through another elegant metaphor of the waves in the ocean.

...have swell'd,

Foam'd for a moment, and gone

To The problems and difficulties of life are brought out, in a manner that reminds one of the journey of Christian in the Pilgrim's Progress

... the spray

Boils over its boarders, aloft,

The unseen snow-beds dislodge

Their hanging ruin,

And the 'long steep journey' becomes more and more hazardous. The lonely inn-keeper standing at the threshold again is a metaphor for God. The question that he asks and the reply the poet gives show clearly that God expects his beloved ones to save the souls not only of they themselves but of others too.

Arnold's Belief in Christianity: Arnold's agnostic leaning is more or less obvious in many of his poems and prose writings. Prime Minister Gladstone once wondered how a poet like Matthew Arnold was to be considered a Christian. However in Rugby Chapel the poet betrays his belief in some aspects of Christianity though not in the formal way. He appears to believe in the transcendental nature of the human soul. The poet apostrophizes the 'soul' of his father and asks

O strong soul, by what shore

Tarricst thou now?

And asserts that its strength is practiced 'somewhere surely afar'. This is almost, if not fully, the Christian belief in the soul's immortality either in heaven or in the purgatory. His father's spirit is with God, Arnold feels:

Yes in some far-shining sphere,

Conscious or not of the past,

Still thou performest the word

Of the Spirit in whom thou dost live,

The far shining sphere is the heaven according to the Christian tradition. And the, 'Spirit in whom' his father's soul, lives is God. It is clearly a Christian conception. However, in telling that the dead man's spirit is 'conscious or not', Arnold appears to deviate from the belief of most Christian sects. They believe that the soul after death is conscious of the past worldly life: But Arnold is leaving that point uncertain-may be or may not be. In the end of the poem too, Arnold appears to write with firm belief in the Christian concept of God. The senior Arnold's relation with God is more like that of a son than a servant's. And the God is concerned over 'one of his little ones lost'.

In his comparison of noble and pure people to angels who appear radiant with ardour divine' is another instance of the poet's bringing in the Christian belief about angels. The final line of the poem 'On, to the City of God' is surely an echo of the Christian hope of living in heaven after death. Finally the noblest ideal a man can pursue, according to Arnold is to become

Helpers and friends of mankind.

Surely this is the true Christian concept 'Love thy neighbour as thyself' put in another. form. Arnold appears to become a half-believer when he talks about his father and becomes an agnostic when he philosophises. Probably his earlier bringing up under the Oak' of a father kept indelible impressions of Christian belief in him and they were relegated to the subconscious, later, by the rational influence of the 'rigorous teachers' he mentions in the Grande Chartreuse poem. Occasionally, as when his father's memory comes up, the old impressions come up to the conscious mind.

LINE BY LINE EXPLANATIONS

That word ..... clear Line. 16-22

The Rugby Chapel begins with the description of an autumn evening when the withered leaves, the elms and the darkening atmosphere, suggest gloom. Then the poet contrasts the gloom with 'radiant vigour' of the father.

The word gloom reminds the poet of the bright and radiant influence his father had on the children even in the midst of gloomy November days. The autumn season was not able to lessen the brightness of the senior Arnold's clear cheerfulness.

November is a month well passed into autumn, nearing winter. Days are gloomy and evenings are dark in England. But even then the radiance of the father kept the family having a happy time. Certainly one finds a sincerity of emotion in the passage. Though Arnold expresses his feelings with the classical restraint the filial regard for the dead father is unmistakable here.

O strong soul ..... beneficient, firm Line. 37-43

In these lines, Arnold expresses the belief that the strong soul of his father is immortal.

The poet wonders where the soul of the father remains, after his death. So forceful a force as that of his father cannot have simply vanished. Somewhere afar in this universe his father must be putting to use, his strength, with zeal, firmly and for the wider benefit of the universe.

While paying a glowing tribute to his father Arnold displays a kind of belief in the Christian concept of the immortality of the soul. He may not be agreeing with the Christian concept completely. But thinking that the soul of his father exists somewhere 'afar betrays a belief in the Christian heaven where the soul of the best people, after death, would go. But one has to agree that other religions too believe in the immortality of the soul. However, it is interesting and a little strange to see the almost agnostic Arnold trying to bring in the myths of Christianity and other religions when he talks of his father and his achievements.

Still thou ..... upon earth. Line. 49-57

Arnold, in these lines, expresses his belief that his father's soul may be continuing to do the good work he had been doing, now in the far away land where the soul may be existing.

Even now he should be helping the good to thrive and destroying evil. Even now he should be awakening the half sleepy people who remain neither virtuous or vicious, inviting them to the right path, with his clear trumpet call. Thereby he will be giving the needy assistance to them making rejuvenated. The same kind of work he had been doing in his life too. This is one of the passages in the poem where Arnold betrays his belief in the immortality of the soul, which is that of Christianity. Other religions too believe in the immortality of the soul and the belief displayed could be a combination of the religious belief and rational thinking. However, the mixture does not appear to be a homogeneous one. At some places he appears to be a believer and at other places, he remains the usual rational near-agnostic.

Most men ..... and gone. Line. 60-72

Here Arnold describes the Plebeian way in which most people in the world live. He uses two images: one of a violent storm and the other of the sea. Both signify the course of human life.

Most men move about as if they are caught in a whirlwind. They eat, drink, converse, love, hate, make money, and spend it the routine way. They are lifted violently up and then tossed down into the dust. They struggle blindly and end up achieving nothing. They are destroyed. No one who has watched them thinks that they have achieved any permanent gain. Their performance in the worldly life has been as transitory as a wave in the lonely and moonlit sea that swells up for a moment and then disappears.

The metaphor of storm that is suggested by the words 'eddy', 'raised aloft' and 'hurl'd', stands for the upheavals of life possibly resulting from excessive passion hurl'd in the dust' suggests the Christian burial during which a priest takes a handful of dust throws it on the dead body and tells Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return'. In the other image, the simile, the common man's life is compared to a wave in the sea, that swells for a moment and then is gone. It very picturesquely and effectively highlights the transcience of human life. Once the life of a plebeian comes to an end nothing remains in the world to tell of his past existence. The comparison drives home the point very efficiently.

And there ..... and vain. Line. 73-78

After describing the meaningless life of the plebeians, the ordinary base people, Arnold describes a second group, (to which he belongs) who do have a purpose in their life. There are some people who have an unquenchable thirst (for Truth) and with a fiery aspiration to achieve something in life. They do not belong to the crowd, and they do not lead a life aimlessly going round and round.

The poem pictures three kind of people. The first are the plebeians who lead a meaningless life to send by the storms of life. The second set to which Arnold belongs, do have a purpose of life, but they care not for the others around them. To the third set, belongs Dr. Arnold, the poet's father. People like him not only lead a meaningful life but also help others lead an upright life.

By picturing himself and the people like him below the level of his father the poet is trying to magnify the stature of his father.

Then, on the ..... his footstep. Line. 90-97

Here Arnold pictures the life of human beings as a journey through a difficult terrain, almost in the manner of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. The journey is long and the path steep, going up through snowy mountains. They. start cheerfully but half-way they come across with difficulties.

Once they reach the heights they are caught in a storm. Thunder crashes ominously, and water falls thunderously. The lightning confounds them. Violent flow of water erodes away the path through which people used to walk earlier. Water sprays furiously from the torrents. From high above the mountain's, beds of snow get dislodged and fall down threatening the life of the travellers. The travellers come across with large-scale harm. Friends who started the journey with them grew weak and they are lost in the storm.

The allegory of the journey and the dangers they face reminds the life during the Victorian age and the spiritual, religious and sociological upheavals that disturbed the people. The exact allusions to various historical events may not be traceable. But surely, the storm is the upheaval in society caused by progress of science and technology. Thunder crashing from rock to rock and cataracts replying could be the destruction science caused to all the religious sects. The cataracts' reply could be the defence religious minded people put up. The torrents that washed away the paths, again could be science destroying religion that of fered a path to salvation. The spray boiling over the borders probably are the revolutionary ideas coming from surrounding countries. On the whole, certainly, it signifies the conflict of several new intellectual ideas old and new that caused tempestuous upheavais in all spheres of society.

Where the gaunt ..... in the snow? Line. 110-116

Here Arnold describes the end of the perilous journey, of people like the poet make. After facing tempests ard other dangers a few, only a few, reach their destination, an inn, which probably is heaven, or the world after death.

The keeper of the inn is a grim figure who talks very little at the door of the inn. The storm is still raging and moves the white hair of the inn-keeper. He holds the light to see the storm-torn travellers and asks two questions: 'who (else) do you bring here' 'who are the ones you left in the storm?'

The allegory of the journey of life is significant here too. The journey's end, the inn, is heaven, where blessed people live after death. The gaunt and taciturn inn-keeper should be God. God, definitely the Christian god, is generally imagined to be a grave figure who does not communicate very much. The two questions he asks are significant 'who are you bringing in and 'who are the ones lost on the way'. Living for others, or loving the neighbour as oneself, is a true Christian principle. A selfish life, of saving one's own life is not noble enough and not Christian enough. The concern of the inn-keeper for those who have fallen in the storm is the concern of God for the lost ones. Another noteworthy thing in the first question is the suggestion that only those who save others are qualified to be in heaven.

Arnold, remained a near agnostic from his youth onwards. However, the Christian belief in God heaven etc. are referred to so much in the poem that one has to think that he had some of his childhood beliefs remaining in his sub-conscious. Occasionally the influence of the subconscious, appears in passages like the present one.

If in the paths ..... firm. Line. 134-139

Here Arnold apostrophizes his father, who is dead, and gone. The poet feels that his father would have been different from those self-centred people who are concerned with their own life. Then he describes how the senior Arnold would have faced the difficulties in his wordly journey.

During his journey through perilous paths, Dr. Arnold also could have met with difficulties and faced moods in which dejection challenged his cheerful spirits. But none of his followers noticed any of it. He appeared to others the cheerful, firm and helpful person he always was. Because of his helpful disposition, it became possible for him to save the lives of many others, along with his own. As a result, at the end of the journey, Dr. Arnold the faithful Shepherd was able to bring many sheep along with him, to the inn. Arnold in this passage very clearly points out that his father was a noble soul who was concerned with the life of others. So he is different from the plebeians, and the other set who cared only for themselves. The life of Dr. Arnold as the headmaster is alluded, through the words, Shepherd. He was faithful Shepherd for he was as a headmaster who served God, faithfully, by saving the life of others. (The pulils of Rugby). The sheep, obviously is a reference to the Rugbians.

And through ..... and vine. Line. 145-158

In this passage, Arnold pictures his father as a noble soul, very much different from the contemporary Victorians. The poet says, that having seen the noble life of his father, he could easily believe that noble people had existed in the past. Mankind as he had known was such a poor and miserable lot that it was not possible to believe that a nobleman could have existed in this world. Now that he has known the noble life of his father, he can believe that really noble men existed in this world; noble in the sense that they are different from those of the crowd, those pompous and obsequious ones who live a miserable, dreary and often evil life.

Perhaps Arnold goes too far, here, where he exalts his fathers nobility. Do we have to believe that Arnold didn't believe in the existence of people like Socrates in this world? What about Sophocles whom he admires a lot, else where? also Goethe, Senancour and Wordsworth? Did he honestly consider them lower in status than Dr. Arnold?

Possibly in paying a glowing tribute to his father he thought only of the role of Dr. Arnold as a headmaster, and in that role he thought of him as unequalled. If so, what about Socrates, perhaps the greatest of the teachers?

Not as servants ..... and died. Line. 164-170

Describing Dr. Arnold and similar people as noble souls, the poet qualifies them as servants of God or better sons of God. Then he explains why the name sons of God will suit them more.

The noble people's relationship with God was not one between a servant and a master. They knew the will of God very clearly. (No servant is likely to know the intentions of the masterfully). So they may better be considered sons of God. God does not wish to see even the least harm happening to any of his creatures. The really great people are those who learn this desire of God and work to save other human beings from possible danger. If mankind has not felt weak, fallen down and died, the honour for it should go to Dr. Arnold and such people. Some people think that mankind continues to exist only because of the existence of a few good people in the world. Solzkenictsin, the Russian Nobel laureate is one who believes so, in modern times. However, this is a belief the core of which is religious. Here too Arnold, the otherwise agnostic, betrays his occasional sallies into religion.

In the rocks ..... in the waste. Line. 171-187

Arnold allegorically describes the difficulties that man faces in the contemporary life. Then he says that only the presence of a person like Dr. Arnold only could save mankind in such a situation.

Facing the difficulties of life, mankind is moving like an army, that is weak and undetermined. They are marching forward, as willed by God. But they have no clear idea of the goal. The journey is so long and they had been on the path for many years. Thirst trouble them but all around there are only frightening rocks. Factional fights arise among them. The army seems to disintegrate and disappear. To keep them united is the need of the time; otherwise all will go astray and not even one will survive. They will wander forever among the rocks and one by one all will die in the wilderness. The allegory of an army marching on the orders of a commander (God) runs through the whole passage and beyond. Unless the men know the goal, (the will of God) towards which they, march, the journey will be futile. Further they must be united during their journey. Otherwise they are likely to go astray. The thirsty' in line 178 could be the thirst of knowledge. There is an allusion here to Israelites who marched through the rocky desert where water was scarce. They, according to the Bile, the leader Aaron, at the command of God, struck the rock with his rod and water flowed out aplenty and the people were satisfied. This allusion suggestively mentions that a leader like Moses or Aaron is needed to lead the Victorian people. The corollary is that Dr. Arnold is of the stature of Moses or Aaron who led the Israelites to the promised land.

Ye move ..... City of God. Line. 198-208

After giving an allegorical picture of an army marching through the desert, thirsty, demoralised and fighting among themselves, Arnold says how a noble leader like his father could save them from destruction.

When his father moves in, there is a change in the morale of the army. He calls back those who have strayed from the lines, refreshes the tired ones, and encourages the brave people. Consequently order comes back to the army and they become courageous. With happiness in the eyes, and prayers on their lips, they follow his footsteps. He replenishes the vacant places in the line and the strengthened army, march forward to the boundary of the wasteland to the City of God.

Arnold by suggestion and allusion gives Dr Arnold the status of a Moses or an Aaron who led the Israelites from Egypt to the land of Canaan. The parallel between the Victorian life facing the contemporary problems and that of the Israelites marching through the desert is quite a meaningful one. But the reader is likely to question the appropriateness of equating Dr. Arnold with Moses. Perhaps the poet in his blind filial feelings for his headmaster-father, thought that the contribution of Rugby and its head, as something equal to that of Moses.

Stanzas From The Grande Chartreuse: Summary & Analysis

2024-07-10T08:00:00.001+05:30

INTRODUCTION

Stanzas From The Grande Chartreuse first published in the Fraser's Magazine in 1855, appeared in New Poems of 1867. It was classified as an elegiac poem late.

On 7 September 1851, while honeymooning in Europe, Arnold visited the Monastery of Grande Chartreuse, about 3300 feet above sea level among the mountains of South eastern France. He heard the prayers of the monks during a Mass and was much impressed by the life they lived. Grande Chartreuse is the chief monastery of the monks of the Carthusian order, set up by St. Bruno in 1086. They practised abstinence, wore coarse clothes, and ate only vegetables and coarse bread. Each monk had a separate dwelling inside the monastery and they have common assembly twice during day and once during night. They routinely studied the scriptures, meditated, prayed and did all the manual work of the place. No talking takes place except on Sundays. A walk was taken once in a week. The Carthusians invented several kinds of liqueur but the method of their manufacture was a guarded secret. The profits from its sale was used for the upkeep of the place. Arnold makes a reference to the herbs grown in the place (for making the liquor) in Lines 55-60. However, a few inaccurate details are found in the poem; one is mentioning the Carthusians as being buried in their beds and the other is the Host passing from hand to hand. One has to conclude that Arnold visited the place as a casual outsider and not as an intimate insider. Then one has to remember that Arnold's interest did not lie in the monastery practices of the Carthusians. The Grande Chartreuse is only a symbol of a thought and belief that had vanished. Stopford Brooke says that "The high emotion and thought of a heart worn more by sorrow for the world than by its own pain, fills these verses to the brim. The wisdom of joy is not in them, but the wisdom of pain is. Yet they look forward; waiting for the light with weary eyes, with faint hope which has at least slain despair. Meanwhile, he cries, while we wait and hope, allow us our tears, our solitude, our absence from the gayer world. Let its bright procession pass. Leave us to our monastic peace".

The poem contains a couple of lines. of Arnold, very often quoted to illustrate his religious attitude during the time the poem was published.

Wandering between two worlds one dead

The other powerless to be born.

The one dead is that of the Christian faith which lost its base as the scientific ideas of the nineteenth century became more and more appealing to the intellectuals of the time. The other, possibly what Arnold thought to be a truer faith, has not yet emerged. The poet watches the religious rituals of the secluded community of monks, but feels that he does not fit in the place. All the same he finds a similarity between his position and that of the monks: both are the targets of the mockery of the worldly-wise. He goes on to say that Byron's haughty scorn, Shelley's lonely wail and Obermann's sad stern book have not changed the world for the better. There is nothing we can do except to wait in tears for a world that is sagely without being harsh and happy without being frivolous. He disparages the worldly-wise outlook of the times as materialistic. He ends the poem with an analogy of children living in an old world abbey. The antithesis there is not between the monks and the outside world, but between serious searchers of truth like Arnold himself (the children) and the charlation-prophets and agnostic philosophers (hunters and soldiers). Some critics are of opinion that the poet's intellectual position as described in the poem is rather confused. It is possible the rational attitude of the poet got disturbed when he came across with the religious fervour of the Carthusian monks.

LINE BY LINE SUMMARY

Line. 1-6: The journey Arnold and his wife made in 1851, to the monastery, up the mountains is described here. They passed through the meadows of Alps on a wet day. While going through the narrow path (mule-track) one can see crocus flowers and ruins of old forges. They cross the bridge and go up the mountain slope.

Line. 7-12: The Autumn evening darkens as the wind-lashed rain falls. From far below, the muffled sound of the stream, Dead Guier, (Guier's Mort in French), could be heard. White vapours could be seen rising from that stream giving rise to a brooding mood.

Line. 13-18: White clouds move swiftly past rough limestones and irregularly shaped pines. They are sometimes seen and sometimes hidden. Then suddenly among the clouds something is seen shining; they are the huts of Courrerie, somewhere a little up in the wet valley.

Line. 19-24: Directed by the guide the party turn leftward. The stony forest way now becomes steeper. Soon they are above the tree line and in the rainy grey lime-light they could see pointed roofs of buildings that look like a palace of an ancient king of France.

Line. 25-30: They go ahead for this is the place they wanted to reach. They get down and have a light supper and rest in the outhouse; then they cross the lawn, reach the gate and knock, pass the wicket and they are in the world famous grand monastery of the Carthusian monks.

Line. 31-36: In the silent courtyards fountains splash cold water into stone basins night and day. In the humid corridors monks, appearing like ghosts in their cowls and white tunic move around.

Line. 37-42: In the chapel they do not have any organ; their prayer is grave and simple. They kneel with utterances of repentance, and do obeisance vigorously. Then they rise without the cowl on their head and pass on the Host from one to another, all the time keeping their faces looking down.

(Host is the holy eucharistic bread, which symbolises the body of Jesus Christ Arnold is evidently wrong here. The Host is never passed on from one to another. The officiating priest passes on a small piece of it into the mouth of the receiver. Arnold might have confused with some other holy ritual they practiced.)

Line. 43-48: After receiving the Host each one covers his head again in the cowl. In their calls they have the picture or icon or carved figure of crucified Christ, on the wall. The floor is worn out because of the continual kneeling. The wooden bed where they sleep will be used to make their coffin when they die.

Line. 49-54: The big and small books of their library are not aimed at proudly praising the activities of Roman Catholic church; neither are they meant to amuse as the English church is doing. On the other hand those books describe the inner struggle, the martyrdom, shedding of blood and the story of the conquering of the worldly desires of great souls.

Line. 55-60: The garden, though overgrown, is amiable. Many fragrant plants of the Alpine wilderness are flowering there. Tending those plants is the only worldly work the monks do. And this they do cheerfully.

(The monks of Grande Chartreuse used to make famous liqueurs, the method of manufacture was a guarded secret. Many wild herbs were used for that purpose. The profits from the sale of the liqueur contributed to the upkeep of the monasteries of their order).

Line. 61-66: He saw the several halls meant for pilgrims of olden days who visited the place from countries like England, Germany and Spain. The house of the brothers are certainly an austere place. Then Arnold asks himself, why he has come to such a place.

Line. 67-72: From youth onwards he was influenced by rigid teachers, removed superstition from his mind, encouraged his enquiring spirit and showed him the shining Truth high up. They made him watch that Truth and aspire to acquire it. Even now he appears to hear their voice reaching him through the gloom of the place, asking him why he has come to a joyless place (living tomb).

Line. 73-78: Arnold begs the forgiveness of those masters who helped him to discard many earlier beliefs and become a detached person. He has come here not to disregard their teachings, and to oppose the Truth they had shown him.

Line. 79-84: He does not speak as a sympathiser or a follower of these monks. But he is here like a Greek who on seeing an ancient inscribed pagan stone, remembers his pagan Gods. Both are thinking of their vanished faith. (Christianity for Arnold and paganism for the Greek).

Line. 85-90: Arnold is moving between two creeds; one is dead and gone and the other is not strong enough to establish itself. With nothing to give rest to his disquiet mind, like these monks, Arnold too is waiting lonely and melancholic. The worldly-wise people mock both at the poet's melancholy, and the faith of the monks. He has come to express his sorrow (because there is a kinship between him and the monks. The 'world derides' him and the monks).

Line. 91-96: The poet makes an agonised appeal to the monastery to keep him in it hidden from the world. He wants the monks to surround him until he gets back his soul, and makes his thoughts free from the unwelcome restraints.

Line. 97-102: The worldly-wise people think that the Carthusians, faith is an outdated one. And superficial thinkers say that the poet's melancholy is an old fashioned theme. It is ironical for the worldly-wise never had faith in anything at all and superficial thinkers had never experienced melancholy.

Line. 103-108: If they are (faith, and melancholy) outmoded, then there must be an alternative way to remove the restlessness and pain from life, so that man may not depend upon the outmoded ways. If there is no nobleness in grief, why can't the sufferings of the poet and the monks be removed.

Line. 109-114: But if the world cannot give the poet and people like him, (the last of the set who seek shelter in melancholy) the peace they desire, allow them to live a life-like that of the monks. They are the last of the believers, and remain silent as they grow old. The best of the people are remaining silent now.

Line. 115-120: The man of action (Achilles) remains silent in his tent. The great thinkers of the time are puzzled and they have nothing to offer. Though not content, they remain silent, awaiting to see the future turn up on its, own bringing in relief. They have the same sorrow that troubled people of olden ages, but they do not grumble and indulge into disputations.

(Achilles, the Greek hero, having picked up a quarrel with Agamemnon, sulked and remained in his tent withdrawing from fighting. Later when he rejoined the fight, Greeks won many combats).

Achilles and the kings of modern thought symbolize perhaps the active and intellectual life of the times, in neither of which can the poet find much solace. Sir Edmund Chambers however, thinks that Achilles stands for Cardinal Newman, who on his return from Rome, founded with Froude the Lyra Apostolica, the motto of which was paraphrased from Achilles' words in Iiad XVII "They shall know the difference, now I am back".

Line. 121-126: Our forefathers made great sacrifices for the spiritual nourishment of others. Their thoughts influence the life of others who cared to follow them. Still the same sea of life is around us with all the spiritual strife and we can only match them helplessly (The positive influence of the sages of old is no longer felt now).

Line. 127-132: The messages and philosophy of the men of the past are of no value today. Their descendants, are not happier now and life is not at all lighter to them. They suffered and died leaving the pain behind. The same pain they felt by people even today.

Line. 133-138: Byron challenged the smart society in his haughty way and exhibited the sufferings of his passionate heart throughout Europe till Greece. (Aetolia is a province of Greece). But it does not help the present day people though many people pitied him, studied his poems minutely and read their own passions into them.

(Byron died in Greece while helping the Greek freedom war against the Turks. His poems of passion and amoral love remained very popular throughout Europe during his life time).

Line. 139-144: The lovely mournful poems of Shelley with its musical quality spread upto Italy and the bay of Spezzia. But nothing good to others has come out of it now. The same distress that troubled him and the disquietude are still felt by people.

(Shelley was drowned in a yacht mishap in the bay of Spezia in the year 1822).

Line. 145-150: Neither are we wiser, now that we have read the sad and serious novel Obermann (written by Senancour) that tells how the author faced the fury of his countrymen by withdrawing to Fontainebleau and to the villas of the Snowy Alps. (Senancour's contemporaries subjected him to unmerited and severe criticism and he had to withdraw from the madding crowd to the solitude of Fontainebleau and Alpine resorts).

Line. 151-156: He (Senancour) lies buried in his grave. The world valued the sadness mentioned in his work for a brief period. But now no once cares for his works and his philosophy, at the present, though men like Arnold and men like him remain influenced by his thoughts.

Line. 157-162: The poot foresees the breaking in of an age when people remain wise without being harsh, jovial without being silly. He requests the people of the world to hasten the coming of that age. But until that age is ushered in the author and others like him may be allowed to express their melancholy thoughts, without being condemned.

Line. 163-168: Allow people like the author to express their sadness. They admire the achievements of the Victorian age, the materialistic progress, the Scientific progress and its triumphs over time and space and many such successes. But the author and akin people consider those to be alien to them.

Line. 169-174: They (the poet and akin people) are like children brought up under the shade of an abbey, in a forest hidden from other people. (Their bringing up, their education and their culture, were secluded from that of the common man, even like the Carthusian monks).

Line. 175-180: But they can see, through the trees, in an occasionally flash, a procession of soldiers (men of action) their flags and lances shining in the sun, moving on the road banking the stream. They are proceeding in the wordly life, the life of cities and of war.

Line. 181-186: From another part of the wood, bugle sound is heard. The children can see, hunters assemble with their hounds near a forest lodge. Happy ladies are present and frequently the sound of laughter and merry making can be heard.

Line. 187-192: The flashing banners seen through the trees attract the attention of the children. The bugle music reaches them and in the wind and surprises them. The banners and the bugles are inducing the recluse children too to join the procession.

Line. 193-198: The poet asks what their reply to the invitation would be. They would reply. "You are roaming through this place for action and pleasure. Are you calling us too to join you? You have come too late for us to join. Our way of life, different from yours, was decided earlier. We are not suitable for your company

Line. 199-204: "We have been brought up under the protection of faith watching the holy lamp shining on the altar. The organ music of the church reminds of a pleasure different from yours".

Line. 205-210; "Brought up in a life of faith (cloistral round), of visions and meditations in semi-dark places, we will not be able to thrive in a different culture like yours. We will not be able to function in an alien kind of life. So you banners do pass on; you bugles, be quiet and leave us in peace, in our forsaken place, undisturbed".

CRITICAL APPRECIATION AND ANALYSIS

Intensely Personal and Philosophical: Stanzas From The Grande Chartreuse is highly reflective and philosophic poem of Arnold is one of his best known. The author appears to be justifying his failure to identify himself with the materialistic life that thrice around him. Probably this poem best illustrates his own dictum that poetry is a criticism of life. The poem is intensely personal for the spiritual doubts and scepticism depicted in it had troubled Arnold's life almost throughout his life. There are ample comments on the life of the Carthusians in the living tombs", Byron's "pageant of his bleeding heart", Shelley's 'lovely wail', Senancour's 'sad stern page' and the silence of the 'kings of modern thought'. We find the clear contrast between the life of the Carthusians on the one hand and the life of action (soldiers) and the life of pleasure (hunters with gay domes) on the other. The life of those like Carthusians, secluded and melancholic, may appear as life in tombs, to men of action and pleasure hunters; but they enjoy a sort of peace of their own which the worldly-wise are not able to realize. Allow them to continue their life in their desert-gloom, without being disturbed by the march of material progress and bohemian life.

Personal Note: The poem deals with the spiritual uncertainty and the restlessness of the inner self that troubled Arnold. Line. 67-96 deals with the rational. influence on his own life. The rigorous teachers mentioned in Line. 67 possibly are Spinoza, Senancour, Goethe, Carlyle etc. That influence made Arnold shed his earlier religious faith and become a seeker of Truth. He says that those teachers.

seized my youth,

And purged its faith and trimm'd its fire,

Show'd me the high white star of Truth,

There baec me gaze, and there aspire.

But in place of the faith that has vanished, no satisfactory philosophy has taken its scat. So we find him;

Wandering between two worlds, one dead,

The other powerless to be born,

With nowhere yet to rest,

And like the Carthusians, he wanders, 'forlorn' in this world. The wordly-wise people mock at the life of the Carthusians and the melancholy tone in Arnold's poems. He complains: Their faith, my tears the world deride'. So he has gone to get a little comfort from the Grande Chartreuse. If this journey is to be taken as an allegory of Arnold's mind moving towards Christian faith, there is obvious inconsistency in the poem. The rigorous teachers could not have approved such a move. In Line. 72 the poet hears their voice reaching him through the gloom, 'what dost thou in this living tomb?' He replies in his mind, that he has not come there disregarding their teaching. He does not talk, as a friend of the Carthusians. He only has reverential curiosity in the monks. He looks at them only as a modern Greek looks at the ruins of a pagan Greek temple. However, at the end of the poem, in Line. 193-210 we find Arnold holding a brief for the Carthusians. There we find Arnold's obvious sympathy. He says the monks do have a kind of peace born out of hope.

They, watch those yellow tapers shine

Emblems of hope over the grave.

In the high alter's depth divine.

Surely Arnold hints that they enjoy a peace because of their belief in another world. By 'hope over the grave' Arnold means belief in life after death. Line 203-204 repeats the idea differently.

The organ carries to our ear

Its accents of another sphere.

That is the sphere of heaven, where the believer is to reach after his death. The discrepancy is clear. At times we find Arnold a seeker of truth, under the influence of rigorous teachers of his youth. At other times he is sympathising with, if not glorifying, the Christian belief in the other world. Perhaps this conflict between reason and faith had been with him all the while; and the poem shows its acuteness.

Atmosphere of gloom: The characteristic melancholy of Arnold is seen rather in a more than usual intensity in this poem. The journey itself is described against a gloomy setting. Autumnal evening darkens round. (L7) They go past dark forges'. Dead Guier's stream and the mist that broods can be seen below. The path up the hill is narrow. The buildings are austere. Icy fountains and ghost-like forms are there. The whole description emphasizes gloom.

But the gloom associated with the thought is darker. He has reached the place of the Carthusians to shed his tears 'at their side'. The wailing request;

Oh, hide me in your gloom profound

Shows that his sadness verges on despair. The intensity of the despair is again clear when he says

take away

At least, the restlessness--the pain!

No philosophy or thought of times ancient or modern can relieve him of the pain. They are all silent, including the kings of modern thought. Neither can the life and works of Byron, Shelley or Senancour could lessen the suffering of humanity. Arnold's melancholy is not the result born of his personal troubles or difficulties. It is a nobler one, a melancholy arising out of his concern for the whole humanity. He is unhappy that the technological and material progress has not lessened the sufferings of the world. Neither has mankind acquired wisdom that ennobles the soul, and removes the restlessness from the mind. However, there is one solitary note of optimism, in the poem. The poet tells of the possibility of a new happy age dawning in:

There may, perhaps, yet dawn an age

More fortunate, alas than we.

There is a 'perhaps' but still it is an optimistic note. One can realise at least what Arnold longs for. And there is brightness in that hope. But until such a 'sage' world is ushered in, Arnold says, he has to resort to his melancholy.

Pictorial description: The beginning of the poem is a testimony to the descriptive power of Arnold. Line. 1-24 gives the scenic description of the way to the Grande Chartreuse and Line. 25-66 describes the buildings, the courtyard and the life of the monks. "The Alpine meadows soft-suffused with rain", 'past the gorges', up the mountainside is quite realistic and lively. The Autumnal evening that darkens round, the wind that drives the rain, the 'wet smoke' brooding over the boiling cauldron, and the swift rush of spectral vapours which give a movie-like effect to the vivid description. The 'strangled sound' with which Dead Guier's stream complains is an audio image suiting the mood of the poem. The sudden appearance of the "huts of Courrerie" is pleasantly startling and the poet stops a while to look at them 'high in the valley wet and drear'. As they 'strike leftward' the road becomes steeper, winding through stony forest-way. Then they reach above the tree line and the buildings of Grande Chartreuse, that look like a palace of French kings appear. The poet, by choosing an Autumnal wet evening and by choosing words associated with gloom has set an appropriate introduction to the gloomy thoughts that are to follow.

Description of the monastery (Line. 25-66): The building's from the outhouses are described with the main purpose of revealing the austerity of the place. The silent courts, the icy fountains, humid corridors and spectre-like cowl'd forms give a gloomy but vivid picture of the life of the monks. The chapel has no organs in it and is 'stern': Only while receiving the holy communion do the monks remove their cowl from their head. Their library contains books dealing with sufferings of great saints and their sacrifices.

There are halls where in ancient times pilgrims from far away countries rested. The gardens had fragrant herbs rather overgrown but not wild. The atmosphere is heavy and austere, agreeing with reclusive life of the monks.

Evaluation of Byron, Shelley and Senancour: Incidentally Arnold makes some pity and accurate evaluation of the Romantics, Byron, Shelley and Senancour. There is not much in Byron's poetry to teach others but the courage with which he "mocked the smart" is mentioned with admiration. His poems were "a pageant of his bleeding heart". Shelley's poems were a "lovely wail" and the music spread through the Italian trees to the bay of Spezzia. Senancour's books were sad and stern but he had to seek shelter in the solitude of Fountainbleau and Alpine rest houses escaping from the scathing criticism of his contemporaries. However, their work and their life did not help at all in lessening the restlessness and the pain of mankind.

Some weaknesses: There are some weak passages, certain obscurities and a few discrepancies in the poem. Duffin has quoted Line. 104-5,

Ah, if it be pass'd, take away

At least, the restlessness-the pain.

He rightly says that it is not certain what it' in Line. 104 means. None can be sure whether it is Arnold's melancholy or the faith of the Carthusians; if both, a plural pronoun ought to have been used. Neither one can get a clear idea who the you and us in Line. 109 signify.

"My melancholy sciolists say" is considered to be a very bad line. A few more examples of weak lines may be found in the poem, here and there. 'Achilles' in line Line. 115 remains obscure. Equally obscure is the 'the kings of modern thought'. Further there is obvious discrepancy in the thought process of the poem. On one occasion the poet considers himself the sincere pupil of the rigorous teachers. On a later occasion he identifies himself with the Carthusians. Certainly there is some confusion, the same confusion which remained in Arnold's mind involving faith and reason. As he has not solved that conflict in personal life, that unsolved live conflict got reflected in this intensely personal poem. Again, Arnold says in the beginning of the poem that there are no organs in the Carthusian chapel. However at the end in the analogy of the children living in the abbey he mentions the organ;

The organ carries to our car

Its accents of another sphere.

A few inaccuracies too are to be found in one or two places. Arnold's mentioning of;

Passing the Host from hand to hand,

Is obviously the result of wrong conclusion. The 'Host' is never passed from hand to hand during the Mass or any part of that service The officiating priest administers it into the mouth of the penitent believer. Arnold might have mistaken something else, an icon or so with the Host. Later, describing the austerity of the life of the monks Arnold says

Where they sleep, that wooden bed

Which shall be their coffin be, when dead.

There is no evidence to think that the monks were buried in the rooms nor that their coffins were made out of the wooden bed on which they used to sleep. But these drawbacks, inaccuracies and minor obscurities do not prevent, us from appreciating this melancholically personal poem.

The extended metaphor in the end: Line. 169-210 gives a description of children brought up in an old abbey. They are allegorical or symbolical representations of people like Matthew Arnold and becomes indistinguishable from the Carthusian monks. They get an occasional glimpse of the soldiers marching in procession through the woods around with banners and bugles. They also see hunters with their hounds and lovely dames assembled in another part of the wood. Both the group seemingly invite the children to join them. The children refuse saying that they have already established a way of life and the intruders may leave them alone and go away.

The soldiers stand for the men of action, scientists, technologists and other men who matter in the materialistic world. The hunters stand for the pleasure seekers. The children are people like Arnold and the Carthusians who are not able to take to the worldly ways so easily. The poets ascending the mountain to the Grande Chartreuse is an allegorical picture of re-ascending to his own childhood when religious faith was firmly rooted.

LINE BY LINE EXPLANATIONS

Through Alpine.....beneath the sun. Line 1-60

This is a description of the journey the poet makes to La Grande Chartreuse, the chief house of the monks of the Carthusian order.

Saint Laurent: The Grand monastery was situated in South eastern France at the foot of high mountains, at an altitude of 1000 mts. St. Laurent is a small town between the monastery, and the South eastern city of Grenoble.

Dead Guier's stream: is the anglicised name of the stream, known is Gierle Mort in French. There is another Gier, Le Vif. Correrie: a wild mountain tribe who live in that area.

World famed home: Carthusian order was founded by St. Bruno in 1086. Many monasteries of the order were established around the world and they be came very well known. The French government expelled them in 1793 but were reinstated in 1816. But they were finally expelled in 1903, when the monastery became state property. The building is a huge, plain looking pile. Line 31-66 gives the main features of the monastery. The silent compounds, the icy fountains working day and night, the ghostly cowled monks moving around the humid corridors in gleaming white etc. present an appropriate setting for the gloomy thoughts of the poem.

Chapel where no organs peal: the austere life of the Carthusians do not allow any indulgence in instrumental music. The prayer is very austere ('stern and naked').

Passing the Host from hand to hand: Arnold appears to have gone wrong here. The 'Host' is the sacred bread, which according to the belief of the faithful. becomes, during the prayers, the flesh of the crucified Christ. The officiating priest administers a tiny peace of it into the mouth of the believer. It is never passed on from one to another among the worshippers. Perhaps Arnold might have seen them undergoing some other ritual where something was passed from one to another.

To hymn the conquering march of Rome: Libraries of ordinary Roman Catholic organization contain books that glorify the self-aggrandizing aspect of the church of Rome.

To amuse, as ours are: Arnold hints at the pleasure seeking aspect of the church of England. There is very little of spiritualism among the English protestants, according to Arnold.

The garden over grown yet mild: The Carthusians used to make world famous liqueurs the sale of which went to the upkeep of the monasteries. Liqueur is any of several strong sweet alcoholic drinks variously flavoured, and usually drunk after the meals. The herbs supply the flavour. The Carthusians kept the manufacturing process of their liqueur a guarded secret. The herbs in the garden obviously were grown for the purpose of liqueur making. They were 'overgrown', for they were not trimmed like ornamental plants. However they were 'mild' for the herbs did not give a very wild appearance to the garden. The only worldly activity the inmates of the monastery indulged into, according to Arnold, was tending those herbs. However, the poet noticed that it was a cheerful work beneath the sun.

For rigorous teachers.....living tomb? Line. 67-72

Here Arnold says that during his youth he was influenced by rigid teachers. Those teachers gave direction to his spiritual aspirations and inspired him to follow Truth always. Arnold's visiting the Grande Chartreuse where the monks live a life in death (living tombs) does not appear to agree with the teachings of the teachers of his youth. That is why their whispers reach Arnold even in the gloom of the monastery. The rigorous teachers mentioned, one has to conclude, possibly are, Goethe, Senancour, Spinoza, Carlyle, Dean Stanley and probably his own father Thomas Arnold. None of them would have considered a monastic life laudable. His visit to the place is not to disapprove of what they have taught him. Neither does he speak in sympathy with the philosophy of life of the Carthusians. It is like a Greek watching ruins of an ancient Greek temple and think of the gods of his forefathers, Arnold is viewing the Grande Chartreuse. A modern Greek does not believe in the paganism of the ancient Greeks, say that existed at the time of Socrates. Nevertheless, the sight of the Runic stone, is likely to arouse some curiosity, possibly reverential, in the mind of the Greeks. So there is a clear parallel between Arnold and the Greek. The Greek will be pondering over a belief of his forefathers, the Greek paganism. Arnold is pondering over Christian faith of the Carthusians, in which Arnold's and his generation do not believe, with a mere curiosity.

The passage clearly indicates Arnold as a person who has lost faith in Christian religion. Further by equating Christianity with paganism of the Greeks (both were faiths, and both are gone) Arnold says the Christian faith has already vanished. Perhaps Arnold is not completely right. Faith in Christianity might have declined. Almost a century after Arnold's writing the poem the Christian faith still survives, at least in a modified form. Probably Arnold means that the superstitions or the irrational part of religion, the blind faith similar to that of the Carthusians, have vanished.

Wandering between .... their side. Line. 85-90

These are some of the oft-quoted lines of Arnold that tells of the spiritual vacuum that existed in Arnold's mind. He considers himself a person without his moorings wandering between two cultural worlds, of which one is dead, but the other is not strong enough to establish itself. Certainly the 'one dead' is the culture based on the Christian faith. Victorian age saw the death of Christian belief, held passionately by generations of people. The causes of the death are many, but the progress of science had a great role in it. But science and its culture failed to give an alternative to mankind that can give a meaning to life. This inability to give a satisfactory alternative to religion is mentioned by the phrase "powerless to be born". There is a cultural vacuum in the mind of thinking men during Arnold's time. Religion when it held sway, gave a meaning to life. It was something for people to live by. An alternative to that something has not come up and consequently there is a restlessness, a disquietude among thinking men.

There is some similarity between the Carthusians and Arnold. People now disparage the gloomy life of the Carthusians. So also they disparage the melancholic tone in Arnold's poetry. ('There faith, my tears, the world deride').

Because of this kindness of his to the Carthusians, he has come to the Grande Chartreuse to express his melancholic thoughts.

For the world cries .... been sad. Line. 97-102

Here Arnold finds some similarity between the Carthusians and himself. The worldly-wise people think that the Carthusian faith is an outmoded one, and deride it. So also the Charlatan-thinkers considers the melancholic tone of Arnold's poetry outmoded. This appears an irony to Arnold for the worldly wise never had a faith and the pseudo-thinkers never know what the melancholy of Arnold means Arnold's derision of the worldly-wise and the pseudo-thinkers comes out clearly in the passage. Cultured, in the classical tradition he could not tolerate mediocrity and he fought a life-long battle against philistinism, a word he coined to describe the mediocre middle class which had no capacity for high thinking. The 'worldly' people are engrossed.

Ah if it be .... fret alone. Line. 103-108

Arnold here tells the worldly-wise to suggest any alternative to the faith they deride and the melancholy of his own which they disparage. At least the faith of the olden days was able to take away the restlessness and the pain from life. Now if the world says that faith in religion is irrational and useless let the restlessness and pain be removed by other means so that people need not depend upon the outmoded religion. So also is the sadness in the poetry. It is the expression of the disquietude in life, and the pain he felt. Show him how to lessen his disquietude and pain; and then the sad tone will disappear from his poem. Along with the vanishing of religious faith the nobleness in grief is gone. As a result life has become fretful.

In these lines Arnold appears to be holding a brief for blind faith which was able to keep life peaceful, may be based on superstition. If that is so there is discrepancy between Line. 67-78 and this stanza. Certainly this stanza is denying the truth of Arnold's rigorous teachers of youth. Further in Line. 79 Arnold says:

Not as their friend or child I speak.

Obviously their means that of the Carthusians. But in the given lines Arnold strongly champions their cause.

Many critics consider that some confusion of thought is found in the poem. One thing which appears certain is this: that Arnold was wavering between faith and agnosticism, sometimes identifying himself with one and sometimes with the other. He calls the Carthusians,

Last of the race of them who grieve (Line. 110)

Arnold considers himself as one of those people who feel unhappy at the intellectual and spiritual state the world is in. He thinks that soon, with the progress of material mindedness, no one will be bothered about the intellectual and spiritual degradation, that is taking place.

Last of the people who believe. (Line. 112) are obviously the Carthusian monks. But in a wider sense it includes all those who still believe blindly in the old way of life thereby making the Carthusians a symbol.

Achilles ponders ... cry no more. Line. 115-120

Arnold says that in the spiritual vacuum of contemporary life, there is nothing much man can do except to remain silent and wait patiently for a better world to turn up. And the best people of the world are remaining silent.

Achilles the powerful man of action is thinking in his tent. The greatest thinkers of the world have nothing to suggest for the alienation of the modern predicament of man; They are not contented with the present. Silently they await the future to form itself. They have the same grief of people of earlier times, but they do not cry over it nor argue on it.

By Achilles, Arnold may be meaning any man of consequence as Achilles was among the Greeks. Quarrelling over a woman, with king Agamemnon, Achilles the Greek hero withdrew from the war of Troy for a time and during that period Greek side had to face defeats in many combats. Later he came back to fight and slew Hector, the Trojan Hero.

Sir, Edmund Chambers thinks, by Achilles, Arnold meant Cardinal Newman who, on his return from Rome founded with Fronde Lyra Apostolica. The motto of the society was paraphrased from Homer's Iliad XVIII. "They shall know the difference, now I am back, words of Achilles when he rejoined the Trajon War.

Our fathers .... them remain Line. 121-132

Here Arnold says that despite the contributions of our forefathers life still is painful. Qur fathers in Line. 121 refers to the younger Romantics. They have poured out the agony of their life, into the world through their poems. AIl men listened to their voice for their voice was powerful (puissant). But the sea of life is the same and silently we watch the troubles of life (waves).

All the hue and cry they made about the troubles of life they faced, were of no use to the following generation. The descendents are not at all more joyful nor are their hearts free of troubles. They suffered and died, but the causes of their sufferings are still present in the world.

What helps .... her own? Line. 133-137

After telling that the 'puissant hail' of the earlier generation (The younger romantics) and their outpourings of their sufferings into the world were futile, Arnold takes the case of Byron, and tells that his influence has not lessened the troubles of the contemporary Europe. Byron, haughtily mocked the smart worldly-wise people and made his sufferings known to the people of Europe upto the Greek coast. Many were his admires and they keenly watched his personal suffering, and they felt them as their own. But all that does not help the present generation at all.

Arnold never appreciated the outpouring of the personal sufferings found in the poems of the younger romantics. Of Byron, he said in the Memorial Verses, he taught us little. However, here Arnold appears to appreciate Byron's great courage and recognizes the wide popularity he enjoyed in the continent of Europe. The 'Aetolian shore', or the 'Greek shore' suggests Byron's going to Greece to help the struggle of that country to free itself from Turkish rule and his subsequent death there.

What boots .... the less? Line. 139-144

After telling the futility of Byron's courage and exhibitionism Arnold passes on to comment on Shelley's role. The winds carried the voice of Shelley's musical mourn to Italy, and to the bay of Spezzia. It sung of his distress. Still his descendants have inherited the same distress and the Shelleyan mourning has not lessened the heart-aches of Arnold's contemporaries even a bit.

Arnold who appreciates Shelley more than Byron, here, nevertheless, qualified him as an "ineffectual angel beating his luminous wings in the void". "The breeze carried thy lovely wail" may be a reference to poems like Ode to the West-wind, which has a wild but lovely music similar to the character of Shelley him-self. 'Spezzian bay' alludes to the Bay of Spezia where Shelley met his death in a yacht mishap.

Or are we .... Alpine snow? Line. 145-150

After telling that the outpourings of the personal sufferings of Byron and Shelley have not made the world any better Arnold discusses Senancour's life.

The sad and solemn story of Obermann show that he sought shelter in the solitude of Alpine cottages and the Fontainebleau countryside, to escape the fierce opposition of his countrymen. But a reading of his book does not leave people any happier in the world. Arnold had a great regard for Senancour. He wrote two poems Obermann and Obermann Once More in honour of its author. Senancour (1770-1846) the French novelist wrote about his personal sufferings and strife in his psychological romance Obermann. Obermann is depicted as a melancholy egoist. Arnold placed Senancour on a high pedestal along with Wordsworth and Goethe.

There may, .... allow our tears! Line. 157-162

In this stanza we find Arnold presenting an optimistic view, for the first time in the poem. He tells of the possibility of the dawn of a happy new era, more fortunate than the present age. Then people will be wiser without being harsh, joyous without being silly. Let the sons of the world hasten up the arrival of such an age. But until that age ushers in, the poet and akin spirits may be allowed to express their melancholic thoughts.

Perhaps, Arnold, despite being a near agnostic, expresses unconsciously the hope in the millenium, the happy time for the world, after the Second coming of Jesus Christ. Christians believe in it. Or, perhaps, it may be an unconscious reflection of the Hindu belief that when the world grows extremely evil, God incarnates to make it better. Whatever the cause of the optimism may be it is one of the rare expressions in Arnold's poetry and the only one in this otherwise gloomy poem.

Allow them .... are not ours Line. 163-68

Arnold (and akin spirits) would like to express their gloomy thoughts about the world till an age of happiness is ushered in. He noticed with a certain amount of sarcasm, the achievements of the Victorian age, which the worldly wise are proud of. The Victorians have progressed in science and technology so much that they appear to be the law makers of the world. They think they have conquered time and space. These untiring powerful efforts and their pride in life are matters to be admired. But Arnold and people like him do not feel at home with the Victorian culture that produced all these.

Arnold is perfectly in the right in being sarcastic about the achievements of his contemporaries. In the first flush of success, Victorians boasted at their achievements in science and technology. People thought that they had become masters of the universe and that they could control time and space. But as the scientific thinking matured, in later years, people became conscious of the insignificance of the puny man in any Einstienian universe, an expanding but finite universe. Further, despite the materialistic progress, world still remains a place of injustice, suffering and misery, cause enough for tears for the humane and the thinking people. Perhaps Arnold could prophetically see that material progress alone will not bring in a happy age. So the sarcasm in Arnold's apparent praise for the Victorian success is justified.

We are like .... desert to its peace Line. 169-210

Here we find the poet finds a parallel between him and similar people on the one hand with children brought up inside an abbey. A procession of soldiers (men of action) comes nearby. A party of hunters along with jovial ladies (pleasure seekers) too have arrived. They invite the abbey children too to take part in a life of action and pleasure seeking. The poet imagines the possible answer the children are likely to give and describes it. Their way of life have already been set in a particular manner. Now it is too late for them to change their life to one of action or one of pleasure seeking. They would prefer to be left alone in their own kind of life which may appear a desert-life to others. For they enjoy a certain kind of peace in their deserts. So the children tell the procession of men of action and the pleasure seekers to move away quietly leaving them alone. The extended metaphor found in the conclusion of the poem appears to be a favourite device of Arnold. He uses it in The Scholar Gipsy. Tristram and Iseult and Sohrab and Rustom also. Perhaps Arnold's intention is to take the mind of the readers off the melancholy theme of the poem and thereby give a sort of relief to the readers.

It is necessary to note that the antithesis in the poem is not between the Carthusian monks and the outside world, but between the sober minded enquirers of truth, like Matthew Arnold and the worldly-wise people, men of action and pleasure seekers, represented by the soldiers and the hunters. Arnold and his likes were brought up in a different tradition, where achieving wisdom and truth are the aims of life. That kind of life may appear dreary and dull to the worldly. But they have an amount of peace in that life. Allow them to continue that life.

Dover Beach: by Matthew Arnold - Summary and Analysis

2024-07-03T18:33:00.001+05:30

INTRODUCTION

Dover Beach first appeared in the 1867 volume, New Poems. It must have been written some time after Arnold and his wife (Frances Lucy Wightman) visited Dover. However, we do not find any romanticizing the situation as usually honeymooners do. Instead an elegiac mood rises through it. When Arnold rearranged the order of his poems Dover Beach came after Calais Sands, and that order has been followed by many editors. Dover and Calais being on opposite sides of the channel, one expects some relationship between the two, in the thought content. However the juxtaposition appears to be only accidental.

The last stanza of the poem represents the essence of Arnold's poems. There the world is pictured as a place where there is 'neither joy, nor love, nor certitude, nor peace, nor help, from pain. This belief, leads to the melancholy which pervades almost all of his poems.

The poet describes himself watching the sea from somewhere at Dover. He could see the shingled beach, in the moon-lit night. The sound of the waves gives him the sad impression of some departing (withdrawing roar). It is suggestive of the disappearance of the faith of people in Christianity. The poet is reminded of the spiritual doubts and uncertainty which is in the world. Surely he is mentioning the progress of the scientific ideas leading to a scepticism that shatters religious belief. A world without religion, to the poet, is as dreary as a barren sea coast from which water has withdrawn exposing the dirty shingles. The poet means that man's life in the absence of faith, becomes meaningless and without beauty.

LINE BY LINE SUMMARY

Line. 1-14: The poem starts with a pictorial description of the beach at Dover. The time is night. The sea remains calm. In the high tide water level has risen to the maximum. The full moon's reflection in the strait of Dover, looks beautiful. There was a gleam on the French coast, that has just disappeared. On the English side, the cliffs, looms large against the sea. The poet invites his beloved (His wife, Frances Lucy) to the window, for the atmosphere of the night is charming. From the shore where the sea beats against the moon-lit shore and produces a long line of spray one hears the roaring sound of the waves. They drove back the pebbles forcefully on their return. The roar grows high, then cease, and then again grows, with a trampling rhythm bringing in a permanent sadness to the mind.

Line. 15-20: Sophocles (The Greek poet dramatist) heard the same sound along the coast of the Aegean sea long ago. It brought to his mind thoughts of confused movement of mankind and made him sad. The poet and others in England in the distant northern sea also hear the same sound, bringing in similar thoughts.

Line. 21-28: Here the poet suggests the similarity between the sea at Dover and religious faith. Once, like the full sea under high tide, at Dover today, the sea of faith too was full. AIl around the shores of the earth the folds of faith brightly displayed. But now he notices only the sad reality of the slow disappearance of religion. It is vanishing along with the night wind, exposing the dreariness, and the naked ugliness of the world.

Line. 29-37: The author tells his beloved to be steadfast in their love to each other. Love appears to be the only comfort in life in this world. With its wide variety life appears beautiful like a dream, But in reality, it has no joy, love, hope, certainty or peace. Neither is there any relief from the pain of life. People living in the world are like the ignorant armies on a dark plain; they fight confusedly. Some are fighting while some are fleeing. Meaningless alarms are being sounded.

Dover Beach is one of the elegant lyrics of Arnold, with his characteristic melancholy almost drowing the lyrical qualities. It is truly a representative poem of his where lyricism, skepticism, nostalgia for his own faith of the earlier days and philosophic speculation are all got mixed up.

CRITICAL APPRECIATION AND ANALYSIS

The description of the beautiful seascape at Dover is only a peg to hang his thoughts on the vanishing faith. Once, just like the sea in high tide he sees before him at Dover, the sea of faith encircled the whole mankind. But it has withdrawn now exposing the ugly and the dreary in the world, just like the shingles seen when the sea water withdraws in a low tide. The comparison of human life with sea often can be found in Arnold. But here the sea is the religious faith. The poet succeeds in driving home the disappearance of religious faith very poetically through the comparison.

Once religious faith has disappeared scepticism has stepped in. Like the shingles which are exposed during low tide, with the receding of religious faith, human life shows no beauty, love, joy and peace. The poet brings in Sophocles, whom he admires very much to prove that world always had events to make thinking people sad. Years back the Greek poet too felt the same feeling which Victorians along with Arnold has been feeling. The permanency the poet attaches to the turbid ebb and flow of human misery justifies Arnold's melancholy. He appears to be foreshadowing the Existentialist philosophers by pointing out the permanent nature of the tragedy of human life.

As a poem where faith and faithlessness struggle against each other the poem is presumptuous in assumptions and deficient in argument. Once we give allowance for this, Dover Beach remains an admirable piece. Prof. Saintsbury has this to say.

The expression, the thing that is not the subject, the tendency outside the subject, which makes for poesy, are here, and almost the best.

He goes on to add that one can see in the poem:

Passionate interpretation of life, which is so different a thing from the criticism of it; that marvellous pictorial effect to which the art of line and colour itself is commonplace banal ... that almost more marvellous accompaniment of vowel and consonant music, independent of sense but reinforcing it.

Stopford Brookes says that the poem rises into the higher regions of poetry'. Some critics like Professor Babbit and Mrs. Iris Sells. believe that Arnold received the inspiration to write this poem from Senancour and Sainte Beuve. The image at the end of the poem, where mankind is pictured to be ignorant armies, comes directly from Thucydides, according to Professors Tinker and Loury. Despite the indebtedness, there is the masterly contribution of Arnold which fuses all those into a poem which expresses his own intensely felt sad thoughts on man and life, not only in Victorian age, but during all times.

Characteristic Arnoldian Melancholy: Dover Beach is a profoundly sad poem. It becomes a passionate lament from a paining heart. It reduces to an elegy digging the religious faith of mankind which vanished with the development of science and scepticism. The rhythmic beat of the waves against the beach rouses sad thoughts in his mind. He realizes that such sad thoughts affected the Greek poet Sophocles, too, in the ancient times. Here Arnold thinks that it is the lot of man to remain sad, for life is full of miseries. Except in the two lines where he tells his beloved:

Ah, love, let us be true

To one another

The poem is full of gloom. It ends in a darkling note where the poet appears to be deeply pessimistic. But those two lines, indirectly gives a ray of hope. In this meaningless world full of misery and where there is no cause for joy, true love can give a little solace.

Poetic Devices: Arnold uses figures of speech elegantly, to drive home into the minds of readers his thoughts. In the first stanza the author pictures the sea, realistically, but suggestively brings in the disappearance of something. We hear the grating roar of pebbles which the waves draw back and fling. As the faith withdraws, individuals are flung up like pebbles in the beach, is the suggested meaning. In the second stanza, the idea becomes clearer. Sophocles too heard the roar and it reminded him of human misery. At his time too some faith was withdrawing with all the associated misery. In the third stanza the metaphor becomes quite evident for the poet talks of the sea of faith'. Its lying 'like the folds of a bright girdle furl'd' is a beautiful simile, and it hangs in the mind with its pictorial quality. Now on the long withdrawing roar acquires a clear meaning in association with religion. 'Night-wind' may now mean the dark forces in the world, or ignorance and 'naked shingles' may mean the ugly things in life made bare, in the absence of faith. The sea and wave images are no longer found in the last stanza. There the confused life of man is compared to the confused fight of ignorant armies in a darkling plain.

The style: There are many remarkable and arresting phrases and musical lines in the poem. 'Moon-blanched land', tremulous cadence slow', 'eternal note of Sadness', long-withdrawing roar' and 'vast edges drear' are some of them. The music in lines 'Begin and Cease and then again begin' exactly sounds like how the sea waves beat against the beach. Generally Arnold does not have Tennyson's ear to make the sound echo the sense. But in the above line there is Onomotopoea where the sound of reading the passage suggests the sound of the sea waves. In the last line too there is Onomotopoca. Ignorant armies clash by night' sounds like the clash of metal against metal. The second, third and fourth stanzas begin with short lines contrasting with the comparatively long previous lines. This technique helps in bringing in a new line of thought. It agrees with the flow of the poem, which itself is like the waves 'which begin, cease and then again begin'. The ending of the poem too has Onomotopoea.

LINE BY LINE EXPLANATIONS

Sophocles ... northern sea. Line. 15-20

After describing the sound of the sea at Dover, "begin and cease and then again begin", bringing in sad thoughts to his mind, Arnold says that Sophocles in his time too had heard similar sounds.

Sophocles, the Greek poet lived near the Aegean sea 25 centuries back. He too, might have had sad thoughts listening to the waves of the Aegean sea. His poetic dramas Trachiniae and Antigone display those melancholy thoughts. Both Arnold and Sophocles considered sea as having similarities with man's life.

Arnold appears to acquire some respectability to his melancholy by portraying Sophocles as having a melancholy akin to his. Elsewhere he has paid full compliment to the Greek tragedian very generously.

The sea of faith ... world. Line. 21-28

In this stanza we find Arnold, through a very suggestive metaphor, telling how religious faith is vanishing from the world leaving skepticism and doubt to rule the roost.

Before the post-Darwin impact of science on Victorian society people all over the world had absolute faith in the tenets of religion. That blind faith gave people a sort of peace for there was a purpose in life in it. It was to find out the will of God and lead a life accordingly. But science has exposed the irrationality of a blind faith for according to rational thinking there is no place for God as conceived by Christianity. As this kind of scientific thinking spread among people, they became skeptical of the religious thinking as a whole. The casual was peace of mind. The morality and the humanism that kept society healthy during earlier days were God-based or religion-based. Once faith is gone, the earlier moral order is destroyed and humanism loses its former base. This change in Victorian society is very well described by Arnold's metaphor in the passage.

With the sea of faith, the world appeared beautiful for the "shore lay like the folds of a bright girdle furld". The simile, emphasizes the beauty of the life of faith, But when the sea has withdrawn the edges of the land appear dreary and the 'naked shingles' are exposed. Land here becomes man's life and 'naked shingles' becomes skepticism and doubt that remain in society.

Ah, love ... for pain. Line. 29-34

In this otherwise very gloomy poem we find a narrow ray of hope expressed here. Love, true love, may be able to give some consolation in life.

Arnold wants him and his beloved to love one another sincerely. The suggestion is that true love alone can be a sort of consolation in this unhappy life. This world appears to be as beautiful as a dreamland. But the reality is different. This world does not have joy or love or wisdom (light): there is no absolute certainty in anything; neither is their any peace of mind nor any relief from the suffering. Arnold appears to be talking of man-to-woman love here. He seems to say that in this joyless world of suffering and uncertainty one can have some sort of comfort if there is happy conjugal love. There is a record that Matthew Arnold led a very happy married life. According to some it was an extended honeymoon.

And we are ... clash by night. Line. 35-37

These four lines from the end of the poem is a suggestive metaphor that gives a gloomy picture of life of mankind as the poet saw it.

The 'we' here, in one sense, stands for Arnold and his beloved wife. But in a wider sense 'we' stands for the whole mankind, giving a sublime meaning to the passage.

Man's life in this world is like that of armies on a dark plain. They are ignorant and the fight amongst them goes on in a confused manner. False alarms are heard, but the struggle and fight is going on in the dark battle field. The darkling plain suggests the world where so much restlessness, suffering and pain are there. The 'struggle' is the struggle of life itself. People of the world are 'ignorant' for none knows the ultimate Truth. The 'confused alarm' may mean the false thinkers of the time who prophesied the shape of things to come according to thus whims. Arnold may be thinking of many religious sects who predicted that the end of earth was at hand.

Self-Dependence: by Matthew Arnold - Summary & Analysis

2024-06-26T18:06:00.001+05:30

INTRODUCTION

This poem appeared in the first published volume of Arnold's poetry, Empedocles on Etna and Other Poems, in 1852. In the 1869 edition the author introduced two changes.

The mingling of passion and sincerity with an austere philosophy, has made this poem very popular. Arnold's view of nature, appears repeatedly in his poems. The idea of the performance and calm of nature contrasted with restless fever of life-comes out clearly in the poem. A comparison with The Youth of Nature, Quiet Work, Lines Written in Kensington Gardens and A Summer Night, is worthwhile.

The message of the poem appears to be this - Nature, obviously, is a refuge from the restlessness and the sick hurry of contemporary life. The trouble with the modern man is his divorce from his own self. Nature possibly can bridge the gap. The self dependence of objects in Nature is a worthy goal for man to aim for. Arnold doesn't aim at joy or elevation of spirit from Nature as Wordsworth did. Peace of mind is all what he aims. There appears to be some echo of the idea of work without the expectation of reward found in Bhagavad Gita, in the poem.

LINE BY LINE SUMMARY

Stanza 1. (Line. 1-4): The poet starts with metaphors; a vessel, for the individual and the starlit sea for life. The poet is tired of himself (finding himself a misfit in Victorian society). He ponders what he is and what he can become and stands at the forepart of the ship that carries him forward through the star-lit sea.

Stanza 2. Line. 5-8: While on the vessel, he sends an emotion-strung message to the sea and the sky. They have calmed him down (during times of metal agitations) from childhood. Let them give him peace and keep him calm, now also.

Stanza 3. Line. 9-12: (An amplification of the content of previous stanza) He requests the stars and waters to spell their charm over him once again. Let his soul grow as vast as theirs, while he watches them.

Stanza 4. Line. 13-16: From the vast and deep round sky despite the disturbances of the sea, he could hear a mysterious answer reaching him through the gentle night breeze. If he wants to become like them (calm and vast in soul) he has to live like them.

Stanza 5. Line. 17-20: (The answer from the stars continue in the next three stanzas). They (the stars) remain calm without being frightened by the terrible silence of the vast sky, without being disturbed by the sights (some of the sights are shocking) they see (in this world). They do not expect to get affection, or happiness or sympathy from outsiders.

Stanza 6. Line. 21-24: The stars perform their duty (shining) with pleasure. So doe the moon-brightened sea-waves move. They remain gracefully calm without getting the anguish and anxiety of other objects in nature, different from them (The indication is in the direction of mankind). Line. 23 was originally. 'For alone they live', then 'Why' - self

Stanza 7. Line 25-28: Locked in their own business without being perturbed by what other creatures do, they put in all their energy into their duty and lead the kind of life that the poet admires.

(In L 25 in place of 'unregardful' the earlier version read 'unobservant')

Stanza 8. Line. 29-32: A message similar to the one given by the voice from the depth of heaven echoes in the poet's heart, and is heard very clearly. Determine what one really is (understand oneself fully). One who realizes that frees himself from misery.

CRITICAL APPRECIATION AND ANALYSIS

Self-dependence glorifies Nature. The poet very forcefully suggests that by trying to follow the self-dependence of Nature man can attain peace even in a world of turbulence and restlessness. In a state of mental torture and frustration the poet seeks refuge in Nature. The advice Nature gives him is something that is similar to the poet's own thinking. For the poet tells Nature:

A cry like thine in my own heart I hear.

And that cry which is the poet's also is message, meant for his readers. It is this:

Resolve to be thyself: and know, that he

Who finds himself, loses his misery.

The influence of this philosophy can be seen, at least in the fifth stanza. Nature says that the heavenly objects are doing their duty 'unaffrighted' and 'undistracted' - In other words they do their duty with detachment.

These demand not that the things without them

Yield them love, amusement, sympathy.

The message of Gita is the same. One who does his duty without thinking of the results of his action, unaffected by worldly feelings, (detached) attain freedom of the soul. There is evidence to show that Arnold was influenced by the Gita. Once he recommended it to his friend Clough suggesting reading of the book would make him more disciplined.

Arnold's love for Nature comes out clearly in this poem. He admits that from childhood Nature has been exerting a calming effect on him. He addresses the sea and the stars;

Ye who from my childhood up have calma me,

Calm me, ah, compose me to the end.

Finally at the end he reveals that what Nature says has been felt by the poet also.

LINE BY LINE EXPLANATION

Ah, once more ... vast like you. Line. 9-12

Living in this turbulent world the poet looks at the star-studded skies and the moon-silverd' waves and communicates with Nature.

He wants the stars and waters to calm his restlessness and to give him a serene attitude once again. It implies that earlier they had been doing that service for the poet. Further he wants his soul to become as expansive as the stars and the seas. The stanza depicts Arnold's view of Nature and its influence on him. Wordsworth's belief that nature exerts a soothing influence on man comes near to that of Arnold. But there the similarity ends. While Wordsworth found joy' in nature Arnold gets peace, or calmness from nature. Further the pantheistic belief of Wordsworth, that God can be identified with forces of Nature is not in Arnold. Nature, however, calms man by helping him to discover himself.

And with joy ... differing soul. Line. 21-24

In this stanza Arnold says that the stars do their assigned duty of shining in the sky with clear joy. So do the waves, roll, glittering in the moon, showing happiness. They live separately from others company. Though they notice the misery (the fever) in the life of others, they are not affected by the sight.

In this stanza also Arnold tells that the stars and the heavenly objects continue to do their duty with detachment. This detachment gives them the joy they display. None can doubt that detachment can free the soul from bondage of the emotions. But attributing this quality to the stars and the sea, as if they are live objects does not agree with rational thinking. There is a corollary too to this argument. If man were to acquire the same detachment that Nature shows then he would become an inanimate object like them - in other words non-human. Does Arnold want his ideal man to lose his human quality, just to become detached? We are not certain.

O air born ... his misery. Line. 29-32

After hearing the mysterious voice telling of the secret of the calmness and the expansive nature of Nature, Arnold says that his own heart has a similar message. The poet addresses the mysterious voice that reaches him. For a long time, a similar voice is clearly heard in his own heart too. He means his own thinking is similar to that of the air-born voice. The message of his heart is this: Find out what he really is. This kind of true self-evaluation will make a man free from the miseries of life.

Here again, we hear echoes of the Eastern philosophy, where self-knowledge is considered to be the greatest knowledge, leading to freedom from bondage.

Austerity of Poetry - by Matthew Arnold - Summary & Analysis

2024-06-19T17:44:00.001+05:30

INTRODUCTION

This sonnet, Italian in form, was first published in 1864 and was included The New Poems of 1867. In it Arnold's classical leanings comes out clearly. The classical restraint and austerity is what Arnold considers great qualities of good poetry.

The poet develops his thoughts on poetry through a parable. The parable is based on a real incident in the life of an Italian poet, Giacopone di Todi, Dante's predecessor. Once Giacopone went to a public show along with his beautiful bride, elegantly ressed. While the show was in progress, one of the pillars gave ways and many were crushed to death. Giacopone's wife too was crushed and when people went to her rescue they saw below her elegant dress she was wearing coarse sack-cloth, close to her satin smooth fair skin. Giacopone after the death of histe wife became a Fransiscan monk and wrote religious poetry of some fame.

Arnold finds a moral, valuable for poets, in the story. The poetic muse should be like Giacopone's bride. She should have external beauty. But she should have austere qualities beneath; an austere diction, criticism of life and high seriousness.

Arnold's own poetry is true to the principles he enunciates here. He always used austere diction without superfluous epithets and fantastic images. The ornate and sensuous style of Keats is not to his liking. Nor can we find the mellifluousness of Tennyson in his poems. His poems betray the stark simplicity, ands directness of classical writers, like Homer. In images, which Arnold sparingly uses,d too there is more of Homeric qualities. Long winded compound words, poetic inversions, and, rugged metres, are his austere poetic devices. However the total effect often is that of great poetry.

LINE BY LINE SUMMARY

First, quartet of the Octave. Line. 1-4: That great Italian religious poet, who started writing his poems (tried to blow) before Dante's time, once during his youth was watching a gallant public show, along with his bride.

Second, quartet of the Octave. Line. 5-8: The bride was beautiful and her glowing looks betrayed her youth. She was wearing what youthful ladies like gay dress, sparkling jewellery and was in an exultant mood. Suddenly a pillar gave way and the roof crashed down.

First Triplet of the Sextet. Line. 9-11: The bride lay struggling among other casualties, almost dead. The shocked people tried to ease her by taking out her outer garment. Then to their surprise they saw that she was wearing a coarse sack cloth undergarment, on her smooth fair skin.

Second Triplet of the Sextet. Line. 12-14: Arnold addresses poets and tells that their poetry (Muse) should be like the bride of Giacopone; brilliant and decorated on the outside, but hidden thought and austere style should be inside.

CRITICAL APPRECIATION AND ANALYSIS

The poem is a parable in poetic form and it has a significance especially to poets. The youthful and beautiful bride is dressed in elegant dress, and glittering jewellery. But below she had an undergarment of rough cloth, may be to give a grace for her curves. Arnold wants all poets to learn a lesson from this parable. Their poetry (the Muse, their bride) may look young, beautiful and graceful from outside. But for great poetry something more is needed. The austerity similar to that of the rough undergarment of Giacopone's wife. Austere style and serious thought content must be found in the poem. As the rough undergarment enhances the grace of a woman's curves, the serious tone and the deep thoughts of the poem will make poetry graceful and thereby great. Certainly Arnold is becoming obvertly didactic here. He wants poets to aim at the classic objectives to stark and simple style, balance between thought and content. Romantic poets on the other hand aims at an exuberance of emotion highly embellished diction, fantastic images and a certain indiscipline in composition.

There is an amount of sensuous appeal in the poem. The description of the youthful beauty of the bride is brief but one that remains in the mind for long. Beauty and youth blend in her making a sensuous sketch of a flesh and blood woman whose skin is white and smooth. Then there is the pathos of the tragedy; a pillar gave way and the paragon of youthful beauty lies among other struggling sufferers. Onlookers were shuddered to see such a terrible thing happened to such a beauty. The three words 'smooth white skin', associated with the dead or dying beauty adds to the pathos already created.

The conclusion of the last triplet serves the didactic purpose of Arnold admirably. He wants poets to keep austerity and thought content 'hidden' in their poems. Also he wants them to have radiance of the outside. But the inside gives substance to the poems. The parable drives home all what Arnold wants to emphasise. But the too obvious didacticism bars the sonnet from becoming really great poetry.

LINE BY LINE EXPLANATIONS

1. Fair was ... elation strong. Line. 5-7

Here Arnold gives a description of the charming wife of Giacopone in a brief but sensuous manner. The bride was beautiful. Youth shone like a star with hert striking beauty. She wore what all youth wear (what to youth belong); gay were her garments; sparkling were the jewells; contentment and pride in her own beauty could be seen in her.

In lines as few as three, the poet succeeds in giving a picture of an exquisite beauty, where beauty, youth and contentment are blended. This sensuous description helps, later, to enhance pathos where her tragic and untimely death is reported, in the first half of the sextet. There, through three words 'smooth white skin' the sensuousness earlier created is enhanced.

2. A prop......Smooth white skin. Line. 8-11

After describing the wife of Giacopone, as outwardly very beautiful, Arnold abruptly goes into the tragic accident that killed her.

One of the pillars broke and the platform (on which they were seated) crashed and Giacopone's wife lay among other casualties. Shocked at the tragedy that happened to such a beauty onlookers ran to her assistance. To case her, they removed her over-clothes and saw that she was wearing a rough sack-cloth as her undergarment close to her 'smooth white skin'.

The rough underclothe, possibly was worn to give a grace to her curves. Without that 'austere' dress within she could not have appeared so youthful, so attractive. This part of the poem gives the parable its significance. Similar to Giacopone's wife's garments the poetry should be radiant, beautiful outwardly. But more important is the inside. Beneath the outwardly beauty of the poem, there should be deep thought, and austere seriousness 'hidden' in it.

3. Such poets ... austerity within. Line. 12-14

Here Arnold indulges into didacticism and almost dictates to the poets how they should write poetry.

Arnold wants the poetical Muse (poetry) of the poets to be beautiful and radiant outside as Giacopone's bride. But inside, just like the rough undergarment of the Italian Signora, poetry should have seriousness of thought and an austerity of diction and images.

The last triplet weighs heavy with meaning. By 'hidden ground' the poet hints that serious thoughts and austerity of style may not be attractive to the average reader. To make a poem palatable to them the outward adornment and radiance are needed. Under that sugar coating there must be the austerity. It is interesting to note that Arnold pleads for classical perfection of 'form' in poetry in a subtle way. The rough sack cloth undergarment of Giacopone's wife gives 'form' to her body. Like that austere poetry should give importance to the 'form' of the poem. However as 'thought also is mentioned, we have to conclude that what Arnold " wants is a harmonious blending of content and form in great poetry.

Shakespeare: by Matthew Arnold - Summary and Analysis

2024-06-12T11:32:00.001+05:30

Others abide our question. Thou art free.

We ask and ask—Thou smilest and art still,

Out-topping knowledge. For the loftiest hill,

Who to the stars uncrowns his majesty,

Planting his steadfast footsteps in the sea,

Making the heaven of heavens his dwelling-place,

Spares but the cloudy border of his base

To the foil'd searching of mortality;

And thou, who didst the stars and sunbeams know,

Self-school'd, self-scann'd, self-honour'd, self-secure,

Didst tread on earth unguess'd at.—Better so!

All pains the immortal spirit must endure,

All weakness which impairs, all griefs which bow,

Find their sole speech in that victorious brow.

INTRODUCTION

The sonnet, Shakespeare by Matthew Arnold appeared first in the Volume The Strayed Reveller and Other Poems, originally formed part of a letter Arnold wrote to his sister Jane in the year 1841. Arnold's sonnet on Shakespeare, along with that of Ben Jonson and Milton remains one of the most glorious tributes paid to the Bard of Avon. Ben Jonson's aphoristical statement "He was not of an age but for all time" rings like a bell. Milton's statement is equally pithy: "Thou in our wonder and astonishment, Hast built thyself a live long Monument". Equally memorable and weighty is Arnold's first line of this Sonnet:

Others abide our question, Thou art free

The indisputable truth and significance it contains has made the line really famous.

Generations of critics have praised this sonnet for its music, diction and thought content. In it Arnold describes Shakespeare as a mysterious figure whom critics down through the ages failed to understand completely. Arnold wrote to Clough emphasising this aspect of Shakespeare, "I keep saying Shakespeare, Shakespeare, you are as obscure as life is". This sonnet develops the seminal idea contained in that letter. The greatness of Shakespeare is unfathomable. The closing lines suggests how Shakespeare was able to overcome the misfortunes of life during the period when he was preoccupied with tragedy plays. Greening Lamborn speaks of

"the majestic march of the music and the noble diction of this almost perfect sonnet are admirably in keeping with its subjects and with the grand and impressive imagery in which it is presented".

In his prose writings Arnold has expressed mixed feelings about Shakespeare and his works. He admits that Shakespeare is a "name never to be mentioned without reverence". He says in the essay on Milton that "Shakespeare is divinely strong, rich and attractive". At the same time, adds that "But sureness of perfect style Shakespeare himself does not possess". He was "moved to wonder at the fantastic and false diction" of Shakespeare. Elsewhere he complained that Shakespeare gave "scope to this faculty of expression to the prejudice of a higher poetic diction". But strangely, Arnold has only praise for Shakespeare in this sonnet. He remains an idolator. The image Arnold creates in the sonnet is that of a mysterious figure who is beyond the comprehension of ordinary mortals. All those who persistently tried to understand him failed miserably in their attempt.

The Sonnet: The sonnet, a poem consisting of fourteen lines is of Italian origin. Petrarch is said to be the originator of this form. The Italian type had 12 syllables to the line, the French 11 and the English 10. In England, Shakespeare wrote many sonnets in a slightly changed form. Both Petrarchan and Shakespearean, types of sonnets were composed by later English Poets. The Petrarchan sonnet is divided into two stanzas, the octave (8 lines) and the sextet (6 lines). The octave is still divided into two substanzas of four lines and the sextet into two of 3 lines. In the Shakespearean kind after 3 four lined stanzas the sonnet's thought culminates in a couplet. This sonnet of Arnold mainly follows the Petrarchan pattern. The variation is found in the new thought coming in the 11th line. In Petrarch the change of thought comes at the end of the Octave, in the 9th line. Arnold uses the rhyme pattern abba acca de de ff, more or less Shakespearean.

SUMMARY

Shakespeare is the only one who do not stand our scrutiny in our attempt to understand him. He is far beyond our comprehension and knowledge, to understand him. The highest mountain rises sublimely into the starry areas of the sky. Its abode is the high heavens. The mortal humans can see only upto the place where clouds surround its lower heights. Similarly is Shakespeare who dwells with the stars and sunlight at great heights. He was self-educated, and he worked himself into the assurance he was in. But when he walked on earth others could not possibly follow him. Perhaps it is better he remains like that. For he pictured sufferings and sorrows of human beings without collapsing under its strain, and his immortal spirit came out triumphant.

CRITICAL APPRECIATION AND ANALYSIS

The sonnet Shakespeare by Matthew Arnold refers to the unapproachability of Shakespeare's genius to other humans. His abode is among the stars and the sunbeam. He spent some time on earth but remains "un-understood (unguessed at) and he remains beyond human comprehension.

The poet gives the picture of a majestic mountain rising into the starry heavens with the cloud obscuring the summit from our view. The summit declares its majesty to the stars. Its base is in the sea but its dwelling is the "Heaven of Heavens". The search of mortal humans to understand the summit is foiled by the clouds that obscure it. This comparison of Shakespeare's glory to the sublime summit of a lofty mountain serves the poet's, purpose of painting him super-human. Even as the summit is not clear to us because of the presence of the clouds, the lofty imaginative quality of his poetry makes it impossible for us to realize the personality of the man, Shakespeare. The last triplet hints at the tragic period of Shakespeare, when a group of tragedies came out of his pen. In addition to successfully indicating the tragic period in Shakespeare's life, those lines give a melancholy, Arnoldian note to the sonnet. It is worth noticing that Arnold mentions only Shakespeare's genius in creating tragedies.

The diction of the poem appropriate to the content, is worthy of our admiration. Compounded double words like, out-topping, dwelling-place and the repetitive, but ably suggestive words 'self-school'd, self-scann'd, self-honourd, self-secure', give a Homeric grandeur to the sonnet. The lofty mountain "uncrowns his majesty" to the stars is pregnant with the suggestion that Shakespeare can be understood only by those who are in the "Heaven of Heavens". Shakespeare's walking on the earth "unguess'd at" also is abundantly suggestive of the mysterious nature of Shakespeare's genius. Prof. Oliver Elton comments that this Sonnet "contains none of the critical reserves which always weaken poetry, and there is no cult in it nothing above the value of poetry for the higher life or the equivalence of poetry and religion. The spirit of it is 'free', and therefore the less 'abides our question".

LINE BY LINE EXPLANATIONS

1. Others abide ... knowledge. Line. 1-3

Others (poets other than Shakespeare) submit themselves to our questions and criticism. But you, Shakespeare, are free from all such. You are beyond questioning and criticism. We have several things to learn about Shakespeare and we ask plenty of questions. But the only answer we get is a smile-perhaps the smile we find on the only available engraved picture of his. Shakespeare's genius remains unapproachable to all the known methods of study man knows of. The hint that despite the persistent efforts of many able and learned men we haven't understood the nature of, the greatness of the man, Shakespeare.

2. For the loftiest.....mortality. Line 3-8

Arnold here suggests that Shakespeare remains like a lofty mountain out topping all other dramatists and poets. The mountain has a firm base in the sea and rises so high that even the high clouds are only somewhere near its base. The mountain lives in the "heaven of Heavens" beyond the vision of mortals. The surrounding clouds makes it impossible for those on the ground to get a clear view of the sublime mountain. They - the clouds-defeat all the efforts of man to get a sight of the peak.

3. And thou ... unguess'd at. Line. 9-11

After suggesting that Shakespeare is like a lofty mountain obscured by the height and the clouds that surround it, Arnold goes on to give more similarities between the two. Though the mountain is known only to the stars and sunlight, it is based firmly on the ground. Shakespeare with divine knowledge (sunbeam) and divine imagination (stars) moved on earth. He dealt with earthly subjects, in his plays. He was self educated. He scanned himself, or analysed himself so that he could become better. He didn't receive much honour during his life time, but he knew he was worthy of honour. And he was confident of his own ability and that confidence gave him the security he needed. And this divine Shakespeare's life in this world was not understood well by others; he remains "unguess'd at". The depth of his mind is unfathomable.

4. Better so ... victorious brow, Line. 11-14

With the words "Better so", Arnold introduces a change in thought which takes place at the end of the Octave in a Petrarchan sonnet.

After telling that Shakespeare whose dwellings is among the stars and the sunbeams and that he is incomprehensible to the ordinary mortals, Arnold says perhaps it is better he remained mysterious.

The verb "Find" has the subject in the first two lines of the last triplet.

Humans will have to undergo many griefs and face many weaknesses. But his immortal spirit has to endure it and then he will come out victorious. This message is seen on Shakespeare's brow for he came out victorious despite the pain and sufferings he had to face.

Arnold hints at the tragedies Shakespeare wrote when he himself had to undergo many personal griefs. There are critics who think that the tragedy-period of Shakespeare coincided with many tragic events in his personal life. However, his enduring spirit made him come out successful, out of the depths, and create a happy comedy of reconciliation - The Tempest. Arnold also hints at Shakespeare's picturing the unconquerable spirit of man coming victorious even in the darkest of his tragedies.

Morality: by Matthew Arnold - Summary & Analysis

2024-06-05T08:00:00.001+05:30

INTRODUCTION

This poem appeared in the 1852 edition, Empedocles on Etna and Other Poems. It is considered to contain the essence of Arnold's humanistic teaching. The ideas found here find its echoes in Self-Dependence, Palladium, Quiet Work and In Harmony with Nature.

Morality by Matthew Arnold, what one finds in the poem is Arnold's ideas on morality as he conceived at the age of thirty. His own preface to Culture and Anarchy, gives a summary of his moral code.

"To walk staunchly by the best light one has, to be strict and sincere with oneself, not to be of the number of those who say and do not, to be in earnest, - this is the discipline by which alone man is enabled to rescue his life from thraldom to the passing moment and to his bodily senses, to ennoble it, and to make it eternal..."

The poet believes that man is superior to Nature in the struggle for life. Nature not at all exerts a moral law now. In the latter half of the poem the poet hears the voice of Nature. Nature is aware that she is inferior to Man. Man achieves his aims through hard work, self-control and morals in conduct. But Nature does not do any conscious work.

Morality gives the Arnoldian vision of an honest and conscientious man's performance of his duty. Man may have his shortcomings, his restlessness and his inability to share the serenity of Nature. But his restless struggle makes him superior to Nature.

STANZA WISE SUMMARY

Stanza 1. Line. 1-6: Human beings cannot stir up their enthusiasm of their heart at their own will. It is the spirit that controls it and that too in a mysterious manner. In moments of spiritual insight and enthusiasm we can fulfill our duties even if moods of gloom and despair engulf us.

Stanza 2. Line. 7-12: We do our day-to-day work which tries us. As the burden and trouble of it weigh heavily on us, we eagerly wish it to be over quickly. Only when cheerfulness returns to us we will be able to see what we have achieved.

Stanza 3. Line. 13-18: Then the clouds of unhappiness will disappear from our minds and we will submit ourselves to the influence of Nature. At that time we may ask Nature about her opinion of man's self-control and his self imposed morality which he considers his duty. The cheerfulness, the freedom and the light heartedness of Nature in contrast with his own hard struggle may have made man despair.

Stanza 4. Line. 19-24: Man is afraid of facing Nature (because of his troubles in life contrasted with the free, cheerful and light-heartedness of Nature) He feels himself inferior. Man tries to avoid the eyes of Nature (because of the above mentioned reason). At man's question a glow of strong emotion appears on the cheek of Nature, and asks a counter question. From where has man got his ability for divine struggle which is not to be found in Nature.

Stanza 5. Line 25-30: (The reply of Nature continues) Nature does not put in any effort that shows the pain of hard work on the brow. Neither does she struggle nor feel sorry at failure (weep). She progresses quickly in the order of the universe (with quick spheres) and feel happy. At her own will she rests (I sleep). But the admirably severe and earnest effort of man was hers once. (I saw, I felt once). Where has it disappeared, Nature wonders.

Stanza 6. Line. 31-36: (Nature's answer continues) At that time (when she had felt the 'severe earnest air') Nature was not under the limitations of space and time. She felt it in another atmosphere, in another country. It was when Nature was in her heavenly house, when she lived with God.

CRITICAL APPRECIATION AND ANALYSIS

The theme of the poem is the dignity of life's struggle, which is the lot of man. The true value and meaning of routine duty in man's life is admirably expressed in this poem.

Arnold does not deal with any traditional morality in this poem. It is neither that of theologian's or a traditional moralist's view. Neither does the poet bring in the Wordsworthian notion that Nature is a friend, philosopher and guide to man'. He says at the end of the poem that once in the past, Nature was close to God. At that time she had felt the severe earnest air which is found in man's worldly struggle. Nature has ceased to indulge in life's struggle.

Some critics find the conflict between Hellenism and Hebraism, which existed in Arnold's mind gets reflected here. The two terms borrowed from Heine, represents the Greek civilization (Hellenism) and Christianity (Hebraism). Before the advent of Christianity, Hellenism was the most potent cultural force. Hellenism gave predominance to the development of the critical faculty of man. An amoral, not immoral, worship of beauty, harmony and order were to be sought in life. When Christianity arose, it embraced Hellenism, but the Hebrew thought, from the Bible, had a predominance. A morality born out of duty was the essence. This is the Hebraism. Until the European Renaissance this dominance of Hebraism remained in the world of western culture. During Renaissance there was a surge towards Hellenism and its influence remains even now. However, it was modified by the influence of the Reformation. During Arnold's time a tyrannical form of Hebraisn, Puritanism, had developed in England, and asserted itself in a way which Arnold disliked.

The poet avowedly is in favour of Hellenism as against Hebraism. In this poem he appears to be uncertain of his own mind. Praising of a morality based on hard work is definitely Hebraistic. However, there is one element of Hellenism that Arnold upholds in the poem. He stresses in the poem that man is superior to Nature. This belief of the superiority of man over Nature is certainly a Hellenistic thinking.

Arnold appears to tell that morality is a blend of Hebraism and Hellenism. The poet considers that the conceiving ability of Hellenism and achieving ability of Hebraism, combined can be an ideal way of life. Arnold believed that 'what the Hellenistic part of us has conceived the Hebraic can achieve', In poems like Dover Beach the loss of Hebraic moral sense is lamented. Here there appears to be a balance between Hellenism and Hebraism.

LINE BY LINE EXPLANATIONS

1. But tasks.....fulfill'd.

In Morality Arnold glorifies the disciplined struggle which is found in man's life. The poem begins telling that man cannot kindle the fire of spiritual fervor (morality) in himself. For that a force that hides in the soul of man should blow, in an inexplicable way. Once that spiritual fervor would blow, the routine struggles in life become cheerful. Here the poet says that when spiritual insight lights upon man, even in hours of gloom and despair man is able to fulfil his duty, however, difficult it may be.

It is said Arnold had in his mind a conflict, perhaps fully unresolved between his love for Hellenism on the one hand, and Hebraism on the other. In some poems the poet emphasised the Hebraic elements as we find in Dover Beach. Here though he glorifies a morality based on struggle, Hellenistic elements also can be found. The poem concludes, with the superiority of Man's struggle over Nature's struggle-lessness. The superiority of Man over Nature is a true Hellenistic quality.

2. With aching ... we discern. Line. 7-12

Here the poet describes the shared struggles man has to undergo routinely in his life. As described it is a difficult strife.

Doing the routine jobs such as digging soil and heaping it, building walls, laying stone above stone, man's hands ache and feet get bruised. The burden of the day-long work is so much that they long for the end to come. Only when moments of cheerfulness reach them, they are able to see the achievements, the result, of their work.

In this stanza, the long day gets a wider meaning - the whole span of man's life. Then 'aching hands' and 'bleeding feet' signify the tiredness caused by the life struggle. When the struggle of life becomes very painful (ache) and hurting (bleeding), man develops a death-wish. The phrase 'wish it were done' suggestively means that.

However, in hours of cheerfulness, possibly arising by the mystery of the spirit in the soul, he will be able to take a look at his own achievement in life.

3. "Ah child ... not mine?" Line. 23-24

Here Arnold says Nature after watching the struggle of man, full of admiration at his work asks him from where he has procured the ability to struggle divinely. Man could not have got it from her for it does not exist in her at all. The poet conceives Man as a child of Nature. Then how did the child acquire something which is not in mother Nature, is the question. Perhaps the last part of Nature's statement gives the answer to the question. Some time in the remote past Nature used to be nearer to God. While she was treading the heavenly house she had felt the 'severe earnest air' of the struggle. Man as the child of Nature might have inherited it from mother Nature. As Nature says it is not in her right now, one has to think that it still remains in the unconscious of Nature.

This couplet tells how Nature admits Man's superiority over her. She asks the question admiringly. The strife of Man is divine'. She appears to feel sorry that capacity for struggle is absent in her.

4. "There is ... I sleep". Line. 25-28

In these lines Arnold describes the struggle-lessness in Nature. Seeing the 'divine strife' of man, Nature admiringly tells man, who is her child, that she doesn't indulge in any conscious struggle, similar to that of man. Nature does not put in any effort, which produces a sign of hard work on her brow. She does not do work for anyone. Neither does she shed tears over unhappiness. She progresses along with the movement of the universe, (with the swift spheres) and grow happier. When she feels like resting she rests.

Arnold's concept that 'there is no struggle in nature doesn't agree with the scientific concepts of his own time, not to mention the 20th century scientific thinking. There is tremendous struggle going on in Nature. The various plants in the forest compete with each other for light, water, and air. Those who do not get the minimum amount necessarily die out. Then there is the competition between the animals and the plants. Elephants and other, voracious eaters wipe out forests. Then, the predators live on smaller animals. Wherever we look into Nature we find struggle for existence. Perhaps Arnold didn't look at Nature this way. He means that animals and trees, part of Nature do, not weep or laugh. But none can refuse that, though they do not have the capacity to weep or laugh, they have the capacity for the feelings that cause weeping or laughter. The song of the nightingale may appear to be divine to humans, but it may be expressing the terrible pain of isolation and inviting its mate. The only thing we can be certain is that animals and plants in nature do not show their feelings like human beings do.

5. I knew ... breast of God. Line. 31-36

Nature, after admiring the struggle of man, which is absent in her, says she too had that struggle once. Then she recaptures the memory of it. Nature felt that severe earnest air' in the remote past. It was at a different place, in a different atmosphere (other clime). There neither time nor space had any limiting influence on Nature. It was a time when Nature was intimately united with God. (lay upon the breast of God).

There appears to be some obscurity in the last stanza. What is meant by the last two lines? When was it that nature was treading the heavenly abode resting on the breast of God? In the remote past? There is no scientific evidence for this statement. Neither is there any myth existing, which tells of a struggle in Nature, that ceased to exist. From the point of view of science, perpetual struggle exists in nature. Man's struggle, too, is part of it.

To Marguerite: Continued - Summary and Analysis

2024-06-02T10:29:00.001+05:30

INTRODUCTION

The title of the poem was changed more than once by the author himself. In the 1852 edition it was To Marguerite; in returning a volume of the letters of Ortis. In 1853 it was included in the 'Switzerland' group and titled Isolation. In 1869 Arnold renamed it To Marguerite: Continued.

The theme, as usual in Arnold, is one that goes from the personal to the abstract: from personal isolation he reaches the spiritual isolation of man. The poet expresses his deep sorrow at the realization that he is isolated from his fellow beings. He sees a universality in his personal isolation. Men live in this world as if they are islands in a vast sea separated from each other. At the end of the poem, almost in the fashion of Omar Khayyam, the poet accuses God for the predicament of man.

STANZA WISE SUMMARY

Stanza 1. Line. 1-6: The exclamatory word 'yes' in the beginning of the poem is to emphasise the loneliness of man which the poet realizes. Life is considered to be a sea. Dotting this sea, as small islands, each separated from the other, human beings live. From the flow of water in the space between them, the islands (isolated people) feel the distance between each other. They also realize that their isolation is to last for all times.

Stanza 2. Line. 7-12: Sometimes the moon will brighten up the hollows of islands and the sweet breath of spring spreads everywhere on the islands. On star-lit nights nightingales sing in the woods of the islands and the melodious notes are heard on all the shores of the islands.

Stanza 3. Line. 13-18: The exclamatory word 'Oh' tells of the pain that loneliness brings to the mind of the poet. The islands (isolated human beings) do get a combined feeling of despair and desire - despair at the present state of isolation and desire to have a union with other islands. For they get a feeling that once all those islands belonged to one continent. But now the sea-water spreads like a plain around them. They wish eagerly for a reunion.

Stanza 4. Line. 19-24: The poet asks who has decreed that the fire of their desire to unite was put out as soon as it was lit up. Who has dashed their desire for unification? Surely God is the one who decided so. He has ordered the deep and salty unfriendly sea to flow between them.

CRITICAL APPRECIATION AND ANALYSIS

The poet wrote this poem To Marguerite: Continued inspired by his beloved of early days, Marguerite. He was not able to consummate his love for Marguerite because of some reasons not clearly mentioned anywhere in the poems associated with her name. But very little, or no Marguerite at all, is to be found in the poem, at least overtly. He may be talking of isolation because of his inability to be united with Marguerite. May be, in the end he is hinting that it was the decree of God (destiny) that Arnold could not get united with his beloved. The poem gets a wider meaning when we view the isolation mentioned in the poem as the sad lot of the whole mankind. That appears the theme of the poem. The shifting of the line of thinking from the personal to the impersonal, to the abstract, is a feature of many of Arnold's poems. In the treatment of the isolation of mankind, the poet appears very modern. He appears to have foreshadowed the Existential thinking in literature that became strong in the 20th century. In this poem the sea has a significance, different from what once finds in other poems of his. Here it disunity lands (mankind), and reminds the islands (isolated individuals) of their sad predicament. But the basic idea that the sea is life, which is found in other poems too, comes up in the poem. The image, of the islands in the sea, which stands for men in life, is clearly projected in the first stanza. The idea is amplified in later stanzas. And the poem is wound up in a line that has rightly become famous for its pithiness; "The unplumbed salt estranging sea".

The sea-life metaphor remains strikingly alive from one end of the poem to the other.

But when.....caverns sent; Line. 7-14

After metaphorically describing, life as a sea and individuals as isolated islands in the sea, Arnold gives a beautiful scenic description. When such beauty appeals to the island-men, a despair at their present isolation and a longing to reunite once again arise in their hearts. When the woods of the islands are brightened by the moon, when the sweet-scented breeze of spring blow comfortingly, when in star-lit nights nightingales sing melodiously in its valleys, and these notes are heard from shore to shore across the sea, a mixed feeling of despair and intense desire arise in the hearts of the islanders.

The nature-picture one gets here is probably the best Arnold draws anywhere in his poems. The picture is also suggestive, rich in symbolic elements, Man, isolated that he is, feels the isolation at times when beauty touches him. The nightingales that sing divinely there may mean the poets whose thoughts and ideas that reach the hearts of people breaking up the feeling of isolation, though temporarily. Perhaps Arnold means that only when one is conscious of the beauty around, the feeling of isolation becomes intense. The ideas of great poets too help to intensify that feeling. The suggestiveness of the passage gives an added dimension to the almost Keatsian sensuousness found in the description.

For surely......meet again, Line. 15-18

Human beings who live enisled in the sea of life, occasionally, when they come across with the beauty of nature or beauty of ideas, develop a mixed feeling of despair and intense desire. Then the men-islands wish to be united into a single continent once again. Certainly (on such occasions) men-islands do get a feeling that once they belonged to a single continent. Now around each one of them spreads the sea, isolating one from another. The islands eagerly wish how nice it would have been if the islands were all merged together. The 'longing like despair' of earlier lines gets explained here. It is a feeling part-despair and part-longing. The longing is the wish to be reunited into a single continent. The despair arises out of the hopeless nature of the longing. The present isolation of man is not to come to an end, however, strong the desire to unite may be.

At the human level, the sea is human life itself and the islands are individual human beings hung in isolation. The continent into which the islands want to merge stands for the old way of life when human beings were intimately related to each other. Man eagerly wishes to have a life where union of hearts is possible.

Arnold the poet has experienced the sense of isolation that a thinking man feels in this world. He has made this inevitable isolation the theme of many poems. Probably he is the first to introduce this theme into English poetry, fore-shadowing the advent of Existentialism in literature. On treating such themes Arnold becomes a modern poet even in the twentieth-century sense. However when he suggests that there used to be unity of individual hearts once upon a time, the sense is not completely clear. It is unlikely that Arnold believes that once all men were part of a supernatural power or a Universal spirit. Nowhere else in his poem an idea like that is even remotely hinted. Perhaps he means only this: that before the spread of materialistic civilization individuals used to be more concerned about their fellow human beings. The humanistic concern for the welfare of the whole mankind which was very much present in Christian faith has vanished. This disappearance coincided with the development of materialism and the feeling of isolation developed among men.

Who order'd......estranging sea. Line. 19-24

Having mentioned the hopelessness involved in the longing for closer ties between human bangs Arnold searches for the cause of man's isolation. And in the fashion of Omar Khayyam, he turns the accusing finger to God and says that He is responsible for the present predicament of man.

Arnold asks who has decreed that the intense desire of human beings to come closer together was put out as soon as it flared up. Who makes the hope of mankind futile? Surely this separation was caused by God. He ordered the deep (unplumb'd) unpalatable (salt) and separating (estranging) sea to flow between the various islands. Arnold appears to say that it is the will of God, or the course of Fate, that has caused the isolation of mankind. The suggestion is that whether we like it or not, we have to live in this world with a sense of isolation. The isolation is the unavoidable lot of man. Civilization has gone ahead in such a way that the desire to go back to the old state of affairs where men used to have a feeling of brotherhood. But Arnold seems to go beyond a simple statement of a fact. He appears to accuse God, for this isolation does not do any good to mankind. Whenever mankind develops an intense desire to get united (longings fire) it is God who puts it out (cools).

The poet hints that God's activity here is morbid. It is interesting that Fitzgerald's translation of Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyat contains similar ideas. In one of the stanzas the poet says that God has created evil in this world along with man. So if man does evil thing the mistake is God's. Before taking back man at his death, God owes an apology to man. God ultimately, is the cause of evil. True, Arnold never goes to the extent of Omar bidding God to apologize. However the accusation that God has done something morbid by ordering the isolation of man is clearly seen in the passage.

Isolation: To Marguerite - Summary and Analysis

2024-05-30T08:00:00.001+05:30

INTRODUCTION

One of Arnold's finest love lyrics, the poem Isolation: To Marguerite first appeared in the 1857 edition as one of the 'Switzerland' poems. In 1853 the group contained To My Friends Who Ridiculed a Tender Leave taking (Later renamed 4 Memory Picture); The Other Lake (Also known as Meeting); A Dream; Parting; To Marguerite; and Absence. In 1854 A Farewell was added to the series, but the original To Marguerite. became Isolation. In 1869 We Were Apart became known as Isolation. The one beginning, Yes in the sea of life enisl'd' was renamed To Marguerite. There are critics who say that Marguerite has inspired twenty-one of Arnold's poems. If true, the Marguerite associated poems will include Urania, Euphrosyne, Destiny, Human Life, Despondency, Youth's Agitation and Self Deception, The River, Too Late, Separation, On the Rhine, and Longing.

The figure of Marguerite remains shadowy. There are some who consider that like Lucy in Wordsworth's Lucy Poems, Marguerite is idealised womanhood. That is what the poet told his daughters. Possibly the mores of Victorian society made Arnold hide the real identity of the person.

Switzerland was dear to Arnold for his dear philosopher Senancour lived there. It happened to become the land of his early love also. So the country has an intellectual and emotional appeal to him.

A feeling of disillusionment in love can be found in the poem. Running from the beginning to the end, there is a melancholy and pathos. From the personal feeling of isolation the poet reaches the abstract and then the isolation becomes one that everyman has to face in worldly life.

LINE BY LINE SUMMARY

Stanza 1. Line. 1-6: The poet and his beloved (Marguerite) were physically separated. But his love for her was constant and that made him to keep himself separated from the world. There was place only for her in his heart. He hoped that her love for him too grew truer day by day.

Stanza 2. Line 7-12: The poet found out his mistake. He learned that his beloved didn't return his love. He tried to console himself thinking that love very often remain unreturned. The unrequited love of his, increases and decrease often. But as his beloved does not love him he has to bid farewell to her.

Stanza 3. Line. 13-18: The parting is final. He is forced into a life of loneliness in himself. Never has his heart tried to indulge in passion. It never deviated from its usual path. Now it has to go back to its solitude once again.

Stanza 4. Line. 19-24: The poet's return to his solitude, is similar to that of the moon goddess. Her love for Endymion, the shepherd, who was sleeping in the pine forests on Mount Latmos was not returned.

Stanza 7. Line. 25-30: Moon, the goddess of chastity, who wanders in the far away sky has not realised how worthless it is to aim at love from humans. But the poet has the opportunity to prove the truth about human love; that it is futile to expect love from humans. He has been lonely, is so at present and will be so in the future.

Stanza 6. Line. 31-36: If the poet is not absolutely lonely now, it is because he spends his time with non-human things like the Ocean clouds, night, day, melancholy Autumn and happy Spring time, the pleasure and pain of others, and the love (If there is love in the world) of happier men who love each other.

Stanza 7. Line. 37-42: Happier men (than the poet) are those who dream of the possibility of love blending two human beings into one. The hope of the realization of the dream releases them from their perpetual isolation. But this hope, in reality, does not make them less lonely than they really are.

CRITICAL APPRECIATION AND ANALYSIS

Arnold has written quite a few love poems. However he is not very successful as a love poet. The poems does not display the heat of love that bind man and woman. Elegiac in tone always, they do not sing of the triumph of love. In Duffin's opinion his love poetry is possibly the least satisfying part of his writing. 'It certainly is the least regarded'.

The poem is an elegy of love where Arnold dirges his love for Marguerite. The poet will be remembered as the pioneer to bring isolation as a serious theme in literature. The poet starts telling of his personal isolation but ends in thinking of the isolation of everyman in this world.

The stoic that Arnold is, he accepts or at least try to accept the futility of love. He does not think that true love exists in this world. To avoid the absolute loneliness he tries to get some consolation by observing the glories of Nature and happier men who dream of love as something that blends two human beings into one.

Perhaps Browning's Last Ride Together, has some similarity with this poem. In both the lover fails to elicit love from their beloveds. But there is clear difference too. Browning's lover hopes to realise his love in the next world. Arnold does not have any such hope, for he does not believe in the existence of life after death.

LINE BY LINE EXPLANATIONS

1. The fault.....Farewell. Line. 7-12

In this stanza Arnold explains how he realized the futility of his being in love with Marguerite. He admits he made a serious mistake in developing love for Marguerite. He ought to have known the consequences of love earlier. He learned from his experience that his heart has to remain alone with nobody else to bind it to, for his love remained unrequited. He has finally come to the conclusion that she does not love him at all. So the Farewell is final and terminating.

There are instances in other Marguerite poems giving some evidence that Marguerite loved him too, at least in the beginning of their relationship. In this poem there is no evidence for even that. The pain of unrequited love can be read in these lines, but no passionate intensity of that disappointment is to be found anywhere in the poem.

2. Back with.....Latmiat steen, Line 19-24

Here Arnold talks of the 'thrill of shame' he felt at his unrequited love for his Marguerite. He compares it with the feeling of the moon goddess when Endymion failed to reciprocate her love for him.

Arnold says that after failing to get his love for Marguerite reciprocated, he is 'back' in his mental solitude or isolation. He is very conscious of the shame of his failure but there is a thrill in that failure. His feeling is like the falling of the goddess of moon whose love for the handsome Latimian Shepherd, Endymion was not reciprocated.

Luna, the moon goddess, one day found the handsome Shepherd, Endymion sleeping on the steepy mountain, Latmos. She left her starry abode, went to him and kissed him. She caused him to sleep for ever so that she can watch his beauty. Arnold wants to emphasise the point that the love of Luna for Endymion was not consummated. His love for Marguerite too remained unconsummated. The Latmian mountains do have pine forests aplenty.

3. Yes she.....alone. Line. 25-30

After telling about the similarity between Arnold's love for Marguerite and Luna's love for Endymion he goes on to tell the difference too. Arnold has learned that human love is futile. But the goddess of the sky hasn't learnt that.

Luna, the queen of heaven and the goddess of chastity has never realized the futility of human love. But Arnold has realized from his own experience that love among humans is futile; that he has been alone, he is and so will he be in future too.

According to one version of the Luna-Endymion story the latter was transformed into an immortal by Zeus, the supreme god. So Luna knows only the unconsummated love of mortals; not of humans. But Arnold has known the nature of human love from his conscious thrill of shame at his unrequited love.

In the last line of the stanza 'thou' gets a wider meaning to mean the whole mankind. He means that it is the fate of a man to remain isolated. Man was isolated in the past, is so at present, and will be so in the future.

4. Or, if not.....happier men. Line. 31-36

After mentioning unavoidable loneliness he feels and adds that he has ways of relieving his loneliness. He is not that lonely for he comes in contact with the clouds, variation between night and day, gloomy Autumn and bright Spring, the happiness and sorrows of others, and the love between others, if at all there is true love in the world. All these are uniting things. They do not come in contact with each other creating an intimacy that defeats loneliness.

Arnold, here betrays his love of nature. One of the consolations in this life, where man is alone, is the beauty that nature offers. A feeling of oneness with the beautiful things of nature may relieve man from his isolation. However, those being 'unmating' things, there cannot be very intimate contact with them.

Another consolation comes from watching happier (than the author) people who love each other, if at all there is love in this world. The pain of unrequited love is to be found in these lines though that feeling is very restrained, rather hidden in understatements. 'Love... of happier men, makes it obvious that he feels very unhappy at his unrequited love. Further we find some pessimism in the parenthesis 'if love'. Some people are happy thinking that they love each other. Arnold who doesn't believe in the existence of true love cannot be happy like them. So they are happier than the poet. This view is elaborated in the last stanza.

5. "Of happier.....loveliness. Line 37-423

Here Arnold says those people whom he qualified as happier than he himself is, are not really happy. They only think that they are happy.

These people are happier for they have belief in the potency of love. They believe that love can blend two individuals into one if they love one another sincerely. This belief removes the sense of isolation they would have otherwise felt. However, according to Arnold, their thinking is erroneous. Their real isolation is not lessened even a bit by their thinking that they are not isolated. Arnold appears to be unduly pessimistic here. Marguerite didn't requite his love and from that premise he comes to the conclusion that there is no possibility of true love in this world. This appears a little unreasonable. In Dover Beach, Arnold addresses his beloved (presumably his wife) and says

Ah Love, let us be true

To one another.

We find him like that happier man described here shows belief in the power of love, if not to blend the twain into one, at least to give a little ease in this joyless world. Surely Arnold felt slightly less isolated in her company in that poem. Perhaps the present poem is only an expression of a depressed mood than of any philosophic truth.

Memorial Verses: by Matthew Arnold - Summary and Analysis

2024-05-27T08:00:00.001+05:30

INTRODUCTION

The poem First printed in Frasers Magazine in June 1850, Memorial Verses, were included in the 1852 edition of Arnold's poems. William Wordsworth died on 23rd April 1850, and was buried a few days later. Edward Quilman, son-in-law of Wordsworth requested Arnold to write an elegy and he obliged. However, it was not Wordsworth alone who is honoured in the poem. Byron who died in 1824 and Goethe who died in 1832 also are commemorated in it, rather late. Though written on the death of Wordsworth, it is not a mere conventional tribute. It reveals Arnold's abilities as a literary critic. It is remarkable that this poem composed when the poet was only 27, contains as much of definitive utterance and of permanent value as of any of his critical essays. In it Wordsworth is placed on a high pedestal along with Byron and Goethe. In a few lines Arnold sums up his estimate of the contributions of the three to the nineteenth century thought and literature. He obviously places Wordsworth above Byron and controversially above Goethe too.

Byron taught little, but he was a man of passion of titanic proportion. He is also shown as a man of energy. But in his essay on Byron, Arnold has noticed his weaknesses too. "True, as a man Byron could not manage himself, could not guide his ways aright, but was all led astray. True, he has no light, cannot lead us from the past to the future. The moment he reflects, he is a child".

Goethe to Arnold was the sage of Europe. He had salutary influence on Arnold. In Obermann Arnold makes a comparative evaluation of Goethe, Senancour and Wordsworth. In an essay, A French Critic on Goethe, Arnold qualifies him as the clearest, the largest, the most helpful thinker of modern times". Goethe remained a perpetual source of intellectual stimulation and discipline. In the poem Wordsworth is praised in superlative terms. Arnold's judgement of placing Wordsworth above Goethe, doesn't agree with the twentieth-century evaluation. However Arnold considered the poem to be of some quality. After finishing the poem he wrote to Clough. "I would fain see thee, as I have at Quilinan's solicitations dirged W.W. in the grand style". Tinker and Lowry praise the poem and say,

In defining the essential quality of Wordsworth's power, this poem is unsurpassed by the better known essay on Wordsworth introductory to Arnold's selections from that poet in the Golden Treasury Series (1879).

The diction of the poem is more or less prosaic, written in free verse, but with rhyme. The tribute to Wordsworth's healing power is indeed just and generous and the phrase has become a cliche in Wordsworth criticism later.

LINE BY LINE SUMMARY

Line. 1-5: Introducing the subject, Goethe lies dead in Weimar (in Germany). long before that death, Greece saw the end of the struggling life of Byron. One such death was to come later. Now Wordsworth, the last of the great poets, too is dead.

Line. 6-15: Byron's end.

When Byron died we could not express our feelings, but showed our respects. His poetry did not teach us very much. (In his day Byron's poems were condemned as immoral.) But his poetry, which was as grand as thunder, thrilled us to the depths. The conflict of Love and Law displayed in his poetry as well as his private life was bewildering. Still his great intellectual powers and his fierce fight against conventions and customs were noteworthy.

Line. 15-33: Goethe's death

On hearing of the death of Goethe, we remarked that the greatest sage of Europe had gone away. He was the healer of the diseases of the age of misery and wretchedness. He noticed the miseries of human race and understood the causes of those miseries and pinpointed at the weakness of society. He watched with anxiety, the feverish change that was coming over Europe and warned others of the danger. Goethe found that everything was going towards ruin; but art still was able to show Truth. He recommended people to seek shelter in art. He understood the causes of events. He had seen the misery, distraction and death caused by French revolution, the Napoleonic wars and the spiritual decline resulting from the rise of materialism. By identifying the causes of the miserable events that were happening around him remained happy.

Comes to Wordsworth: The poet addresses the pale ghosts of the world of the dead and tells them to rejoice at Wordsworth's arrival. Such a soothing voice as his has never reached Hades after Orpheus sang his songs in that gloomy place. You may find his voice as soothing as we found it. He also lived in an unhappy age troubled by doubts, disputes and fears. He found out the human soul in the clutches of materialism making it incapable of feeling. His poetry evoked tears in us because it touched us with its sincerity. He took us back to the olden times and revealed to us the glory and wonder of the world, and we felt as if we were on earth's flower beds. We felt comfortable and started smiling. Hills were around us, breeze above and there were sunlit fields. We were able to enjoy the rain and the wind and our youthful spirit which earlier appeared dead returned to us, and we enjoyed the freshness of the carlier world.

Line. 58-70: Even in dark days of doubts and controversies men of wisdom and energy will be born and time may bring to us another Goethe or another Byron. But it is unlikely that Europe any time in future will get a great man with the healing power of Wordsworth. Others, like Byron, will make us courageous. and teach us how to avoid fear. Yet others, like Goethe, will give us the strength to bear suffering. But who else (except Wordsworth) can make us feel the beauty and harmony of life and make us happy. Other people may face fearlessly the unhappiness that destiny creates, but who else can remove the unhappiness?

Line. 71-74: The Poet here addresses River Rotha that flows near Wordsworth's grave and tells it to water the grass on his grave with its waves and keep it fresh. He wants the river to sing its best to Wordsworth, for after he is gone there is none to appreciate Nature's songs.

CRITICAL APPRECIATION AND ANALYSIS

Wordsworth was the friend of Matthew Arnold's father, the great Rugby. Headmaster, Thomas Arnold. The poet knew Wordsworth very well and he grew up in the vicinity of Wordsworth's house. Matthew Arnold's great appreciation for Wordsworth and his poems can be clearly seen in his poems as well as in his prose writings. He gives the first place to Wordsworth in his critical estimate of the romantic poets. After finishing the present poem, at the request of Wordsworth's son-in-law, Quilinan, Arnold wrote to Clough that he had "dirged W.W. in the grand style". Certainly there is grandeur in the style, a classical grandeur. The poem is austerely plain, without much trappings. The only decorations are the classical allusions, to the pale ghosts' of Hades, and the clear song of Orpheus'. Perhaps the last lines where river Rotha is personified too is decorative, but indeed is delicately so. The tribute Arnold pays to Wordsworth has the stamp of sincerity.

There is excellent literary criticism involved in the poem. Though his immediate aim is to pay a tribute to the poet of Rydal Mount, he succeeds in evaluating Byron and Goethe too, cryptically, though accurately. Byron's struggle against conventions and laws of society are titanic. Though people have little to learn from him, they were awe-struck by the thundery passions he depicted in his poems. Goethe's was the wisest soul of Europe. He diagnosed the sickness from which the world was suffering. He analysed the causes of the cultural and spiritual decay of his generation.

Wordsworth was superior, for he had the healing power to cure the world of its diseases. His poetry has the divine musical quality similar to that possessed by Orpheus, who was able to please the inhabitants of the nether world. Wordsworth has gone from this world, to the nether world where the 'pale Ghosts have reason to rejoice. After they had heard the clear song of Orpheus, they haven't heard anything as happy as the poems of Wordsworth. Arnold is referring to the musical quality of Wordsworth's poems. He places Wordsworth above Goethe, in a very special way. Goethe diagnosed the disease of the society correctly. Wordsworth went ahead one more step. He was able to cure the disease with his 'healing power'. Wordsworth's poems touched the hearts of people and made them shed tears of joy. He showed them joys that Nature can offer and comforts one can get from it. One is likely to disagree with Arnold in keeping Wordsworth on a pedestal higher than that of Goethe. Perhaps, his intimacy with and personal admiration for Wordsworth, prevented him from becoming factual. Perhaps he might have been thinking only of the 'healing power' he recognized in his hero.

Attitude to Nature: Arnold's love for Nature was perhaps as intense as that of Wordsworth. Only, he failed to find any divine order which Wordsworth found in Nature. In referring to Wordsworth's Nature poetry, Arnold gives some lovely descriptions

He laid us as we lay at birth

On the cool flowery lap of earth;

Smiles broke from us and we had ease.

The hills were round us and the breeze

Went o'er the sun-lit fields again:

One can almost feel the healing power of Wordsworth as we go through these word pictures. The images do have a vividness and freshness that lends an open air atmosphere to the poem.

Arnold's love of Nature and his appreciation of Wordsworth's attitude to Nature is again found in the apostrophe to Rotha in the last four lines. He requests the river to keep the grass upon the grave fresh and to sing to him with its living wave. After Wordsworth, there is none presently alive, to listen to Nature's music, and understand it rightly.

Criticism of Life: In Memorial Verses, we find Arnold's criticism of life, or interpretation of life. In his praise for Goethe's ability to diagnose the sickness of contemporary society we find Arnold's own views on society. He too has noticed the 'iron time of doubts, disputes, distractions, fears'. The fitful dream' of European leaders, running after feverish power' was very much in the mind of Arnold as in Goethe's. The lurid flow of terror and insane distress' was a characteristic of the 'dying hour' of Europe. In England of the time too, there was similar sickness. Man's spirits had been dead for long. They were 'dried up and closely furl'd'. It is rather a unique elegy, in being one full of substantial literary criticism. The poet Swinburne considers the verses "praise and judge the great poet, then newly dead, better than any words of other men". Arnold owed a great a deal to Wordsworth as his numerous laudatory references bear out. T.S. Eliot had this aspect in mind when he commented that the poem is "a testimonial of what Wordsworth had done to him". An amount of hero worship is certainly present in the poem, but the worship appears to come from a sincere devotion. The fundamental qualities of Byron, Goethe and Wordsworth are pointed out with brevity and accuracy. Goethe was the sagest head Byron's was a titanic strife and Wordsworth had the healing power. H.C. Duffin's analysis of the poem is worth quoting:

Memorial Verses, April 1850, is an exquisite miniature of criticism. The person eulogised is Wordsworth, but brilliant thumbnail estimates of Goethe and Byron are given in order to throw up the central figure by way of contrast, just one element in the genius of each being named "Goethe's sage mind and Byron's force.' For Wordsworth, Arnold selects four prime qualities - his power to bring us into sympathetic touch with nature, his "healing power his power of quickening the feeling, and, above all, his power of making us realise the unimportance of the finite, the all-importance of the infinite:

The cloud of mortal destiny..

Who like him, will put it by?

This is, indeed, quintessential Wordsworth, and we see how much better it is for a poet to put what he feels about another poet into a poem than into critical prose. The essay, Wordsworth, written nearly thirty years after the Verses, is a sound piece of work, done without enthusiasm. Arnold tells us he places Wordsworth third in English poetry, after Shakespeare and Milton, but we should not have surmised this from the rest of the essay. He thinks little of The Prelude, nothing of The Excursion, is doubtful about the intimations' of the Ode....and does not mention the Tintern Abbey lines, the Lucy poems, or the great sonnets. Still, he dwells emphatically on the power on joy in Wordsworth's poetry, so that we know he had the roots of the matter in him.

The poem of 1850 is quite perfect as a work of art. It is exactly the right length, and has not an excessive line or one out of place. The opening lines have a classic economy and force:

Goethe in Weimar sleeps, and Greece,

Long since, saw Byron's struggle cease.

But one such death remain'd to come.

The last poetic voice is dumb.

What shall be said o'er Wordsworth's tomb?

Then follow a short verse paragraph on Byron, a rather longer one on Goethe, and the main pronouncement on Wordsworth.

Having told us wherein Wordsworth excelled, he comes back, in a fifth paragraph to the comparison with Byron and Goethe-their qualities may repeat themselves in others, but Wordsworth was and will remain unique. And he says this again in the lovely singing conclusion -

Keep fresh the grass upon his grave,

O Rotha! with thy living wave.

Sing him thy best! for few or none

Hears thy voice right, now he is gone.

No one has ever, like Wordsworth, brought the spirit of man into intimate, vitalising touch with the spirit of nature."

LINE BY LINE EXPLANATIONS

1. Goethe in Weimar.....Wordsworth's tomb Line. 1-5

Arnold starts his poem describing two famous writers who died well before Wordsworth. Goethe lies buried in Weimar. His death occurred long after the life of Byron came to an end. Now with the death of Wordsworth, the last important poet has become mute.

Goethe, author of Faust was a philosophic poet of Germany. He was perhaps the greatest poetical name of Europe still lingering in the mind of people during the time Arnold wrote the verses. He died in 1832 and was buried at Weimar, Germany.

Byron's struggle: The reference is to Byron's controversial life and his fight against 'cant, political, religious and moral'. Byron, the senior of the younger romantic poets of the early 19th century died in Greece, in the year 1824. By grouping Wordsworth, with Byron and Goethe, Arnold appears to have had two objectives. One is to give an honourable place along with two names very much in the mind of the people of the day. The other show Wordsworth in relief by comparing and contrasting him with the other two.

2. He taught us.....Titanic strife. Line. 8-14

Arnold gives a brief, but accurate evaluation of Byron and his works. His weakness as well as strength are clearly pointed out:

Byron's poems had nothing to teach others. But they displayed the thunder like strength of his passions. He fought not only against slavery and tyranny but against the conventional morality that constrained man. The tremendous energy he possessed and his extra-ordinary fighting power was like that of a Titan. It astonished all, and won for him respects from all.

Strife we saw of Passion with Eternal Law: The conflict of Love and Law could be found in Byron's poems and his personal life. His poems were considered immoral according to conventional standards. His personal life was filled with scandals that shocked traditional moral codes. He fought against 'cant, political, religious and moral', and championed the cause of human passion against traditional morality.

3. Physician.....here and here. Line. 17-22

Arnold praised Goethe, calling him the sagest man in Europe. In the above lines he goes on to describe him as the Physician of European society who diagnosed its sickness. Society was passing through a time of decay and chaos. He diagnosed the disease and told people where exactly things were going wrong.

Iron age: By this phrase Arnold alludes to the non-human attitude of life that was spreading around. Goethe did his best, through his writings, to identify the problems of society, and suggest remedial measures.

4. He look'd on.....refuge there. Line. 23-28

Goethe watched with concern, the social distress and misery caused by Napoleonic wars. He saw hopes of equality and liberty being shattered. Napoleon's rise caused the establishment of a tyrannical rule. Europe was plunged into conflict and turmoil. Morals crumbled and spirituality disappeared. The culture of Europe appeared to die out. He suggested that people in such catastrophic times should take refuge in art where truth exists even when society at large is devoid of values.

5. And he was.....be happiness. Line. 29-33

Here Arnold says Goethe could remain happy, in the process of identifying the causes of misery in society.

Goethe could trace the cause of all the evils that existed in society. He knew why things were becoming catastrophic. He saw the misery, the destruction and suffering caused by the French Revolution, and the Napoleonic wars. He noticed the spread of the rule of terror leading to a mad distress; and the influence of fate in the turn of events. Goethe, like a physician, was watching for the symptoms to diagnose the disease. This process of identifying the causes of misery gave a kind of happiness to Goethe.

Far below his feet.: This phrase helps to create the impression that Goethe was a greater man, a nobler man, positioned high above the so-called heroes like Napoleon whose insane strife was causing the misery and the suffering.

6. And Wordsworth.....gloom. Line. 34-39

After briefly describing the struggle of Byron and the pilgrimage of Goethe, Arnold comes to the topic of the poem Wordsworth's death.

The poet apostrophises the pale ghosts who inhabit the kingdom of the dead and tells them that they have reason to rejoice at Wordsworth's reaching them. He is the greatest singer who has gone to Hades after Orpheus sang in the gloomy Hades.

Orpheus; was a legendary pre-Homeric poet-singer, who could play divinely on his lyre When his wife Eurydice whom he loved passionately, died of a snake bite, he went to Hades, pleased Pluto with his music and restored her life Legends say that he could move even inanimate objects with his music.

Hades: is the kingdom of death in the underworld, ruled by Pluto.

7. He too upon.....heart in tears. Line. 42-47

In these lines Arnold either equates Wordsworth with Goethe or places him above. Like Goethe, Wordsworth also lived in a troublesome age - an age of doubts, uncertainty, skepticism and despair. He saw the inhumanising and benumbing influence of the age, on human soul. But Wordsworth's poetry appealed to the hearts of people and feelings expressed in it moved them to tears. It freed the feelings of people from the choking grip of materialism.

He laid us as we lay at birth is an allusion to the primitivism displayed in Wordsworth's poems. Arnold means that Wordsworth's poetry, reveals to people the wonder and glory that existed in the world in a bygone age.

8. The hills.....early world. Line. 51-57

Here Arnold continues to describe the refreshing effects of Wordsworth's poetry on human spirit that was inhumanised and benumbed.

Wordsworth showed men, through his poetry, the beauty of the hills, the breeze and the sun-lit fields. As a result, men felt the freshening effect of life in communion with nature and they got rejuvenated. During the early nineteenth century the sufferings and miseries of life led men to a life of despair. Wordsworth's Nature-poetry and his glorification of a life in communion with nature helped people to regain sanity, to a great extent. Some critics, like T.S. Eliot, are of opinion that Arnold was describing the refreshing effect of Wordsworth's poetry on his own mind that remained vexed by the Victorian distress and despair.

9. Ah, Since.....healing power? Line. 58-63

Here Arnold says that even in a gloomy period of scepticism and faithlessness forceful and wise persons may appear. So it is possible for Byron or Goethe to reappear again. But it is very unlikely a poet having the same healing power of Wordsworth be born in Europe in future. Arnold, here tells clearly of Wordsworth's superiority over Goethe. Both were born in an iron age. While Goethe diagnosed the disease and pinpointed the plague-spot, he could not cure society of its disease. Wordsworth had the healing power to cure society of its disease.

Critics cannot accept Arnold's opinion that Wordsworth was a greater poet than Goethe, even if it is only in the healing power. Discriminating men are unanimous in designating a higher pedestal to Goethe than the one on which Wordsworth is. Again by telling that it is not likely to see another Wordsworth coming into being, Arnold is only betraying his blind hero-worship. If people like Byron and Goethe can be born again why not one like Wordsworth too, one is likely to wonder. Perhaps the demands of the occasion in association with the excessive devotion of the author to Wordsworth contributed to the hyperbolic statement found in the lines.

10. Others will.....put it buy? Line. 64-70

After telling that it is unlikely a person with Wordsworth's healing power will be born again, Arnold re-emphasises the superiority of Wordsworth over Byron and Goethe. Others (like Byron) will teach us how to be courageous in overcoming fear. Yet others (like Goethe) will teach how to suffer the problems of life with forbearance. But only Wordsworth will be able to make people sensitive to Nature. While others may face the unhappiness destiny brings he alone will be able to cure it, by being sensitive to Nature.

Resignation To Fausta: Summary and Analysis

2024-05-24T08:00:00.001+05:30

INTRODUCTION

Resignation To Fausta appeared in the first Volume of Arnold's, which appeared in 1849, under the title The Strayed Reveller and Other Poems. Eleven years later the poet classified it as a "lyric" and still later included it among the Early Poems. It was probably written within, a short time of Arnold's going for a walking tour, in the company of his elder sister Jane whom he mentions here as Fausta". She is often referred to in his letters. During 1841-42 Jane was engaged to George Cotton (Cotton is the young Master mentioned in Tom Brown's School Days. He later came to India as Bishop of Calcutta. The oldest Public School in India. Bishop Cotton's School, Shimla was named after him). The engagement was broken off and Arnold wrote this poem in an attempt to console her. Mrs. Humphrey Wards in her A Writer's Recollections says "It was to her (Jane) that Resignation was addressed, in recollection of their mountain walks and talks together". Lionel Trilling is of opinion that "Fausta" may be taken as a female Faust, the type of romantic who yearns for action, adventure and experience to drive away the tedium of life. As against this we have Arnold's assertion that the way to human freedom lies in the abandonment of the romantic temperament and in the search for a kind of Amor intellectualis Dei, the poet's loving non-personal vision of the world. Critics have pointed out echoes of Lucretius, Senancour, the Bhagwad Gita and Goethe's Wilhelm Meister in this piece. But the poem on the whole is typically Arnoldian.

According to Quintin, it is a "complete and lucid presentation of what may be called the poet's philosophy of life". The poem is rather tediously long and the thought sequence is not very clear. The theme appears to be resignation as illustrated by the life of the Gipsies and the poet on the one hand contrasted with that of the strenuous life described in the beginning like that of the pilgrims to Mecca, on the other.

LINE BY LINE SUMMARY

Line. 1-21: The poem Resignation To Fausta opens by quoting the thoughts of fanatical believers in some cause like the pilgrims to Mecca, the Crusaders, the Goths or the Huns. They are ready to undergo all the rigours and sufferings to attain their goal. 'Either achieve the goal or die' used to be their motto. To put in a second effort, after a failure was terrible for them. Only the attainment of the goal would bring peace to them. So they pray either for success in their pursuit or death. They certainly do not want to put in the effort to achieve their goal a second time, if they failed once.

Line. 22-39: Here people of milder nature than the first group (pilgrims to Mecca, the Crusaders, the Goths or the Huns) are mentioned. People of milder temperament enjoy more freedom and calmness for they are resigned to the conditions they find themselves in. The passions that agitate more ambitious people do not trouble them. Such people do not complain that their activities are controlled by the changing circumstances and time. Neither do they boast that their achievements are the products of their energetic activities. They do not seek power or authority. The poet wants Fausta to follow the examples of such people. She should try to avoid indulging in a life of intense tribulations and trials.

Line. 40-85: In this section the poet recalls the earlier walking tour they made along the same route. It comes to mind as if it happened yesterday only. He recaptures the memory of the wayside inn where they stayed and the jovial greetings of the inn-keeper from his easy chair; how the leader of the trip from the mountain bank pointed out their destination in the distance. How they crossed a gate to the silent road; how they quietly passed the pastures, bathed in the sun, and reached beyond the stone bridge upon the slopes of the western ridge. Through the woody boarder with the shining Sycamore trees, the party went up the winding path of the hill. Then they were on the top regions which displayed mild hollows, and clear heathen land. The silence of the atmosphere, the soothing air and the warmth of the noon, cheered them. The sound of the moving party scared away birds like the red grouse. The place was all solitary except for the red grouse and the walking party. Soon to the joy of all they could see farms. Through cool shades they moved down along the side of a brook to reach a noisy town. At last they reached the highway and the plain and by evening they had reached the sea and;

We bath'd our hands with speechless glee

That night, in the wide glimmering sea.

Line. 86-107: Today Fausta and the poet are walking through the same route, they took ten years before, like ghosts of that boisterous company. The poet identifies the shining brook, from where one could get a view of places far below. The noisy town with its cap of smoke is in the distance. They sit there a little and proceed. The heath covered hill appears sleepy in the July sun. Shadows were playing in the glen as in the past; the dark stones in the green path also were the same. Gleaming blue gentian flowers were there in plenty and they had to walk over them. The wild brook, the sailing foam and the shining pool too are there. All these were to be seen unchanged from what they were ten years before.

Line. 108-143: Here the poet tells Fausta that, the Gipsies they see now, too were seen during their earlier trip. They were rambling without any fixed plan here and there for long. Sometimes they come to the same place a second time and they recognize the place. Now the tents are pitched in the same place as before: their children gather round the fire as usual; their chained beasts move as before. They do not recall incidents of their past for that might bring in unpleasantness. Passage of time brings more and more troubles and discomforts to them as it does to other people. Their joints grow stiffer. The vagaries of life trouble them. But they continue to live enduring all the difficulties. They too compare the past with the present. They continue the life of their ancestors till death overtakes them, ending all troubles.

Line. 144-198: Here Arnold describes the life of the bard, a life of philosophical detachment. He has a mighty heart and he observes life with an all embracing sympathy for his fellow beings. God has bestowed upon him a power of quick perception. His interest is not in his own personal life but in that of the whole of mankind. He may be mighty enough to move mountains; he may have great temporal power; he may have brought freedom to many; he may have endured great pain and hardship; he may have known great knowledge. But all these are not worth living for. He should think of things beyond all these and live for mankind at large. He should contemplate on Nature and man's role in life. Even if he is struck by the grandeur of a great ruler of the past and his achievements, he would not wish to be a ruler like that. He may admire the beauty of a comely woman but would not desire her. He mingles with ordinary people and feels proud of their achievement. He views the life of a town from a detached distance and feels happy at their success in daily toils. He does not feel that he is alone in this life. In the early morning purity he watches the birth of the day; leaning on a gate he observes the beauty of nature; he listens to the cuckoo's call and its echo; he watches the half shut roses in the hedges that struggle in the stream; the rustic people in their engraved dress going to his flock whistling across the "wet flower'd grass". Seeing all these tears come to his eyes, for great is his capacity to feel. He hears the murmur of a thousand years in Nature, telling of the everlasting nature of life. He sees Nature unfolding its life before him revealing its continuity and tranquility. Life in Nature never ceases and the secret it reveals is that one should aim at peace, not joy, in life. The bard being a creature of feeling will have an inherent sadness in him. The message he gets from the life of plants and stones and rain is this: aim at a life of calm and peace which Nature possesses. The bard rejects the life of action and suffering and affirms a life of peaceful continuity.

Line. 215-230: Here the poet gives the views of Fausta. She remains cold and shows her disapproval of the poet's way of thinking through a "wandering smile". She views the Gipsics and says they are less than Man while the bard, as described by the poet, is more than Man. The Gypsies, though they have an existence, move and see but do not have "feeling". But the poet feels deeply and lives in the company of great men like Homer and his creations. He is not the slave of the cares of life; he escapes from the troubles of life. Ordinary people exist not with a vision as deep as that of the poet, but with one which is wider.

Line. 231-260: Here the poet presents his comments on Fausta's arguments. He tells Fausta that aversion, love, effort, interest, hope, remorse, grief, joy etc. are merely transitory compared with the permanence of this world we live in. Even if the scope of these emotions are extended man would still remain confounded. He would seek "regions of eternal change" beyond those passions. For death, which wipes out man ultimately, will leave many plans of man unexecuted, many problems unsolved and many questions unanswered. He cherishes many hopes and desires in life, without learning much from death. In some ways this world even outlasts death.

Line. 229-248: Here Arnold defends the bard's attitude to life; the wise bard's judgement on this world is the best. For he knows, by his insight, what others learn by experience. He does not value love or power because he knows that both are transient. He leads a life without troubles; for he is free from passions. The poet asks Fausta to praise the bard, and not to blame him. He advises her to crave for nobler aims than the worldly passions. Let her burning heart search for freedom rather than amusement. She should not have passionate hopes. Neither she nor the poet possesses the security that a bard of detachment possesses. However, people who do not attach themselves to hopes consider themselves as having conquered fate. People who do not get attached to worldly affairs are nearer to the calm and peace of Nature. The worldly-wise people consider such detached people fools and weaklings. But in God's eyes such people, who view life and death with equanimity are not weak or foolish.

Line. 261-278: In these lines Arnold sums up this thoughts. It is enough that we live; we should not aim at rewards or results for our actions. What is necessary is to bear life as it is. If Fausta thinks that such a life is not worth living let her look at nature. The grass we walk on, the hills around, the endless waterfalls, the strange rocks and the lovely sky appear to be bearing life rather than rejoicing at it. Ordinary people, instead of taking a cue from nature and aim at calm or peace in life, crave for ever increasing feverish action to defeat fate. They are caught in the dizzying eddy of worldly life, and they miss the peace Nature offers.

CRITICAL APPRECIATION AND ANALYSIS

Arnold wrote the poem Resignation To Fausta with the aim of consoling his sister Jane, whose engagement with George Cotton, an young Master at Rugby School was unhappily broken off. Arnold and Jane went on a walking tour through the mountainous region, possibly to case Jane's troubled mind. Ten years back, along with their father, Thomas Arnold, the headmaster of Rugby, the family had gone through the same route on a walking trip. Both the trips are mentioned in the poem, and they appear to be an allegory of the journey of life itself.

There are five distinct parts noticeable in the poem. The second part deals with the two walking tours. Between the two tours their father had expired and George Cotton who was engaged to Jane broke off the engagement, to her great disappointment. The specificity of the description in the poem made some critics consider this poem as a mere memoir. There is a Wordsworthian echo in the poem. Just like the elder poet's Tintern Abbey, Resignation was inspired by a second visit to a location dear to the poet's heart. But there is no similarity in the though content. Arnold considers Nature simply enduring or bearing life, an idea unwelcome to Wordsworth. Resignation is a philosophic poem where one gets Arnold's views on man, life and Nature. The thought is developed by portraying three different kinds of life; first that of the fanatical believers in a cause-like the Muslim pilgrims, Crusaders, the Goths or the Huns; then the Gipsies and last, the bard who has achieved detachment. The first group is passionately wedded to the achievement of some goal, Mecca or Jerusalem or Rome. They are passion-enslaved people and they do not attain, peace in life. The second group, the gipsies, has no conscious aim in life and they wander through countryside, influenced by the whim of time. The third is that of a great poet who has attained detachment, who remains at a lofty height and view mankind with sympathy. Though sympathetic to people, he does not share the hopes and aspirations of the ordinary people. He has done" actions in life and has suffered in life. But he considers actions and suffering imperfect mode of life. He has seen great acts and achievements of others but does not envy those who caused them.

Whom an unbalm'd serenity

Hath freed passions, and the state

Of struggle these necessitate;

Whom schooling of the stubborn mind Hath made, or birth hath found, resign'd;

People like him are free from passion's enslaving influence. They know that there is a peaceful continuity in universal life, a continuity that outlasts death. Such a life is the aim of a contemplative poet who has "a sad lucidity of soul". He urges Fausta to cultivate a quiet and fearless mind and disapproves of her for allowing her mind to go after the vanity of human desires. The philosophic poet who has a security born out of his detachment may appear foolish and weak in the eyes of others. Attachment to action makes us blind and prevents us from seeing things clearly.

Attitude to Nature: The poet gives a few intensely-felt and long-living memories of the scenic beauty of areas from Wythburn Fells to Keswick. When problems of life troubled Arnold, he sought shelter in recreating those memories in verses. Graphic pictures like are to be found aplenty:

The valley pastures, one by one,

Are threaded, quiet in the sun:

...in front, beyond outspread

Those upper regions we must tread;

Mild hollows, and clear healthy swells,

The cheerful silence of the fells.

........................................................

The red-grouse, springing at our sound,

Skims, now and then, the shining ground; No life, save his and ours, intrudes

Upon these breathless solitudes.

O joy! again the farms appear;

Cool shade is there, and rustic cheer:

There springs the brook will guide us down,

Bright comrade to the noisy town.

...where the brook shines, near its head,

In its clear, shallow, turf-fring'd bed;

Here, whence the eye first sees, far down,

Capp'd with faint smoke, the noisy town;

On this mild bank above the stream,

(You crush them) the blue gentians gleam.

Still this wild brook, the rushes cool.

The sailing foam, the shining pool.

The pastoral quality of the description where has a close resemblance to a similar description in Milton's D'Allegro.

He leans upon a gate and sees

The pastures and the quiet trees

(The Scholar Gipsy too enjoys the scenic beauty from a gate.) In the overall picturing of Nature with an understanding sympathy, Arnold is truly Wordsworthian. However, the poem shows the remarkable difference in the attitude to Nature of the two. Wordsworth in his Tintern Abbey tells of

Nature's privilege to lead us from joy to joy

And his belief that:

Every flower enjoys the air it breathes.

Arnold, quiet differently, feels that:

The general life, which does not cease

Whose secret is not joy but peace...

Of course, there is superficial similarity between Tintern Abbey and Resignation. Each is written after a second visit to a dear place and each is addressed to a dear sister.

The moral tone: There is an unmistakable moralising or didactic tone in Resignation, which is clearer towards the end. The author urges Fausta to cultivate a "quiet and fearless mind", and to abstain from passionate desires. He advises her,

..heart which burns in thee

Ask, not to amuse, but to set free.

Be passionate hopes not ill resign'd,

For quiet, and a fearless mind,

And though Fate grudge to thee and me

The Poet's rapt security,

Yet they, believe me, who await

No gift from Chance, have conquer'd Fate.

The conclusion of the poem is obviously didactic. The poet tells Fausta not to despair when life does not offer a reward or result or when she feels life is not worth living. She should learn from the things around her that the aim of life is to bear rather than to rejoice.

Style: The well-praised Arnoldian lucidity is very much alive in this poem. Also present is the typically Arnoldian melancholy, though he urges his sister to take things more cheerfully. The Homeric and sonoric long and compounded phrases occur many times in this piece. The all-common close", a far-seen sign", "wavering many-coloured line", "wide-glimmering sca", "turf-fring'd bed". "his mist-weathered flock", "Eternal mundane spectacle", "strange scrawl'd rocks" and "currents long-steer'd through" are some of them. They give a magical sound effect agreeing with the mood of the poem. The felicity of words describing the happiness of the travellers, in reaching the sea, their destination as described in the lines, is rarely found in poetry.

That, as the balmy darkness fell,

We bath'd our hands, with speechless glee,

That night, in the wide glimmering sea.

In Matthew Arnold - The Poet Humanist, G.R. Stange analyses Resignation very profitably.

"...the Lake Country setting is patently Wordsworthian...The subjects the poet contemplates are also Wordsworthian but the conclusions are of a very different kind from Wordsworth's .... The significance of the poem seems to fluctuate between the allegorical and the literal. Each character is a point of view, a state of mind and each-whether he be the poet or the gipsy is seen as a walker or place of the earth. Similarly the journey through the Cumberland hills though it has an immediate topographical interest, is, journey of life with its difficulties and its end at the unbounded sea the final destination of the journey of life. But the easy delicacy of Arnold's poetic creation will be lost if strict allegorical interpretation is imposed on it. Noticeably different types of of sensibilities are presented in the poem. The first is that of the Muslim pilgrims, the Crusaders, the Goths or the Huns. Their motto is "die - or attain". The next is that described in Line. 22-39, that of milder natures and more free":

The second is the resigned nature as opposed to the Crusader-nature. The preliminary definition is for the edification of Fausta, who is "Time's chafing prisoner". She tries to seek satisfaction in action. The name Fausta represents the modern spirit - the woman equivalent of Faustus, as some critics suggest. The next section is the description of the poet's recollection of the walking tour with Fausta, and the whole family some ten years before. As the physical setting of the poem is sketched in, four different attitudes to life become clear:

i. that of the activist pilgrims.

ii. the resigned attitude of the bards

ii. the sensationalism Fausta represents.

iv. that of the author who aims at achieving resignation or detachment.

The description of the earlier journey and its gleeful ending underlies the present moment and suggests the permanent pattern of change in this world. The poet notices the change that has taken place in Fausta and himself in the lines.

Alone we tread it you and I;

Ghosts of that boisterous company

But Nature has remained unchanged. However Fausta does not realise the change, for says the poet, addressing her.

..and we you say

Are scarce more chang'd, in truth, than they.

Fausta displays, here, her fretful modernism, her restless subjection to time.

What follows is the poet's debate with Fausta. He presents different grades of resignation. The gipsies who are more wanderers than achievers have achieved a degree of resignation. But they attain that stage unthinkingly, rather unconsciously. They are concerned with the troubles of the day-to-day life; they are likely to make unhappy comparisons with the past and the present. However, they continue their traditional way of life. The poet hints that Fausta can profit from their example.

Then the highest form of resignation, that of the wise bard who by "schooling his stubborn mind" has attained detachment, is presented. That kind of people can live the best life and can produce the best artistic work. A man of such attitude is of the noblest type. He can act and bear pain with a detachment that frees him from action and suffering. For attaining that stage one has to go beyond romantic self-centredness. A poet of such a nature will come to know of the strong and beautiful forces of life without a desire to possess them. The author gives examples of the bard freeing himself from attachment in different areas of human experience. The bard may see a mighty ruler wielding his power swaying his people; but having conquered desire he will not be tempted to have that kind of power for himself; neither does he envy the ruler. Same is the case with physical beauty; he can feel happy at the triumph of beauty without desiring it for himself. He may watch the townsfolk enjoying domestic happiness from his high station, but does not feel that he is lonely. Then there is his attitude to Nature. He observes Nature and learns of its profundity.

...he gazes-tears

Are in his eyes, and in his ears

The murmur of a thousand years:

Before him he sees life unroll.

A placid and continuous whole:;-

The bard reaches a stage of near-ecstasy, on gazing at Nature. He does not get this feeling from his observations of human situations. The tears he sheds are the result of the philosophic insight into Nature. The murmur that he hears is the history of life, its present and its future. He gains a stoic resignation from Nature and that resignation will lead him to a wiser, fuller, and nobler life. Fausta appears to disagree with this view. She thinks the wise poet lives in the company of Homer and Orpheus. He is not enslaved by the day-to-day troubles of the world.

He escapes from the troubles of life while ordinary people have to face them. According to Fausta the poet only sees widely, but not deeply.

Then comes the answer to Fausta from the author, the summing up of Arnoldian philosophy of life. The wise bard is one who sees both widely and deeply. The world of ours, Nature, is independent of human emotions. It also outlives the human emotions. Even if the scope of those emotions are extended man would come to know only of further regions of endless change. By realizing more of the universal process he would see the transient nature, and the insignificance of human hopes and desires. The author then tells of the permanency of natural things; the external world has an existence independent of human perception. Because of this permanency of universe through continual change, Nature outlasts even death.

In the next section the author tells of the security of mind a wise bard achieves. His

...natural insight can discern,

What through experience others learn.

Who needs not love and power, to know

Love transient, power an unreal show.

The philosophic vision the author highlights is a combination of the Stoic resignation and the Spinozaic comfort arising out of "understanding the causes and effects of all things". Neither the author nor Fausta has acquired that kind of philosophic insight. However they can cultivate in them a habit not to seek amusement, but freedom of spirit, not passion but peace. This will lead them;

Through clouds of individual strife

Draw homeward to the general Life.

Fausta should learn to give up her restless desires with which she appears to fill her day. The author, though possess a healthier philosophy, is far from the wise bards detachment. The concluding lines also deal with the values one can learn from Nature.

...the mute turf we tread,

The solemn hills around us spread

This stream that falls incessantly

The strange-scrawl'd rocks, the lovely sky,

Seem to give a message to man. The aim of life is "to bear rather than rejoice". Line. 271-78 deals with the problem of evil. The stoics do not believe in the existence of evil. There is nothing in the world that is intrinsically evil; death and suffering are not evil. Man's own moral disorder is the evil. Arnold appears to deviate from this stoic view in the end of the poem. He suggests that evil is immanent in things. The lines are too compressed to make the meaning clear. The opinion of Wordsworth in The Borderers that The world is poisoned at the heart", appears to be the view of Arnold.

LINE BY LINE EXPLANATIONS

1. ...so pray all ... steer'd through. Line. 13-21

Here Arnold presents the attitude to life of fanatic people like the Muslim pilgrims, the Crusaders, the Goths and the Huns.

They pray for success in achieving their goal, in this world, on this side of death. They are the prisoners of their own labours, because they themselves decided on a goal to achieve in life. If they do not succeed they prefer to face death instead of putting in their effort a second time. For them to go back and begin again is a very painful act. So they pray

To die be given us, or attain

Fierce work it were, to do again.

The passage is an elaboration of the above prayer, in the beginning of the poem. "Past straits" and "currents long steer'd through" are associated with the Crusaders who crossed the Mediterranean sea and its perils with the object of winning the Holy Land from the Muslims. It is unlikely that the Goths and the Huns have crossed straits and currents. The Muslim pilgrims too, mostly used the land route in olden days.

2. But milder natures ... the passing day Line. 22-29

After describing different groups of fanatics whose motto is 'do or die' Arnold describes people who are of a milder nature. They do not bother about the struggles of life either because they have trained their mind to be detached from them, or because they have a natural resignation or detachment present in them. They do not complain about the difficulties of life; neither do they feel sorry for living at the mercy of circumstances created by time. They lead a life of perfect contentment and face the problems of life without complaint.

Arnold, himself wanted to lead a life of perfect resignation but knew he was for distant from the goal. However, he felt that he was nearer to that stage than Fausta was.

3. For them....every day Line. 126-135

Here Arnold presents the troubles faced by the Gipsies in their apparently carefree life. He presents the rather easy and traditional Gipsy life as a contrast to the fanatic Crusader-like life. There is some amount of resignation in their life. But it is of a lesser kind than that of the wise bard. Arnold says that the imperfection of their life can be noticed from their "disquietude".

Passage of time, that reduces a few of the sorrows of the Gipsies, is likely to bring in many more troubles. They grow older and the joints become stiffer Winter brings in intense cold and the sharp winds of March will freeze and parch the body; still somehow they live. The country is becoming more and more populated making wandering life more difficult. As their life become degraded they think that the Law of the land is becoming strong. Really they are confusing between the cause and effect. This shows their imperfect understanding of the way of the world. Arnold succeeds in showing that the life of the Gipsies is not a perfectly resigned one, by mentioning the various difficulties they feel in day to day life.

4. The poet, to whose ... he lives so. Line. 144-153

After describing the care-free life of the Gipsies, whom he met on both his walking tours, Arnold, juxtaposes life of the wise bard who leads a life of perfect resignation with that of the gipsies. The bard has a powerful heart of great sensibility and he has the capacity to use his power to observe not merely his own life but that of the whole mankind. He is not contented with his own victories and achievements. He may have reached a position of high authority and power; he may have helped people attain freedom through his efforts; he may have faced innumerable trials and tribulations. Still his life is not worthwhile if he does not go beyond these. Arnold means that an ideal man should be detached from his own actions and the results of the actions and should contemplate on the whole humanity and the life of Nature. He should see life steadily and see it whole.

The Gipsies, described earlier, have achieved a sort of resignation by living a carefree life, by following their tradition. But that is an unconscious activity not the result of logical thinking. Further this is not perfect resignation. A perfectly resigned or detached person will not be affected by his own actions or sufferings.

5. Lean'd on his.....lucidity of soul. Line. 186-198

Here Arnold speaks of the wise bard's attitude to Nature. He is man of mighty heart and of great sensibilities. Leaning on the gate he gazes at Nature and contemplates and then tears come to his eyes. They are not tears of a sentimentalist; they are that of philosophic visionary who sees the primal beauty at the heart of things. He is able to hear the murmur of incidents that happened during centuries past. He sees the life of Nature, life in its entirety unfolding itself before him. It is a tranquil and continuous process. And the essential thing to note in Nature is the presence of peace and not of joy. When he observes the life of plants and stones and rain, where calm and peace exists he craves for such a life for him. He sees things as they are and thus achieves a resignation and thereby a lucidity of the soul.

The passage shows the characteristic Arnoldian melancholy. Nature is not for the joy or amusement of man. What man notices in Nature is a resigned tolerance of "whatever is". The realisation of this fact gives a sad understanding to man.

6. Those Gipsies...but wide. Line. 203-212

Here Arnold presents what he thinks could be the view of Fausta on his opinion that a resigned life is a superior life. Fausta thinks that the life of ordinary men is greater or nobler than that of the Gipsies and less than that of the wise poets. The Gipsies move around and see things, but they do not have feeling. The poet on the other hand feels deeper than ordinary men. But he lives a life of the immortals, away from reality, along with Homer and Orpheus. He is not bothered about the day-to-day life and its problems. He tries to separate himself from the rest of mankind. But ordinary people will have to live in the real world facing its problems. The wise poet may be able to get a wider picture of life, but it is not a deeper view.

Arnold wrote this poem in an effort to console his sister who had to face the disappointment of a broken engagement. Fausta's view is that the poetic view does not lessen her pain, for she faces her pain. The poet wants to escape from the pains and sufferings of this real world into a world of fancy where Homer and Orpheus and other such people exist.

7. The World....outlasts death. Line. 213-228

Here Arnold presents his views countering that of Fausta, and holds on to the belief that human emotions are transitory phenomena while Nature is everlasting. The world in which we live, exists independent of love, hate, interest, hope, remorse, grief, joy etc. They are transients while Nature lasts forever. Even if the scope of those emotions are extended, beyond them well be the regions of eternal change, showing the transitory nature of those emotions. Death is there at the corner, to put an end to man, his unfulfilled desires, unrealised hopes and untried plans. But as Nature outlives man and his desires, one can say that Nature outlasts even Death.

Arnold here emphasises for the edification of Fausta that human beings and their emotions are transitory while Nature is eternal.

8. Him blame not.....conquer'd fate. Line. 236-246

Here Arnold defends the wise-bard's attitude to life and disapproves of Fausta's disparaging the noble poet's view of life. He urges her to praise the bard instead of blaming him. She should give up her life of restless desires and amusement-seeking. He wants her to train herself to seek freedom of the spirit, and a resulting fearlessness of mind. Passionate hopes are not conducive to resignation. The author and Fausta do not possess the higher resignation that gives the security to the wise-poet. Still if they lead a life without expecting any reward for their actions in life, they could consider themselves as having conquered fate. The author and his sister, here Fausta, have different attitudes of life. Arnold wants serenity born out of resignation in his life. Fausta, despite all her affection for her brother, cannot agree with the view. She is naturally bent towards the amusement of the external worlds, and has never enjoyed peace in life. Arnold tries to make her see the superiority of the attitude of life of the wise poet over that of Fausta.

9. Enough, we live.....rather than rejoice. Line. 259-268

Here we find Arnold presenting the superiority of his stoic philosophy of life for Fausta's edification. Life hasn't got anything grandiose to offer to us. It is enough if we exist bearing the difficulties and facing the problems of life. We should not entertain feverish hopes of good fortune turning up in our life. If she thinks that such a life of simple bearing is not worth the pain, let her look at Nature and realize what happens around. The grass we walk on, the sublime hills around us, the continuously flowing streams, the strangely formed rocks and the lovely sky lead a life where they do not rejoice, but simply bear. As a result there is a calm and tranquility in nature.

Arnold knows the disposition of Fausta, who is dissatisfied with a life of tranquility and calm. He advises her to learn a lesson from Nature. Nature's objects simply bear what happens in this world; they do not rejoice. Similarly Fausta must learn to bear life rather than seek amusement from life. Then life to her will appear tranquil and peaceful.

10. And even could.....the world. Line. 269-76

These concluding lines show Arnold's thinking that evil is inherent in this world. Even if Fate grants man's earnest prayers for a life of action and wider pleasures, the lot of the generality of people will not be different. For man in his feverish and purposeless craving for action has forgotten to realize the existence of evil in this world. This inherent evil will make all his ambitions and aspirations and the desire for amusement unrealizable. The conclusion, by default, in these lines, is that the only sensible course for man is to aim at a life of resignation or detachment. The stoics do not believe in the existence of evil in this world. According to them the confusion in the moral order of man is what appears as evil. Arnold here appears to be differing from the stoics by suggesting that evil, "the something that infects the world" is imminent in Nature. The lines are so compressed that the idea expressed is not very transparent.

The Scholar Gipsy: Summary and Analysis

2024-05-21T08:00:00.001+05:30

INTRODUCTION

The Scholar Gipsy composed by Matthew Arnold first appeared in the volume of 1853 titled Poems. Arnold appears to have read the story of the Oxford Scholar who joined a Gipsy company in Glanvil's Vanity of Dogmatising in the year 1845. Though Arnold liked his poem he didn't rate it very high. In a letter to Clough he wrote;

"I am glad you like the Gipsy Scholar but what does it do for you? Homer animates - Shakespeare animates - in its poor way think Sohrab and Rustum animate the Gipsy Scholar at best awakens a pleasing melancholy. But this is not what we want".

Whatever the poet's own opinion may be, now critics consider it as the most memorable of Arnold's poems.

The story, as Arnold cited from Glanvil's book is as follows:

"There was very lately a lad in the University of Oxford, who being of very pregnant and ready parts, and yet wanting the encouragement of preferment, was by poverty forced to leave his studies there, and to cast himself upon the world for a livelihood. Now, his necessities growing daily on him, he was at last forced to join himself to a company of vagabond gypsies, whom he occasionally met with, and to follow their trade for a maintenance. Among these extravagant people, he quickly got so much of their love and esteem, that they discovered to him their mystery, in the practice of which by the pregnancy of his wit and parts he soon grew so good and proficient as to be able to outdo his instructors. After he had been, a pretty while, well instructed in the trade, there chanced to ride by a couple of scholars who had formerly been of his acquaintance. The Scholars had quickly spied out their old friend among the gypsies, and their amazement to see him among such society had well-nigh discovered him; but by a sign prevented them from owning him before the crew and taking one of them privately aside, desired him with his friend to go to an inn not far from thence, promising to come there to them. They accordingly went thither and he followed... The Scholar Gipsy, having given them an account of the necessity which drove him to that kind of life, told them that the people he went with were not such impostors as they were taken for; but that they had a traditional kind of learning among them, and would do wonders by the power of imagination and that he himself had learnt much of their art and improved it further than themselves could. To evince truth of what he told them, he said that he would remove into another room, leaving them to discourse together, and upon his return tell them the sum of what they had talked of; which accordingly he performed, giving them a full account of what had passed between them in his absence. The Scholars being amazed at so unexpected a discovery, earnestly desired him to unriddle the mystery. In this he have them satisfaction by telling them that what he did was by the power of imagination, his fancy finding theirs, and that himself had dictated to them the discourse they held together while he was away from them; that there were warrantable ways of heightening the imagination to that pitch so as to bind another's, and that when he had compassed the whole secret, some parts of which he said he was yet ignorant of, he intended to leave their company and give the world an account of what he had learned".

The art which Gipsies practiced would now be called Hypnotism. During Arnold's time it was known as Mesmerism and the original title of the poem was "The First Mesmerist" or "The Wandering Mesmerist".

Though Arnold depended upon Glanvil for the elements of the story the real subject of the poem is not the mesmeric powers of the scholar; the scholar is less important than the description of the materialistic Victorian age the age of sick hurry and divided aims, doubts, distractions, and perplexed questionings. A new character is invested on Glanvil's Scholar. He becomes a symbol of idealism, of quest for truth. The scholar of the legend lived in the 17th century. But Arnold's scholar roams around the Oxford countryside offering flowers to maidens coming for May dance, and remains, watching the scenic beauty of the country-side. Arnold himself fancied that he saw him on a snowy evening climbing up a hilly path looking at the illuminated Christ Church Hall.

Arnold is not at all interested in telling the story of his scholar, in detail, though echoes of some of Glanvil's phrases are heard in the poem like, "pregnant parts and quick inventive brains", "tired of knocking at preferments' door";, and the secret of their art" etc. Arnold's Scholar Gipsy is different in many ways from the legendary figure. His Gipsy is quite an uncharacteristic one; he avoids the distracting company of his brotherhood and transcends the limitations of time and space. He steadfastly pursues his ideal, the quest for truth, in Glanvil's time as well as in Arnold's time. This quest for truth of the scholar is Arnold's own. Nothing even resembling it is to be found in the original. Equally original is the chance meeting of this shadowy figure, by villagers and maidens coming to dance in May. Arnold's Gipsy Scholar is a dream figure, a grand vision of idealism and faith. who like the nightingale in the Ode of Keats is immortal. With this conviction the poet declares

No, no, thou hast not felt the lapse of hours

Surely, as a literary piece Arnold's The Scholar Gipsy is not likely to feel the 'lapse of hours'.

CRITICAL APPRECIATION & ANALYSIS

Leslie Stephen mentioned that The Scholar Gipsy by Matthew Arnold "remains one of the most exquisite poems in the English language". In thought and technique, in spirit and strength, in its significance and symbolism, and above all in creating an undefinable atmosphere that pervades it like a perfume from heaven, this poem remains a rare model. From the time it first appeared, this piece, was a darling of Arnold's critics and readers. Curiously Arnold himself rated it below Sohrab and Rustum, a judgement born out of personal prejudice. The poem has an elegiac note but the message that comes out like a trumpet blast will not be missed, on-ward with a free impulse, ever onward, "still nursing the unconquerable hope, still clutching the inviolable shade". This will be the inspiring final impression left by the poem. Arnold keeps the elements of the story he found in Glanvil's pages. But his imagination has given an alchemic transmutation to the Scholar Gipsy to make him a symbol of a fixity of aim, desire and business. The poet begins the poem following the traditions of a pastoral elegy but soon shifts to a lovely description of the Oxford countryside. Then he gives a picture of the life that the Gipsy Scholar might have led. The mystery surrounding the soul of the wanderer becomes very well eerie. Then comes the contrast between the attitude to life of the wanderer and the poet's contemporaries. While the Scholar has one aim, one business and one desire, the moderns are pestered with the sick hurry and divided aims. Then follows the Arnoldian disparaging of half believers, casual creeds, repeated shocks, sick fatigue, languid doubt and palsied heart. And The Scholar Gipsy becomes at once a modern elegy, an exquisite fancy and a poignant judgment upon the illusions of modern age.

The poem has the beauty of a symphony. The towers of Oxford in the distance; the festal light in Christ Church College; the brief narration of Glanvil's story and the eerie and mysterious figure of the Scholar Gipsy in his quaint archaic dress; the poet's fancying of meeting him; and finally the moral issues in the final stanzas all blend into a whole as the various instrumental music form a great symphony blend. The poem is full of beauty of thought and phrase and image; then there is the metrical excellence to add to all those. Erid Hammer commenting on the metrical excellence says that in The Scholar Gipsy one finds the most notable metrical inventions of the Victorian Age. "The Stately Stanza not merely sweeps but sways and swings with as much grace as state".

The local Oxford countryside colour seen in the poem is a matter of admiration to lovers of Oxford. There are some critics objecting to the too much Oxford and too little of the Scholar in the poem. According to them those who are unfamiliar with the Oxford countryside are likely to find many references obscure. Professor Saintsbury's defence of Arnold over this aspect is worth quoting. "One may not be an Italian and never have been to Italy, yet find Devina Comedia made not teasing but infinitely vivid and agreeable by Dante's innumerable references, to this, country, Florentine in general... But if the Scholar had been an alumnus of Timbuctoo, and for Camnor and Godstow had been substituted strange places in 'wa' and 'ja', I cannot think, even to those who are of Oxford the intrinsic greatness of this noble poem would be much affected." True, localities had always an influence on Arnold. London, the Lake districts, Switzerland and of course Oxford were the main places where Arnold moved and naturally those places gave the local colour to his powers. And that dear city with her dreaming spires declaring its glory of medieval ages kindled Arnold's imagination enough to immortalise it; The Scholar Gipsy and Thyrsis are the results.

One may notice the influence of Keats, especially that of Ode to the Nightingale and Ode to Autumn in The Scholar Gipsy. According to FR. Leavis the spirit of second stanza of Ode to Autumn is very much present in it. In it the personified Autumn is described:

...by a cider press, with patient look

Thou watchest the last oozing hours by hours

That picture is very much like Arnold's mysterious Scholar, who;

hast been seen, or hanging on a gate

To watch the threshers in the mossy barns

Again, as Keats describes the Nightingale as a symbol of freedom against;

The weariness, the fever and the fret

Which is the lot of mankind, the Scholar Gipsy is the symbol of peace against man's 'sick hurry' and 'divided ams'. Further just as Keats assigns immortality to the Nightingale in the lines,

But thou possest an immortal lot,

And we imagine the exempt from age

And living as thou liv'st on Glanvil's page

Arnold makes the scholar immortal, Certainly, there is striking, similarity, but none can say that Arnold imitated Keats.

The Pastoral Setting: Arnold casts his material in the pastoral mold, and gives vent to his pensive reflections under the similitude of a shepherd. The pastoral form, evolved among the Greeks passed on to English literature during the Renaissance. English poets from the time of Spenser to that of Arnold made use of the form profitably. In the beginning of the poem the poet bids the Shepherd to go to his flocks for his fellow Shepherds are calling him. He can return in the evening to read Glanvil's book. The Scholar is one who had left the university to join the gipsy-flock. Long after he had been seen by many wandering through the Oxford countryside. The rustics developed a myth that the mysterious scholar was haunting alehouses and ferries, Fyfield elm and Godstow Bridge.

The scenery Arnold depicts is that of the Oxford countryside, through which he wandered while he was at the university. His love for his alma mater was Glibly declared in tender and poetic passages on many occasions. The same love is discernable in this poem too. He contrasts the peace and serenity one finds in the woods and glades of Oxford countryside with feverish fret of life from which even his university is not free. Taking all these into consideration, there is nothing objectionable in giving such an Oxford setting to a pastoral poem. On the contrary there is added fidelity present as he is depicting an area which he knows well.

The topography of the Scholar Gipsy's haunt: The areas through which the scholar is described moving is the countryside west of Oxford. According to Macaulay, Arnold did to Oxford countryside what Wordsworth did to the Lake Districts. There is no difficulty in recognising the several places mentioned and there is nothing irritating to find the Oxford colour in the poem. But there is positive effect; the scenes are made loveable, for the author's own love for the place has enriched the description with life, colour and emotion, and more important for the pastoral poem, the native passions of the local rustic folk.

Some of the places mentioned in the poem and their geographical location are the following:

At about two miles distance from Oxford border, in Berkshire is a small hill, Cumnor Hurst. (Hurst in Stanza 16, Line. 57). Just nearby is the village Cumnor (Stanza 47, Line. 69, Stanza 11, Line. 101, Stanza 13, Line. 127). A further two miles away is the ferry; Bab-lock-hithe (Stanza 8, Line. 74) on the river Thames. In this part is the Wychwood forest (Stanza 8, Line. 79). A few miles south of the above-mentioned ferry is Fyfield elm (Stanza 9, Line. 83) where maidens come for May-pole dance. On the right side of Cumner is South Hinksey. (Stanza 13, Line. 125), a low lying area liable to be flooded. The causeway (Stanza 13, Line. 121) where Arnold fancied having met the Scholar still exists. Close to Hinksey is the road from Oxford leading to Bagley Wood (Stanza 12, Line. 111). Almost north of Oxford about two miles distant, near the ruined nunnery of Godstow is Godstow bridge (Stanza 10 Line. 91), The place where the poet says he would rest (Stanza 3, Line. 21-30) from where the eye travels down to Oxford's towers" is the upland that lies between Hinksey and Cumner. From there one can get a clear view of Christ Church Hall (Stanza 13, Line. 129) especially when the windows of the hall are lighted up.

Arnold's Idea of Ideal life as Seen in The Scholar Gipsy: Arnold lived at a time scepticism and pessimism were having their sway on intellectuals. The impact of science had a great deal to do with it. Hugh Walker points it out clearly when he says:

Science has so filled the minds and possessed the imagination of man that its indirect influence has been greater than its direct influence. Whatever its ultimate creed may prove to be, science has certainly been in part responsible for the growth of a spirit of materialism. Science has therefore tended to depress, to give a tone of stoic resignation, not of pessimism, to those who without accepting materialistic opinions have been affected by them.

Arnold, an intellectual, true to his period, shows a tendency to move away from orthodox Christianity to rationalism. A clear disgust for the world around, is to be found in this poems. People toil for long, strive fretfully, but achieve nothing. They waste their energy in meaningless toil and combat, exhaust themselves but remain no better than what they were in the beginning. They have no single aim before them; or they have too many of them and are distracted by the multiplicity of them. Further they have no spiritual sustenance. They cling to the creeds of their religion not out of conviction, but because they were born in that creed. Neither do they think about religion deeply. In the absence of insight their deeds do not bear fruits. Though they might appear to succeed, sure failure awaits them along with the resulting despondency. This results from the absence of a worthy aim and the lack of singularity of purpose. This is Arnold's "criticism of life".

Contrasted against such 'sick hurry' and divided aims is the time and life of the Scholar, who was born in days when wits were fresh and clear", He had "one aim, one business and one desire". Glanvil's story tells of the Scholar joining the gypsies both out of necessity and with the intention of learning their mysterious skills. Arnold develops the second point and pictures the scholar as a symbol of untiring quest for truth. He is preoccupied with a single ideal. In the eye of the world he spends a solitary and pensive life. But Arnold gets inspiration from such a life, for he finds the Scholar pursuing his aim with a fixity of purpose not found among the Victorians, and without wasting his energy in other worthless and worldly pursuits. The Scholar is waiting for 'heaven sent moments' to reach him so that he may achieve his aim. Thus, he stands as an ideal, a mystic and also a mysterious person, giving a message to the poet's contemporaries, the people with half believed creeds, divided aims and perplexing doubts.

The elegiac in The Scholar Gipsy: An elegy is generally considered a brief lyric of lamentation. There is always the expression of a personal loss. But giving a wider scope, any poem distinctly of reflective nature and of a melancholy strain, is an elegy. In this wider sense The Scholar Gipsy is an elegy. Arnold does not lament the death of a person but there is a heartfelt sorrow at the disappearance of a period when life was;

Free from the sick fatigue, the languid doubt.

The life of the Scholar with his fixity of purpose, and the message he has for the world of fever and fret, is reflected upon in a melancholic strain.

The life of the Scholar as depicted in the poem is a sombre and solitary one, agreeing with the mood of contemplation and pensive thoughts. The Oxford countryside with the solemnity of the hills, woods and glades is very much there. The voices are there but they are subdued ones. The "drink and clatter" of the rustics in the alehouse, the "Oxford riders blithe" crossing the ferry in the punt, the maidens coming to dance at Fyfield elm, farm hands working hard at haymaking, all are there, but they are all subordinated to the melancholic tone.

Life in nature, as Arnold describes in the poem, is tinged with melancholy. The life. the Wandering Scholar leads, too is pictured with seriousness and sadness. He is a solitary figure seen in glimpses and that too rarely. He is "pensive and tongue-tied". Rustics see him in some 'lone alehouse'. He sits 'leaning backwards in a pensive dream'. He offers flowers to the girls who come for dance, "but none has words she can report of." Though he conversed with the two Oxonions briefly, he abruptly left them and returned to them no more. He wears a hat and dress of olden days and sleeps in "some sequestered grange". There is definitely a melancholic colour in the picture of such a one awaiting "heaven sent moments".

In dealing with the life of the Scholar Arnold, almost unconsciously, is drawn to compare his own life with that of the commonalty of people of the Victorian Age. He clearly sees the gulf between the attitude to life of the scholar and that of the modern times as a parallel to the gulf between he himself and his times. The fever and fret of the times, and the aimless pursuit of silly objectives of people around, and their philistinism troubled Arnold very much. Naturally, we find in him an intense longing for a life like that of the Scholar's. All these facts add to the elegiac tone of the poem.

Stanza Wise Summary

Stanza 1 (Line. 1-10)

The poet asks a shepherd to go to the field in answer to the call of his friends from the hill, and let loose his sheep from the folds. "Don't leave the flocks unfed; don't give a chance for other shepherds call for you; and don't allow new blades to grow without being grazed; when the fields are quiet, and the shepherds and sheep dogs are resting, and an occasional white sheep is found crisscrossing the moon blanch'd pasture, you come shepherd and continue the search (quest)". (Following the conventions of pastoral poems Arnold mentions the shepherd. Presumably, the Shepherd is a friend of the Scholar Gipsy. The 'quest' could be that of the Scholar Gipsy. Or it is symbolic of the spiritual quest of the thoughtful soul)

Stanza 2 (Line. 11-20)

The poet, not a shepherd, says he would wait at a place where the reaper had been working lately, and where he leaves his basket and other belongings and go for binding the sheaves in the sun. At noon he would come back for his lunch. At that place the poet would wait and listen to the bleating of the sheep, the sound of the reapers and the living sound of a summer day.

Stanza 3 (Line. 21-30)

The poet would remain in that place, a screened-off-nook in the half-reaped field, till evening. Scarlet coloured poppy flowers can be seen amidst the corn; so also are seen blue convolvulus flowers, on creepers that climb the roots and stems of trees. From the shade of such trees, he can see the towers of the University of Oxford in the distance.

Stanza 4 (Line. 31-40)

Glanvil's book, The Vanity of Dogmatizing, in which the legend of the Scholar Gipsy is mentioned lies near him. The poet wants to read it again; the story of the Oxford Scholar, a very smart and brainy person who got frustrated by the fawning, necessary to achieve success at Oxford, left his friends and joined a gang of gipsies. He roamed with the gipsies but little came out of it. But he did not come back to Oxford at all.

Stanza 5 (Line 41-50)

Many years later, two Oxford Scholars, who know him chances to meet him. He told them that the Gipsies know many secrets like how to control the thoughts of other people. Once he learnt the whole secret of their's he would leave them and make the knowledge beneficial to the world. But to master that skill divine illumination is needed.

Stanza 6 (Line. 51-60)

After telling this much he left them and was never again seen. But there is a rumour that the lost scholar was seen to wander around the Oxford countryside. People have got rare glimpses of him, dressed in old hat and grey cloak, looking thoughtful, and always silent. Shepherds have seen him at Hurst hill; on entering some alehouse at Berkshire they found, him seated on a bench near the fireside.

Stanza 7 (Line. 61-70)

But while those who drink make the, din and clatter, he would disappear. The poet imagines that he knows the Scholar's looks, which makes the shepherds inquisitive about him. The poet used to ask boys engaged in scaring away birds from wheat fields whether they had come across with the Scholar Gipsy. When he lay on his boat kept in cool river banks, near sunny grass meadows, to defeat the summer heat, he had wondered whether the wandering Scholar lived in the nearby thick greenery of Cumner hills.

Stanza 8 (Line. 71-80)

The poet knows that the Scholar loves solitary areas. The Oxford riders as they cross the ferry at Bablock-hithe, on the river Thames, have seen him sitting in the boat trailing his hand in water; leaning back and looking at the moonlit stream, he appeared to be in a dream of fancy; and he had a heap of flowers in his lap, possibly plucked from Wychwood forest (Bab-lock-hithe is a ferry on the Thames some two kms. away from Oxford. Wychwood is a forest about 15 kms beyond Bab-lock-hithe).

Stanza 9 (Line. 81-90)

When the riders landed the scholar had disappeared. Girls coming from distant places to take part in the May-pole dance round Fyfield elm have seen him in the evening, roaming in the field, or crossing a stile to reach the public road. Often he has given them flowers, white anemones, dew-washed dark bluebells, or purple orchises; but nobody has reported having heard him speak.

Stanza 10 (Line. 91-100)

During haymaking time in June, when the haymakers' scythes will shine in the sun, and men go for a bath in the Thames where black swallows flit around they have seen him sitting on the bushy bank. They recognized him from his gipsy dress, thin figure, thoughtful mood and dark dreamy eyes. But once they finished bathing he was not to be traced at all.

Stanza 11 (Line. 101-110)

At some houses near Cumner Hills, housewives darning near the open doors have seen him learning on a gate watching the farm-hands threshing in barns. Children who wander the slopes of the hill searching for cress plants in streams have seen him watching animals feeding in the pasture all day long on April days and as the stars appearing he has slipped away through the dew-filled grass.

Stanza 12 (Line. 111-120)

In autumn the Gipsies mostly pitch their smoke darkened tents in Bagleywood and spread their clothes on the nearby bush making the area look multi-coloured. When the scholar comes near, even the black-bird picking its food, is not at all disturbed. For he who moves round with a twig in hand, waiting for the divine inspiration to reach him, is a familiar figure to the bird.

Stanza 13 (Line. 121-130)

Once during winter the poet appears to have met him on a raised path through which people move during floods. Didn't the poet pass him on the wooden bridge and the scholar, in his overcoat, braving the snow, was looking at the winter look of Hinksey; as he climbed the Cummer Hill and reached the top didn't he turn to watch the festival lights at Oxford's Christ Church Hall. Then he might have found shelter in some lonely farm house.

(There are two Hinkseys, north and south, both villages near Oxford).

Stanza 14 (Line. 131-140)

The poet thinks he is fancying all these; Two hundred years have passed after the story of the scholar was told in Oxford, and Doctor Glanvil wrote it down, that he left Oxford and joined the Gipsy group. He must be dead and lying buried in some quiet churchyard, and over his unmarked grave tall grasses grow, flowering nettles sway and dark red fruited yew trees throw their shade.

Stanza 15 (Line. 141-150)

(After telling that the scholar is dead, the poet feels that he is immortal). The Scholar Gipsy can not die by the passage of time. The life of mortal men is worn out by the continuous shift in their aims. The repeated shocks resulting from this shifting of goal wears out even the strongest of men and destroys the adaptability of the most nimble-minded. (Our nerves are shattered by a succession of sorrows and pleasures and our talents are scattered by a thousand plans. As a result we lose the zest for life). We give up our care-worn and exhausted life to our guardian angels and we remain under the influence of our circumstances.

(Just-pausing Genius: According to the ancient Roman religion, each person was allotted an attendant spirit at birth. It determined his character, presided over his fortunes and ultimately conducted him out of the world. The guardian Genius of man which pauses justly or delays long enough to give him an opportunity to utilise his powers before putting a stop to his career; or the spirit which watches over a man's life and pauses in its works at the time of his death).

Stanza 16 (Line. 151-160)

The Scholar has not lived like others wasting his faculties and energies on shifting aims; so why should he die and be forgotten? He is immortal. He had one aim, one business and one desire. Otherwise he would have wasted his faculties like other men and like them he would have been forgotten. People who were born with him are dead and gone. So also the poet and his generation would be gone. But the Scholar has an immortal life. He is not to be destroyed by the passage of time, and would live as the story lives in the pages of Glanvils' book, because he has something in him which the poet's generation unfortunately does: not possess; (One aim, one business, one desire).

Stanza 17 (Line. 161-170)

The Scholar had renounced the world early enough when his powers were fresh, idealism not dimmed without diverting his faculty to petty worldliness. He was fixed to a goal and didn't waste his energies in other things. The sick fatigue and languid doubts that trouble the poet's generation have not touched him. The modern generation struggle but do not know what they struggle for. Each human being tries a hundred different things and tries to live in a hundred different ways. They too eagerly wait like the Scholar but while Scholar waits with hope they do not have hope.

Stanza 18 (Line. 171-180)

The Scholar waits for divine inspiration to reach him. For the moderns are only "vauge half believers" who do not feel deeply enough in the creed which they casually profess; they do not have a strong will and their visions have never fructified in action; their resolutions have never been carried out. Each year they make new resolutions only to face new disappointments; by hesitation and mistakes they waste life; whatever success they achieve one day, is lost the next day. Still they too await the flash of divine inspiration.

Stanza 19 (Line. 181-190)

Yes the poet and his generation await the divine flash, but to their disappointment, it never comes and they suffer. The one who is in the intellectual throne (presumably the wisest) has suffered much. He describes all his sad experiences and wretched days, how he kept the flickering hope in him and how he lightened the burden of his suffering through different devices.

Stanza 20 (Line. 191-200)

This is the plight of the wisest; the rest suffer intensely and wish for the end of their unhappy life. They dismiss all hopes of a better life and find consolation in a sad patience which is almost equal to despair. None has the hope of the Scholar Gypsy. He moves around the countryside like a run-away boy, believing in his aim, and with clear joy. Time has blown away from him, every sign of doubt.

Stanza 21 (Line. 201-210)

He was born at a time when man's thinking was fresh and clear, and life was sparkling like the waters of the Thames, well before the sick hurry and divided aims made life over-burdencd and sickly. The poet advises the scholar to run away from the modern people; their contact can make him also sickly. Let him run away and hide himself in deeper woods. Like Dido who cautioned her friend not to approach her in Hades, let him signal the moderns to go away and keep himself secluded.

(Dido: When the Greeks destroyed Troy, Aeneas, one of the Trojan princes, escaped and set sail to Italy. On the way he halted at Carthage where Dido, the queen, fell deeply in love with him. Some time later, Aeneas deserted her and she in disappointment slew herself. In the nether worlds (Hades) he met her again and then offered her his love. But she sternly turned him away because he had betrayed her in the upper world).

Lewes Jones remarks that this stanza shows the "characteristic pensive moralising" of Arnold. This is considered by many as the "most characteristic and memorable part" of the poem. From it comes out Arnold's opinion of the contemporary age and most of his disgust and fret arose from this conception. He believed that modern life was nothing but a bundle of feverish haste, conflicting aims and pursuits, overwork, paralysed hearts and nothing else. Modern life, to him was an evil, a disease, to be shunned. So he advises his Scholar Gipsy not to come in touch with modern man.

Stanza 22 (Line. 211-220)

The Scholar Gipsy should keep intact his unconquerable hope, and live a life of solitude (Clutching the inviolable shade) wandering at night, through silvery glades on the boarder of forests where none is able to meet him. Let him on moon-lit nights come out in some lush slopes, and listen to the songs of nightingales coming from dark valleys or refresh the flowers with dew drops.

Stanza 23 (Line. 221-230)

But he should run away from modern men avoiding all contacts with them. Their infectious suffering cannot be blissful; on the contrary it can damage his peace of mind. The moderns may like to draw him from his beautiful life into their own kind of distracted and unwholesome life. In that case all his cheerfulness will come to an end; his hopes will become weak; his powers will lose its fixity, his aims will lose its clarity, and his everlasting youth will fade into old age and he will die like others.

Stanza 24 (Line. 231-240)

So it is better for him to run away from the greetings and the smiles of the moderns, like the Phoenician traders who ran away when the Greeks came into trade in the former's traditional areas. The Phoenicians had the unrivaled monopoly in trade among the Mediterranean countries. Once at sunrise he saw from his ship the brow of a Greek vessel appearing through the creepers in Aegean island. It had on board all luxury items like gold-red grapes, wine from the island of Chios, lushy fig fruits and salted fish. He understood that the Greek ship is intruding in the Phoenician's traditional trading area.

Stanza 25 (Line. 241-250)

The Greeks were the young and new masters of sea trade. The Phoenician merchant, in disgust quickly seized the rudder, spread the sails and went away, yielding to the Greeks. They sailed in the direction of Syrtes and Sicily and then to the Atlantic through the Straits of Gibralter. He dropped his sails there near the dark Spanish cliffs and unloaded the merchandise before the dark Spainards who were shy to trade with the Phoenicians.

The Simile in Line. 23 1-250:

In the last two stanzas Arnold brings out a long-drawn out simile, often called the Homeric or Extended simile, to show how the Scholar Gipsy should try to avoid men of modern times. Just as the Phoenician traders in ancient times left their traditional trading area on the arrival of the Greeks on the scene.

For several hundred years the Phoenicians, a very civilized people, were unrivaled masters of sea-trade in the Mediterranean area. Later the Greeks became civilized and started competing with the former. In due course the Greeks succeeded in ousting the Phoenicians who however retained their supremacy in the western half of the Mediterranean ultimately extending it to the Atlantic coast of Spain. The dark librarians are to be parallel to the gipsies to whom the Scholar of Oxford ran away. The Greeks are to be parallel to the moderns.

LINE BY LINE EXPLANATIONS

1. And air swept......Oxford towers. (Stanza 3, Line. 26-30)

The Scholar Gipsy begins abruptly by calling a shepherd, in the pastoral fashion, and asking him to go to the field to attend to his flock. In the meantime the poet would rest in a bower that will protect him from the August sun. Then he gives a description of the scenic charm, the place offers.

The lime trees lindens-that move in the wind, spread the perfume of the flowers. The flowers rustle down and falls on the grass around him. The shade of the trees protects him from the August sun. And from his resting place he can see the distant towers of Oxford University.

Arnold has localised the setting of the poem in the Oxford countryside. Almost all the places mentioned in the poem are real. Though there is no specific name for the place where Arnold fancies himself resting, critics and Oxford lovers have found out the probable place. It is the upland that lies between Hinksey and Cumner from where once gets a clear view of the University of Oxford. Arnold had elsewhere in prose gave a very tender description of Oxford where the towers are mentioned.

"And yet steeped in sentiments as she (Oxford) lies, spreading her gardens to the moonlight, and whispering from her towers the last enchantments of the Middle Age, who will deny that Oxford by her ineffable charms, keeps ever calling us nearer to the true goal of all of us to the ideal, to perfection-to beauty, in a word, which is only truth seen from another side?"

According to some critics by writing The Scholar Gipsy Arnold succeeded in paying, perhaps the best literary tribute, to Oxford, his alma mater, whom he loved tenderly.

2. And I.....skill (Stanza 5, Line. 48-50)

Here Arnold gives an account of what the Scholar Gipsy told the two of his former University mates about the reason why he joined the Gipsy flock. He has learnt that the gipsies possess mysterious powers to influence the thought-process of others. One has to presume that the Scholar has acquired part of their secret knowledge.

Here the Scholar says, once he learnt all their secrets he would return from them and pass on the knowledge to the whole world. However he admits, to master their skill fully, divine inspiration is needed.

Arnold has painted his Scholar as a person with one aim, one business, one desire. It is to master the secret knowledge of the Gipsies, which is likely to prove beneficial to the world. The humanistic quality of the scholar too becomes clear here. The knowledge he may acquire will be let known to the whole mankind; it will be left free for the benefit of the whole world. Arnold, the poet was a true humanist in the Renaissance tradition or more correctly in the Greek tradition. No wonder at his death Sir Leslie Stephen remarked The last of the Greeks is dead". The passage amply illustrates the poet's humanism too.

3. Shepherds......entering. (Stanza 6, Line. 57-60)

Here Arnold says that there is a rumour that the Scholar who went away from Oxford to join the Gipsy flock in the 17th century is still wandering in the Oxford countryside, dressed in antique hat and grey cloak.

The story goes that shepherds have met him in spring at the Hurst. The Scholar was sitting on a comfortable bench near the fireside, in some alehouse in Berkshire-moor when they entered the place. But once they started to drink, amid the noise and clatter he would disappear from the place.

Arnold succeeds in giving an eerie and mysterious nature to the shadowy figure of the Scholar, as if it is the ghost of the Scholar that the Shepherds saw in the alehouse. His mysterious appearance and disappearance cannot be explained otherwise.

The Berkshire moors appear to be the figment of Arnold's imagination. Ther: are no moors in Berkshire now; neither were there any in Arnold's time. Perhaps Arnold is using the word moor in a loose way to mention some place near the Cumner hills. However some editors say that a moor exist on the slope of Cumner hill.

Ingle bench: a bench kept in the inglenook, a space near the opening, on either side of a large fire place. It will be quite comfortable to sit on it, during cold days.

Smock fiock'boors: Smock frock is a workers' dress or uniform. A boor is a rustic. Arnold is fond of long compounded adjectives like this which are found aplenty in Homer.

4. And leaning......moonlit stream. (Stanza 8, Line. 77-80)

Here Arnold gives a graphic description of the Scholar Gipsy as rumoured to have seen by the Oxford riders who were returning by night.

He was sitting leaning back as if in a sad dream. He had been straggling his hands, in water. In his lap were flowers which he must have plucked from the distant Wychwood shades. All the while he had been looking fixedly at the stream shining in the moon-light, as if he was in a dream.

Bablock-hithe is a ferry a few kilometres to the west of Oxford, on the river Thames. Wychwood also is real, and it is further away from Oxford than Babolock: hithe; about 15 kms from the ferry. So, the distant Wychwood bowers'.

The geographical accuracy of the places as seen in the poems is testimony to the poet's familiarity with the whole countryside around Oxford. Arnold in the company of this brother and Clough used to wander around the whole area.

5. Maidens......public way. (Stanza 9, Line. 82-85)

Arnold fancifully tells of the many rumoured sightings of the mysterious figure of the Scholar. The Scholar is reported to have been seen by different people, at different places, but always in the countryside close to Oxford. Here he speaks of some girls seeing him.

During the month of May, girls fom far away places come to Fyfield to dance around the May-pole, on May day. They have seen him often roaming through dark fields. Some have seen him cross a stile over a fence to reach the open road. Many times he has given flowers to the girls, thin leaved anemones, dark blue-bells sparkling with dew drops, and purple orchisses. But nobody has heard him speaking to anybody.

The mystery around the Scholar intensifies stanza by stanza. His giving flowers to girls agree with the early description of him crossing the Bab-lock ferry with a store of flowers in his lap. However, none has heard him speak a word Has he become dumb? Or is he deliberately avoiding conversing with people? The poet doesn't appear to make the matter clear. The elm tree at Fyfield as mentioned by Arnold appear to be imaginary. However, antiquarians have found out that there was a prominent elm tree in the hamlet of Tubney where the road forks to Abingdon and Oxford. It was a giant tree which was cut down later. But there is no evidence that the Tubney elm was used as a May-pole. On the first of May, young men and women assemble for the festivities with hawthorns collected earlier. As the day advances they indulge in music and dance. A huge pole will be erected on a plain and decorated with flowers. The dance will be around this May-pole. This traditional festivity is still kept in some parts of Oxfordshire and Berkshire.

6. Men who......thou wert gone. (Stanza 10, Line. 93-100)

Here Arnold tells of the rumour that working men going for a bath in the river Thames have met the wandering Scholar.

Hay makers, tired of a day's work, will move through breeze-swayed grass to the river Thames where black winged swallow birds abound. The hay-makers go there to take a bath near a dam. While bathing they have seen someone sitting on the busy bank of the river and recognized him to be the wandering scholar from his antique dress, dark dreamy eyes and thoughtful looks. But when they come out after bathing the scholar would have disappeared.

The desire of the Scholar to remain alone is emphasized here. His unwillingness to meet people could be the reason why he disappears on their approach or perhaps Arnold wants to give the impression that it was the ghost of the 17th century Scholar that the bathers saw.

7. Children.....move slow away. (Stanza 11, Line. 105-110)

Here Arnold describes the children of the locality sighting the elusive wanderer.

Children who go around the slopes of Cumner hill in search of cress plant in pools have seen him watching all through the day enjoying watching the pasture-land and the grazing animals; as the stars start appearing in the evening he was seen to move away slowly.

The Scholar is a lover of nature even like the poet. But surely there must be something mysterious in him if he remains all the day watching the animals grazing in the pasture.

Cress is an aromatic water plant, the leaves of which are edible. Rills are small shallow pools.

8. In autumn.....call'd Thessaly (Stanza 12, Line. 111-115)

Arnold describes how the Gipsies pitch their tents on the outskirts of Bagleywoods during the Autumn season.

Mostly the gipsies pitch their tents on the grassland close to the Bagleywoods. Their tents are darkened by smoke. At that time almost every bush is seen beautiful with the red colour of the berries and the grey colour of the serrated leaves above the forest called Thessaly. Bagleywood is a real one a few kilometers to the South of Oxford. But Thessaly exists only in the fancy of the poet. Why he calls it Thessaly is not clear. Perhaps the shape of the ground is similar to Thessaly in Greece. Arnold was fond of Greek names as he was of Greek culture.

9. The blackbird......Heaven to fall. (Stanza 12, Line. 116-120)

Arnold describes that the wandering scholar is so much part of the surroundings that the wild birds are not frightened away on his approach.

As the Scholar Gipsy comes close to the blackbird which is picking the food the bride doesn't display any fear at his presence and continues with its meal. He is very much a familiar figure even for the birds, for often he passes through the place, wrapped in his own thoughts, twirling a withered twig in his hand, waiting for the hoped for devine inspiration.

The word 'rapt' tells of the preoccupation of the scholar. Absorbed in this thoughts he is unaware of the surroundings. His indifference to the happenings of the external world is displayed through his twirling a dried up twig in his hand. Possibly he might have picked it up, too, unconsciously. The poet emphasizes the scholar's absorption in this thoughts by telling he is awaiting the "spark from Heaven'", the equivalent of Milton's "hallowed fire from God's altar" with which man's lips are purified. The scholar himself had told his two former university mates that it needs heaven sent moments" to fully master the lore of the Gipsies.

These lines display the poet's own tender feelings for nature. His love of open countryside, its flora and fauna are to be found in the scholar. The picture of the scholar is that of a mild natured person, in love with nature, and forming a part of that nature.

10. And thou.....sequesterd grange. (Stanza 13, Line. 126-130)

After describing many of the sightings of the wandering scholar by various countryfolks the poet fancies that he himself has met him once near the wooden bridge on the South Hinksey causeway.

The poet has a hunch that he has seen the wandering scholar of Oxford, on a winter day, near the wooden bridge. The Scholar was wrapped up in his overcoat and battling with falling snow flakes, climbing up the slope of the Cunner Hill. He also remembers the scholar turning towards the Oxford University to watch the festive lights of Christ Church College. Afterwards he should have found his rest in some uninhabited old barn.

The poet creates the impression that the scholar roams around the Oxford countryside even in winter. The wanderer's look at the festive lights at the Christ-Church Hall displays a sort of nostalgia for the place. Perhaps, he might had been a scholar of Christ Church College while he was at Oxford. He left Oxford be cause he couldn't find the means to continue his studies there. Oxford is a place where, ideally, people continue their quest for truth. He turned to the Gipsies because he could not continue the quest at Oxford.

Christ Church Hall is the huge Hall at Christ Church College. Nathaniel Hawthorne, the American writer wrote about it: "the large and stately hall above a hundred feet long and forty wide and fifty to the top of its carved oaken roof which is ornamented with festoons, as it were, and pendents of solid timber. The walls are panelled with oak, perhaps half way upward and above are the arched windows on each side; but near the upper end two large windows come nearly to the floor. The lights of merry Christmas lit within would thus be visible far and wide".

Arnold describes the Scholar's watching the Christmas lights. During that time snowfall often happens. From the top of Cumner hills one gets a good view of the University of Oxford end to end, a city rising from the midst of the valley. There is a striking contrast between the warmth of the brightly lit Chirst Church Hall and the Scholar battling with the snow finding his bed in a "sequestered grange".

11. No, no......we have been. (Stanza 15, Line. 141-150)

After describing all the rumoured sightings of the Scholar, Arnold dismisses all those as mere fancy. The Scholar lived in the 17th century and he might be Iiving buried in some obscure village churchyard. Abruptly he changes his line of thought and says that the Scholar Gipsy is immortal.

Arnold refuses to believe that the Scholar is dead; passage of time will not affect him. Ordinary humans grow old and weak and die because, they spend their lives flitting from one desire to another changing aims and ambitions every now and then without a singleness of purpose. Possibly the word "rolls" brings in the metaphor of the rolling earth making night and days. Man in his continuous rolling comes across with alternating pleasure and pain: The repeated shocks of this change from pleasure to pain and back again exhausts man's freshness and he becomes 'numb' or inactive. Then, tired of the nervous strain, he submits himself to this guardian angel, ready for death. He remains where he had been in the beginning without any significant achievement.

The just-pausing Genius: Ancient Roman religion thought that every human being at birth was allotted with a guardian spirit. That spirit decides his character, presides over his fortune and finally at death, leads him out of the world. The meaning of the line may be something as follws: The guardian spirit of man which pauses justly or delays long enough gives him an opportunity to utilise his powers before putting an end to his career.

Arnold seems to say that ordinary man's life is fruitless. He flits his energy in changing aims, desires and business and get exhausted and die without achieving any significant goal.

12. Thou hast not......thy fire. (Stanza 16, Line. 151-155)

After telling of the impossibility of the Scholar Gipsy still being alive Arnold in an abrupt change in the line of thinking tells that the Scholar is immortal. He cannot have perished because he has not lived in the way ordinary mortals live, without a purpose. But the Scholar has a rare singleness of aim, business and desire. If he too had exhausted himself in a worthless life without fixed aims, desires and action, he too would have been dead and gone, by the passage of time. Here Arnold juxtaposes the life of the Scholar with that of ordinary humans enabling us to see the Scholar's superiority over others. There is a paradox in telling that he should not perish because he has not lived.

But the Scholar has lived his life - First at Oxford where he could not find a way of going up the ladders of worldly fortune; then along with Gipsies whose lore he wanted to learn. However it was not the life of the average human being. He lived with a fixity of purpose; to arrive at truth and to semanate it in the world. Arnold here emphasizes the need of living purposeful and useful life.

13. The generations......alas, have not. (Stanza 16, Line. 156-160)

The poet, resting in the nook bowered from the August sun, falls into a reverie and feels that the 17th century Scholar who left Oxford to join a gipsy flock is immortal. Arnold and his 19th century contemporaries will die and leave the world just as the Scholar's contemporaries in the 17th century have left this world. But he will live for ever as his story lives in the pages of Glanvil's book. He lives because he has something in him which Arnold and his generation do not possess; the singleness of aim, business and desire. That fixity of purpose makes him immortal. Those who do not possess that perish.

Arnold here makes use of a convention in elegiac poetry. The elegy writer after lamenting the physical death of his friend would bring out the immortal qualities he possessed. The elegy always ends with a note of hope that the subject of lamentation is not really dead, but is alive. Arnold very ably makes use of this convention and establishes that the Scholar Gipsy will live forever.

14. For early......like thee in hope (Stanza 17, Line. 161-170)

After telling that the Scholar Gipsy is immortal Arnold gives a detailed contrast between the life of the immortal scholar and the ordinary mortal humans.

He left the work-a-day world of men at an early age, when his attention was not diverted by distracting desires and ambitions of ordinary men. He had kept his steadfastness of purpose, his single-minded pursuit of deeper knowledge, without yielding himself to weariness and vacillations. The 'sick fatigue' and languid doubts' of the Victorian period had not affected him. He had lead a life very unlike that of the poet and his generation.

The Victorians waver without a fixed area of movement and aim. Each of them strives but do not know what they are striving for. Each one may be said to have a hundred different lives. They also wait like the Sholar Gipsy for the divine inspiration to improve their lot. But while the Scholar awaits with unflinching hope, the Victorians do not have anything similar.

The passage illustrates how Matthew Arnold lamented the aimlessness of modern life, of feverish fret and sick hurry. Arnold fought a continuous war against 'philistinism' which is another word for the worthless life people lead. In this eagerness to inject a spirituality, a purposefulness to life, he idolizes the Scholar Gipsy who left the University of Oxford in search of deeper truth and patiently waited for the heaven sent moments to realize truth.

Each half: Arnold possibly is thinking of the half-hearted way in which man works. Or he may be thinking of the split personality arising out of confused aims and desires.

15. Thou waitest.....avait it too. (Stanza 18, Line. 171-180)

Here Arnold continues in the same line of thought as in the previous stanza. We get a detailed contrast between the life of the Scholar and life during Arnold's times. The Scholar Gipsy is waiting for the spark of heaven to get a full understanding of deep truths. He believes that divine grace will descend upon anyone who putsues a worthy goal with a fixity of purpose. But how different are the people of the poet's age the poet wonders. They do not sincerely believe the creeds into which they were born. It was an accident that they happened to be born into families with certain beliefs. So they remain only half believers. They do not have conviction in their belief. They are never strongly moved by the serious problems of life; neither do they have the strong will to do anything to solve those problems of life. They never had the right vision into the depth of matters. As a result their actions do not bring forth results. Their resolutions being vague are not carried out. Every year they attempt something new but fail in the attempts and always remain disappointed. Undecided of firm action they throw away life. One day they make some progress but the next day that is lost in failure. Despite all these they too wait for results, for achievements.

16. ....and amongst us.....varied anodynes. (Stanza 19, Line. 182-190)

Here Arnold says that life during Victorian age is wretched and miserable and the spark of hope is dying. Even the best amongst them are disillusioned.

The one who is generally considered a great thinker, has suffered much in life. Unable to get any spiritual light he indulges into intellectual activities with a feeling of hopelessness. He places before others the sad experiences of his wretched life. He tells of the birth and growth of misery in him and describes how he tried to keep up the spark of life alive and how he tried by various methods to lessen his troubles, both of the heart and of the mind.

Amongst us One: Arnold appears to be referring to some particular contemporary of his. The capital 'O' in the first edition of the poem gives credence to this view. Moles and Moon say, on the authority of a correspondent in Notes and Queries, that the reference is Tennyson "who, shortly before the year in which The Scholar Gipsy was published, had succeeded Wordsworth as Poet Laureate and has commemorated his friend Arthur Hallam in Ja Memoriam " But Arnold didn't have enough appreciation of Tennyson's intellectual powers to visualize him seated "upon the intellectual throne". Comparing Wordsworth, Shelley and Byron Arnold wrote: "Tennyson's is a far inferior natural power to either of the three" Again he wrote to his sister in 1860, "The real truth is that Tennyson with all his temperament and artistical skill is deficient in intellectual power".

During a visit to the United States in 1883-1884 Arnold himself declared that the reference is to Goethe. But Goethe could not have been dejected for Arnold in Memorial Verses calls him "physician of the iron age".

Some critics suggest that Carlyle is the person mentioned. By the time The Scholar Gipsy was published Carlyle had risen to literary eminence. His life had been wretched and miserable and he knew no peace of mind. In Sartor Resartus he lays bare his sad experience. He tried one remedy after another, including hero worship to lessen his misery. Further Arnold had a high esteem of Carlyle. So the probability of the "One" being Carlyle is significant.

17. O born in.....thy solitude. (Stanza 21 Line. 201-210)

In this stanza, Arnold, who is enchanted by the fresh and clear life of the Scholar Gipsy, advises him to avoid any contact with the sickly ordinary men and run away from them.

The Scholar was born at a time when men had fresher spirits and clearer vision. Life flowed as sparklingly as the river Thames. The present day diseases of sick hurry, divided aims, overtaxed brain and paralyzed hearts did not exist at that time. The Scholar should be wary of getting infected by the modern diseases. He should avoid all contacts with modern men and run away from them and go farther into deeper wood. If at all they go near him, he should sternly turn them away, even like Dido turned away the pursuing Aeneas from Hades.

Dido: On the destruction of Troy by the Greeks, Aeneas, a Trojan Prince, escaped and set sail for Italy. On the way, he reached Carthage where Queen Dido fell in love with him. They lived happily together, for a time but later he left her and went away to the disappointment of Dido who committed suicide. Later Aeneas reached Hades (Nether worlds where the spirits of the dead live). Aeneas offered her his love but the proud Dido turned him away because he had betrayed her in the upper world.

True to his declared classicism Arnold brings in images from classical mythology into his poem along with classical stories.

18. Thy hopes......like ours (Stanza 23, Line. 226-230)

Arnold who is unhappy with the state of modern men and their diseased life asks the Scholar Gipsy to avoid all contacts with modern men lest he be infected with their disease. Or he too will degenerate into their condition, he warns.

If he catches the infection from modern men his hopes will become shaky. his power will decay, and his clear and fixed aims will become contradictory to each other and become wavering. Then his perpetual youth will give way to old age and like others of the poet's age will face death.

19. Then fly......corded bales. (Stanzas 24, 25, Line. 231-250)

Arnold ends up this poem with a Homeric simile, that extends over 19 lines. alluding to ancient history of the trade rivalry between the Phoenicians and the Greeks. The scholar should flee from the presence of the modern men just like the Tyrian traders (Phoenician) of olden time fled from their traditional trading grounds when the newly arrived Greek traders encroached upon them. The Tyrian trader one morning discovered that a smart Greekship with sensuous items of cargo had arrived at one of the islands, in the traditionally Phoenician trade-stronghold.

Yielding their lucrative trading area to the young light hearted masters of the waves they went away westwards. They crossed the Mediterranean, went beyond the strait of Gibralter and started trading with the Spainards.

It is history that the Phoenicians were the unrivalled masters of sea-borne trade of the ancient world. But as the Greeks developed their maritime activity they became potential rivals to the Phoenicians. The latter, noticed the advantages the former enjoyed and withdrew from their traditional trading arca and went west-wards. Later Greeks developed strong trade relations in the eastern Mediterranean while the Phoenicians dominated the western area including the Atlantic coast of Iberian Peninsula. The word 'stealthily' in L. 234 hints that the Greeks began their trade in the traditional Phoenician area clandestinely.

Aegean Isles: are islands in the Aegean sea, once the lucrative trading area of the Phoenicians.

Grecian Coaster: When the trade competition started, Greeks had only small ships that moved not far from the coast while the better manned and the generous sized Phoenician ships sailed even in the high seas.

Amber Grapes: red-yellow grapes.

Chian Wine: wine from the island of Chios which was well famous.

Bursting Figs: lushy fig fruit.

Tunny: The Mediterranean tuna fish.

Steeped in Brine: Brine is strong salt solution. The fish will be first kept in concentrated salt solution and then dried.

Syrtes: Two sand banks on the coast of Africa, south of Sicily. Two gulfs on the African coasts also were known by the same name. Now they are known as Gulf of Sydra and Gulf of Gabes.

Soft Sicily: Sicily has a mild climate.

Shy Trafickers: The Spainards were not too happy to trade with the Phoenians in the beginning.

Dark Iberians: People of the Iberian peninsula (Portugal and Spain) are darker than Europeans of northern countries.

The Forsaken Merman: Summary and Analysis

2024-05-18T08:00:00.001+05:30

INTRODUCTION

First published in 1849, The Forsaken Merman is one of the early poems of Matthew Arnold. It is likely Arnold took hints for the poem from Hans Anderson's The True Story of My Life and George Borrow's Romantic Ballads. But the unmistakable, subtle and shining touch of Arnold has transformed the story into what Stopford Brooke has mentioned as a poem which is "most charming the most romantic, most in the world of pure and tender imagination". It is the finest example of the poet's power to select what is suitable for his purpose and to light up an ancient theme with new and original beauty.

Some critics think that the Margaret in the poem is linked with Marguerite of the Switzerland poems. If it is true, then The Forsaken Merman is an allegory of the poet's own love affair with the blue eyed French girl. The kindly sea creature who has been abandoned by his human wife is Arnold himself who found some unsurmountable difficulty in consummating his love for Marguerite.

The Story as in Romantic Ballads: Grethe, the only child of her parents was washing her clothes, when a merman rose out of water and talked with her in a friendly manner. He invited her to accompany him to the bottom of the sea and live as his wife. She went with him and in time five children were born to the couple. Many years later, as they came near the shore, she happened to hear the chapel bells ringing. Feeling a great longing to say her prayers she requested the merman to allow her to go and pray. But even after the sermon despite the repeated calls of the merman she did not return to the sea. The merman called "Grethe, Grethe, Grethe", thrice, but she didn't reply. She had decided to go back to her parents and stay with them. The merman wept bitterly and went back to the depth of the sea, forsaken by his human wife. There is remarkable resemblance between the story in Romantic Ballads and that of Arnold. Slight, but certain, Tennysonian influence too is noticeable in the poem. There is present considerable power of imagery, versification and pathos.

SUMMARY

The Forsaken Merman, is the lament of a merman whose human wife abandoned him. Despite his pathetic call for Margaret, there is no response from her. He tells the children to go to the bottom of the sea for their mother would not come back to them. As a last attempt he tells them to call once more before they leave. As children's voice can touch the heart of a mother, perhaps she would come to them. But then, despair again overcomes him and tells the children not to call any more. Margaret doesn't intend to come.

Then there is a flash back to the days Margaret lived with the husband and children at the bottom of the sea. They lived in the caverns which were not affected by the winds. There the weeds swayed, the sea snakes coiled and twined and big whales ambled around with unshut eye. The merman feels as if they lived. the life with Margaret only the other day. He remembers how Margaret sat, along with him on a gold-red throne, in the depths, with youngest child on her knee. Then he remembers how one day she heard the sound of a far off church bell. She said it was Easter-time and she wanted to go to her kinsmen and pray in the little grey church, in order to save her soul. The merman allowed her to go but asked her to return after her prayers. But she did not return at all. So he, along with the children came up from the depth of the sea. They reached the shore, went through the narrow streets and reached the little grey church. They heard the murmur of the people praying and saw Margaret sitting near a pillar, her eyes sealed to the prayer-book. He calls to her to return to them, but she never even looked in his direction. Now he urges the children to call her no more and to go to the bottom of the sea. Then he thinks of the things Margaret may be doing among humans, spinning and singing joyously till the wheels drop from her hand. She is likely to enjoy watching the humans around her and the blessed light of the sun. Sometimes she will go to the window and look at the sand on the sea shore, shed a tear or heave a sorrow-laden sigh, possibly thinking of the golden hair of her mermaid child.

The merman thinks that Margaret will feel disturbed in her sleep when the winds shake the doors and howl and the waves roar. The merman and the children watch the ceiling of amber the waves make and sing about the faithlessness of the mortal wife, and their own abandoned life. On beautiful nights, when the wind is gentle, and the moon is full, and the tide is ebbing they will go to the sea shore and look at the church on the hill-side and sing of the cruelty of Margaret in leaving them.

There are three distinguishable parts in the poem. The recollection of the happy days the merman had with Margaret and their children is the first. The unhappy present when the merman and the children realize that they are forsaken is the second. The third is the future, when they would be looking at the distant church from the sea-shore in calm and beautiful nights when "clear falls the moon-light".

CRITICAL APPRECIATION & ANALYSIS

The Forsaken Merman is one of the most popular poems of Arnold. According to some critics even if Arnold had not written any poem except this, a permanent place in English poetry would have been his by virtue of this piece. Many consider it the first flower of Arnold's lyrical genius. Oliver Elton calls it "Not a story but a chant involving a story". Professor Saintsbury considers it a great poem-one by itself, one which finds and keeps its own place in the fore-ordained gallery or museum, with which every lover of poetry is provided".

The threat bare story: In the poem we find a simple and thread bare story of, a merman who was abandoned by his once loving human wife. They had a happy married life at the bottom of the sea and were blessed with five children. But then she left them, never to come back. It is in the form of a dramatic monologue, with the merman-children forming a sort of audience. The Danish original justifies the human wife for going back to the earth to her soul, but Arnold's Margaret is pictured as faithless and cruel.

Allegorie Meaning: Apart from the probable allegory of Arnold - Marguerite love-affair, there is another allegorical meaning which some critics find in the poem. The world to which Margaret returns is bleak and grim while the life as the wife of the merman was rich and aristocratic. She was the queen among the "kings of the sea". The world of the grey church is a closed one of hard and confining objects; while below, in the depth of the sea life was timeless with its slow movement and shadowy lights. Arnold appears to say that Margaret who let the freedom and ambiance of the sea, and made herself a slave to the prayer book and the spinning wheel is like England which has lost its ancient heritage of poetic beauty and poetic truth.

There are others who see in the poem the lure of spirituality that makes a worldly man renounce the pleasures of the senses. Merman and his life stands for the sensuous pleasures while the grey church on the hillside and the prayer book represents a life of renunciation and contemplation. However, much we are engrossed in the worldly pleasures, there comes a time when, like the sound of the distant church bell, a sudden thought reaches him, making him aware of the superiority of the contemplative life. The conscience rings the church bell, to all Margaret's who go to the depths and enjoy a life of sensuous primitivity forgetting all about the "soul". According to popular myth, Mermen do not possess souls. By agreeing to be the Merman's wife Margaret had bartered away her soul for something less wholesome, the sensuous life. But for her accidental hearing of the church bell she would have lost her soul. As she had not stifled her soul completely the sound of the bell helped her to go back to her nobler life. Here the church bell becomes a symbol of religion, or spirituality.

Once Margaret is admitted to a life of spirituality, she forgets the temptations of her early life, forgets her husband and children. Or she enters a life of renunciation, abandoning all the call of the flesh. Once Margaret is in the church, her eyes are seal'd into the prayer book and she is either unable to hear the call of her husband and children or is neglecting their call. This appears to be the central idea of the poem.

Beautiful Piece in Itself: Even without connecting the poem with Marguerite of Switzerland poems, or without attributing any symbolic meaning to it, its literary beauty can be appreciated. As a simple fanciful story it has its value even like The Rime of the Ancient Mariner of Coleridge.

Depth of Pathos in the Poem: The tender and deep pathos of the poem is perhaps its most striking quality. The merman is in a state of deep grief for being abandoned by his human wife and the poem is his pathetic lament.

.....gaze from the sand hills

At the white sleeping town,

There is nothing he can do to relieve him of his grief except to come back and to sing of the cruelty Margaret has shown to the "kings of the sea". The poem starts with an elegiac tone, that pervades the poem till the very end.

Come dear children, let us away;

Children dear, let us away

This way, this way

Call her once before you go.

Call once yet.

The kind and affectionate father knows that;

Children's voices should be dear

...to a mother's ear:

And asks them to call once more. He is still left with some belief in her love and thinks: "Surely she will come again". But soon reality dawns upon him and tells the children that she will not come though you call all the day". Then very wistfully he turns the pages of the book of memory and sees the picture of the happy days he lived together with Margaret. He reminds the children:

Once she sate with you and me,

On the red gold throne in the heart of the sea,

And the youngest sate on the knee.

Truly it is a picture of domestic glory. But that was not to continue for long. The "sound of a far off bell" reached her and reminded that it was Easter time. She wanted to go to the church for she was reminded how she neglected her soul by living with the merman. Merman gladly allows her to go. She smiled' and went away. The irony of the word "smiled" is really touching.

Saddened by the long delay of Margaret, the merman and children reached the church and saw her clearly. They could only wait outside and call,

Margaret, hist! come quick, we are here. Dear heart' I said "We are long alone.

The sea grows stormy, the little ones moan."

But her eyes were 'seal'd to the book' and never even looked at them. Surely the reader extends his sympathy to the motherless children. But she is singing of the joy

For the priest and the bell and the holy well

And the blessed light of the sun

Perhaps the most moving part of the poem is where the merman thinks that occasionally Margaret will be reminded of her past life at the bottom of the sea.

....and looks at the sand,

And over the sand at the sea;

And her eyes are set in a stare;

And anon there breaks a sigh,

And anon there drops a tear,

From a sorrow-clouded eye

And a heart sorrow-laden,

A long, long sigh

For the cold strange eyes of a little Mermaiden,

And the gleam of her golden hair.

Margaret might not do so, but the Merman's thinking that she would, lends a deep pathos to those lines. At the ending of the poem, we reach the shrillest note in the Merman's lament. Occasionally he with the children would reach the beach at ebb-tide during moonlit midnights and sing:

..There dwells a lov'd one

But cruel is she

She left lonely for ever

The kings of the sea

Scenic Description: Arnold's skill in giving word pictures of nature's charms can be found in this poem. The description of is rich in imagination as well as in its musical quality.

Sand-strewn caverns, cool and deep, Where the winds are all asleep;

Where the spent lights quiver and gleam; Where the salt weed sways in the stream;

Where the sea beasts rang'd all round Feed in the ooze of their pasture-ground;

Then there is the scene, where the Merman imagines that Margaret might, at a wistful moment, look at the sea with nostalgia. Though a short description it is touching because of the associated pathos.

She steals to the window, and looks at the sand;

And over the sand at the sea;

A modern cinematic photographer would make this scene look unforgetful, portraying the all embarassing melancholy involved.

Again there is the sight of the disturbed sea surface as seen from the bottom.

We shall see, while above us

The waves roar and whirl,

A ceiling of amber,

A pavement of pearl.

Which will haunt the memory of a reader. The final description of the beach at ebb-tide where the Merman-family might try to steal a look at the church to which Margaret has gone is perhaps like an impressionistic painting.

...midnight,

When soft the winds blow;

When clear falls in moonlight;

When spring tides are low:

When sweet airs come seaward;

From heaths starr'd with broom

And high rocks throw mildly

On the blanch'd sands a gloom:

Up the still glistening beaches,

Up the creeks we will hie;

Over banks of bright seaweed

The ebb-tide leaves dry.

The reader gets a lively picture of the forsaken family with sadness written on the face, longingly looking at the church against an eerie background.

Romanticism: Highly lyrical and fanciful, the poem shows the romantic in Arnold. An avowed classicist he consciously tried to suppress the romantic strain in him. But in many poems it found an unconscious outlet. The Forsaken Merman is one such poem where the romantic elements outweigh the classical. Elizabeth Barret Browning praised it and Swinburne learnt by heart the whole poem during his childhood, for its romantic qualities. Arnold's greatest achievement in lyrical poetry is perhaps this piece. In it there is no Arnoldian preaching tinged with classicism, no intellectual melancholy, no sombre criticism of life. The poem appears more Keatsian than Arnoldian. In it Arnold sings plaintively, though not rapturously like the typical romantic poet. The intense personal feeling, the poignant pathos, its imaginative quality, its remarkably exquisite scenic description, and its love for the strangely mythical are truly romantic qualities and they are the qualities that make the poem appealing.

Despite the predominant romantic strain, there are classical qualities too present in it. Decorative phrases and expressions for their own sake are scrupulously avoided; and the classical restraint is noticeable. The lucidity of style in the poem is like that found in the classical masters.

The beauty of the poem is enhanced by the nostalgia for a past which is gone for ever. The Merman recalling his happy days with his human wife is parallel to Arnold's talking nostalgically of the dreaming spires of Oxford of old, the Oxford where ghosts of idealists, like that of the Gipsy scholar roam around even centuries after they lived. And the Merman, even like Arnold, knows that those past is gone for ever and it is not likely to come back again.

LINE BY LINE EXPLANATIONS

1. "Come dear......seaward flow. (Line 1-5)

These lines help to give the impression of an abrupt beginning to the poem. The story starts to unfold from its chronological beginnings much later in line 30. The reader is to imagine the abandoned and sad looking Merman along with his equally sad, looking merman-children patiently waiting for Margaret's return. Tired of waiting, he thinks of his kinsmen becoming worried over their absence. Realising the turn of the tide, he calls upon the children to follow him to the depth of the sea. Though the beginning is abrupt in the first few lines the author sets the sad note of parting. The reference to the brothers, calling for him and the change noticed in the sea pictures an appropriate background for the fanciful story that follows. These lines help to develop a "willing suspension of disbelief" in the mind of the reader, for the right appreciation of a mythical story.

2. Now the wild white.....this way" (Line 6-9)

Here one gets a striking description of the wind-disturbed sea, suggestive and picturesque. The huge waves of the sea with its foaming crest is metaphorically mentioned as horses playing, champing, chafing and tossing in the spray. The metaphor gives a wild strength to the waves, indirectly foreshadowing an oncoming storm. It foretells the oncoming disappointment of the Merman at the realisation that Margaret will return to the sea no more. The last two lines show that the Merman is partially aware of the permanent nature of Margaret's absence.

3. "Children's voices......away." (Line. 14-18)

The first line displays a very tender feeling. Not sure of the success of his own calling the Merman urges the children to call the mother. He feels at least the painful voice of the children will successfully appeal to Margaret's feelings, Line 18 is touching with its sense of frustration mixed with a philosophic acceptance of the inevitable.

4. "Childre dear......a silver bell"? (Line. 30-34)

The story, in chronological order, begins here. The departure of Margaret happened only the previous day. But sorrow has robbed him of the sense of time and he asks the children doubtfully whether it was actually the previous day their mother left them.

The sweet bells: The bells sounded sweet probably to all when they heard it first. But now as the cause of the separation from Margaret the bells cannot continue to be sweet to the Merman and the children. However it was 'sweet' to their dear one. The possibility of hearing the sound of a church bell at the bottom of the sea, though not realistic adds to the mythical nature of the story giving it a romantic mystery.

5. "Sand-strewn......ever and aye" (Line. 35-45)

Here we get a picturesque description of the bottom of the sea where the Mermen live. The caves are cool in the depths and the winds do not disturb the calm of the place. The light that diminishes with depth, quivers under the waves at the top, but still gleams. Weeds that grow in the salt-mud are swayed by currents. The creatures of the sea find the oozy bottom their feeding ground. The coiling and twining sea snakes dry their body in the sea water and warm themselves in the sunlight. Huge whales with ever open eyes, move around, in an unending ambling. The words dry' and 'bask' cannot be taken in the usual sense. For at the bottom of the sea one cannot expect to find a way of drying and the sunlight will be too "spent" to bask in.

The word "ooze" brings to mind Shelley's description in The Ode to the West Wind.

..far below

The sea blooms and the oozy woods which wear

The sapless foliage of the ocean...."

To Some of the lines are highly suggestive with its onomatopoeia.

With the suggestive power of the words spent, salt, ooze, coil, mail, sailing etc. the atmosphere., the vegetation and the creatures at the ocean-floor are made poetically realistic.

Onomatopoeia: A figure of speech, where the sound on loud reading, echoes the sense. Tennyson used it extensively.

6. "Children dear....on her knee". (Line. 48-52)

The repetition of the words "Come children dear", with slight variations is found 8 times in the poem. Such stylized repetitions are characteristic of epic poems. Ballads too show it in plenty. Arnold uses it to give an old-world aura to his mythical story. The question in the first line of stanza IV is repeated verbatim here, in stanza V, to be repeated with some variation in stanza VI. The prompting Call yet once in parenthesis tells of the desperate plight in which the Merman is. He reminisces on the life Margarate lived with him at the bottom of the sea. Once she sat with him on a red gold throne and the youngest child sat on her lap; Margaret kept the child's hair and tended it. Then they heard the sound of a far-off bell reminding Margaret that it was Easter time. Hearing it she sighed, longing to take part in the church service along with her kinsmen in the world of humans. Margaret felt a pang in her mind for spending her time with the Merman and thereby losing her soul. She wanted to save her soul by going to the church and praying. The Merman eager to please her allowed her to go and say her prayers, but requested to return to the kind sea caves. She smiled and went away.

By describing how Margaret tended the youngest child's hair the Merman not only shows her as an affectionate mother but also presents himself as one who enjoyed domestic bliss. This description further adds to the pathos of - Line. 106-107

For the cold strange eyes of a little Mermaiden

And the gleam of her golden hair.

The word 'smiled' has its irony too. Of course Margaret smiled her thanks to the Merman for allowing him to go. But the smile might have had another meaning too. "I may not return as you want me to". She did not return either.

7. Children dear......surf in the bay. Line. 64-67

The question "were we long alone?" is put to the children, near the chapel. The intensity of sorrow has made the Merman lose all sense of time. After the almost, loud-thinking question the Merman reminisces how they happened to reach the chapel in search of Margaret.

Margaret went to the chapel to pray, with the Merman's permission. He had requested her to return after the prayers. Hoping to see her back they waited for long. But it was a long wait and when the weather became stormy and in the absence of the reassuring presence of the mother, children, especially the little ones, began to moan. The Merman wondered what lengthy prayers humans indulge in. Then having lost patience, he called all the children and together they rose to the surface of the sea, to go to the place Margaret had gone.

The complaint of Merman over the long prayers in the world can be appreciated from different angles. The Merman, a non-human, without any understanding of the religion of the humans, cannot realize the need of long prayers. Then, there is the irony of the situation. While the Merman at that moment, still thought Margaret would return once the long prayers are over. But things turned put differently. Perhaps in the phrase 'long prayers' one also notices the mild sarcasm of Arnold the near-agnostic, on the puritanically long prayers of Christians of the Victorian age.

Arnold attributes human qualities to the Merman and the children here. The notion that little children need the reassuring presence of a mother in the face of inclement weather is presented here, realistically.

8. We climb'd on the......door. Line. 74-82

Here the Merman describes how he and the children remained outside the church waiting for Margaret while she was inside, praying along with the rest of the congregation. Naturally, they being sea-creatres, have to keep a low profile. So they remained in the Church-yard, climbing over the weather-worn stones of the graves. Then they peeped through the glass panes of the lead-framed windows, up the aisle, at Margaret sitting beside a pillar. As they saw her clear they whispered to her to return quick and that they were feeling lonely in her absence. The sea was growing wild and the children started to cry for the mother's presence, But she did not even look in their direction for her eyes were glued to the prayer book. The priest was praying loud and the door stood shut.

Arnold does not tell how the Merman could whisper to Margaret from the window without being heard by other members in the congregation. Perhaps, she was on one side, "by the pillar" and the Merman spoke to her from the nearest side-window in a hushed tone. 'Shut stands the door' suggests the impossibility of Margaret's coming back to them.

9. Hark what she sings; 'O joy, O Joy......wheel stands still. Line. 89-97

After losing all hopes of Margaret's return, the Merman reconciles with reality and urges his children to return. Then he imagines the kind of life Margaret might be spending in the upper world of humans.

She may be working on the spinning wheels, singing of the joy of life. She will feel happy to watch the busy streets, with the child at play with its toys; she may be enjoying the religious life, her work on the spinning wheel, and the delightful sunlight. The Merman imagines Margaret remaining happily engrossed in the day to day affairs of life. Perhaps the Merman thinks that after her long sojourn in the submarine world, Margaret might find her normal life more delightful.

The child with its toy: This appears unnatural. A child naturally would bring to her mind nostalgic memories of her own Merman-children. Or is it possible the Merman may be thinking of a future time, when Margaret after another marriage with a human, rearing her own child? The reference to the "well" of the church, (the 'font' in which children are Christened) suggests that line of thinking possible.

Anyway the Merman imagines Margaret singing of the joys of life to her full, till the spindle falls off from her hand.

Spindle drops: In the original edition "shuttle" was the word used. Later Arnold changed it to "spindle".

10. She steals to......golden hair. Line. 98-107

After reconciling with the permanency of Margaret's departure the Merman imagines the kind of life, she might be indulging in the future. She will be happy and would be singing joyously of the beautiful things of the world. But occasionally the nostalgic memory of her children might make her sad. She may go to the window and look in the direction of the sea, with a heavy sigh and with a tear in her eye. She may even feel sorry for missing the "cold strange eyes", eyes of her youngest child, with the gleaning golden hair. Here the poet very successfully pictures the natural motherly preference for the youngest child. He has carefully prepared for the pathos in these lines earlier in;

And the youngest sate on her knee

She comb'd its bright hair and she tended it well. (Line. 52-53)

The mother's preferential treatment of the youngest is made amply clear here.

11. But children......kings of the sea Line. 124-143

The Merman, heart broken at being abandoned by his human wife, at last reconciles with his fate. He urges the children to go down and then imagines the kind of life Margaret would lead in the upper world. She might be singing of the joys of the world to her heart's full. He and the children would go down singing of the beloved Margaret who turned cruel and left the "kings of the sea", the Merman and his children lonely.

On some beautiful nights, when the moon is full and the wind is calm, the Merman and the children would go to the beach and from the sand-hills gaze at the sleeping white town and the chapel to which their Margaret went away once. Then they would go back to their caves singing of the cruelty of the loved one who abandoned them: The singing (Line. 140-43) is a repetition, with slight variation of lines 121-124. This kind of repetition is often found in epics and ballads.

when soft the wind blows

.........................................

The ebb-tide leaves dry,

The Line give a quiet, but exquisitely beautiful description. A few bare details only are given and that too in the simplest manner but the effect produced is great. These lines illustrate the "dying fall" which Arnold gives to a good many of his poems. (See Dover Beach and Isolation).

Matthew Arnold Theory of Criticism in Poetry

2024-05-15T08:00:00.001+05:30

Matthew Arnold, while he lived, was known more as a critic or as an innovative School Inspector than as a poet. Though there is a revival of interest in his poems in the modern age, he is still known as a critic who championed the cause of poetry of high seriousness, and as one who fought an incessant war against philistinism in poetry and culture. He hasn't left a neat and coherent theory of poetry, but one can form together from hints in his several critical essays and prefaces, a theory of poetry he wanted to put before his contemporaries. Poetry to Matthew Arnold is criticism of life under conditions fixed by poetic truth and poetic beauty. This definition of poetry is certainly circumlocutory and begs the question. Howeve, in the light of his other illuminating remarks elsewhere and his own practice, one may be able to arrive at a fair idea of what he considered as good poetry. Arnold has not clearly and precisely defined anywhere, not least in his oft-quoted criticism of life theory, his idea on poetry. In his essay The Study of Poetry (Published as a General Introduction to T.H. Ward edition of The English Poets) he assigns a novel role to poetry and tells. "In poetry, our race will find, we have said, as time goes on and as other helps fail, its consolation and say." However he fails to clarify what exactly he means by criticism of life. Further by modifying criticism of life by adding "under conditions fixed for such criticism by laws of poetic truth under poetic beauty" he is naively becoming circumlocutory. But to alleviate our difficulty in realizing what he means, there are several hints in his writings elsewhere. The qualities of great poetry are to be found in the matter and substance of poetry as well as in its manner and style. Excellence in matter and form, is the high watermark of great poetry. Homer had it in abundance. Shakespeare and many others had it. Great poetry acquires its unique qualities from diction and movement. The superiority in matters of poetical truth and high seriousness is inseparable from the superiority in diction and movement. "The best poetry", Arnold defines "will be found to have a power of forming, sustaining and delighting us, as nothing else can".

'Criticism of Life' and 'Application of Powerful Ideas': Arnold's statement that Poetry is criticism of life is further elaborated by introducing another phrase "application of ideas to life". When the application of ideas to life is powerful, the resulting poetry, rises to great heights. But the powerful application of ideas must be "under the conditions fixed by the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty" What those laws are, is not categorically stated by Arnold. However, what he means appears to be the need of high seriousness born out of absolute sincerity in the treatment of life. The importance of poetry as art is emphasised by the words poetic beauty. Such an accent of high seriousness born out of sincerity makes the poetry of Homer, Dante and Milton really great. A great poet, according to Arnold should have formed powerful, or noble ideas about life. He should sincerely feel the necessity of practising those ideas in life, of his own and that of others around him. With that intense desire, he should compose poetry and then it will be criticism of life, or application of powerful ideas to life; and the result will be great poetry.

Importance of Moral Ideas: Arnold says that Voltaire found the moral strength of English poetry its greatest merit. In English poetry moral ideas are profoundly and energetically dealt with. However, Arnold does not mean "moral ideas" in poetry as the same as didactic poetry. To him "treatment of moral ideas" are the same as "powerful application of ideas". However, they are applied under conditions that guarantee the artistic merit of the poem. Mere didacticism cannot exist under those conditions. The word "moral" is not used in its narrow religio-didactic sense, but with much wider connotation. "How to live?" is a moral idea to Arnold, and in answering this question the moral idea get a meaning as great as ideals of living. Every idea associated with life is a moral idea. He quotes Milton to prove this

Nor love thy life nor hate it, but what thou livs't

Live well; how long or short permit to heaven.

What is expressed in these lines is a moral idea, to Arnold. True there is an element of didacticism in it. But he brings in lines from Shakespeare and Keats, lines without any didactic tone also, to illustrate moral ideas. The words of Keats to the eternal lover depicted on the Grecian Urn

Forever wilt thou love and she be fair

Is moral for there is powerful application of idea to life there. So also we find Prospero's words containing moral strength when he says

We are such stiff

As dreams are made on and our little life Is rounded with a sleep.

Here we find moral ideas treated in poetry, or we find application of ideas to life. There is less of didacticism and more of poetical beauty there. One can bring in examples from Arnold's own poetry to show what he means by the treatment of moral ideas in poetry. Morals are treated profoundly in Grande Chartreuse when Arnold talks of the wandering of his soul.

Wandering between two worlds, one dead,

The other powerless to be born,

With nowhere yet to rest my head,

Like these, on earth I wait forlorn.

Their faith, my tears, the world deride;

I came to shed them at their side.

Again we find them in the tributes he pays to his illustrious father through the lines of Rugby Chapel. Lesser people can only say,

...We bring

Only ourselves; we lost

Sight of the rest in the storm.

Hardly ourselves we fought through

Stripp'd, without friends, as we are.

Friends, companions and train.

The avalanche swept from our side.

Surely Arnold is talking of the onslaught of reason devastating older values in Victorian England, but there is universality in the thoughts expressed. The ideas expressed will affect all, and at all times. The force, or accent of the application of ideas arise from seriousness born out of absolute sincerity.

From the phrase application of ideas, Arnold proceeds further to say "If what distinguishes the greatest poets is their powerful application of ideas to life which surely no critic will deny, then to prefix to the term 'ideas' here the term 'moral' makes hardly any difference, because human life itself issues, in so preponderance degree, moral". Arnold's view appears to be the following:

Poetry is a criticism of life; greatness of poetry arises out of powerful application of ideas to life truthfully and beautifully (Under conditions of poetic truth and poetic beauty). Those ideas are concerned with the moral question, "how to live".

He cannot accept the narrow definition of moral, however. It is fallacious to think of morals in terms of a system of thought associated with orthodoxy, pedantry and obscurantism. If the word moral is taken in that narrow sense, poetry will prove so tedious that one may like to escape from it and seek resort in poetry of revolt, a poetry where sensual life is glorified, a poetry that is immoral. Or one may be tempted to seek shelter in amoral poetry where there is indifference to good and evil alike, a poetry where only the form is considered important. Arnold is clearly against poetry that is immoral or that is amoral. He says

A poetry of revolt against moral ideas is a poetry of revolt against life; a poetry of indifference towards morai ideas is poetry of indifference towards life.

However, later, on one occasion, Arnold narrows the scope of the word "moral" by condemning the sensualist poetry, which advocates people to discard the mosques in favour of the taverns. If the question "How to live" is profoundly moral, why should he disparage Omar Khayyam for encouraging sensuousness. The Persian poet squarely dealt with life and human problems and suggested solutions he found apt. Why should Arnold condemn Omar's answer to the question How to live? Certainly in criticising Omar Khayyam's poetry he is trying to be moral in a narrow way.

Arnold's Idea of Criticism of Life: An oft-reputed phrase in Arnold's writing that poetry is criticism of life is not that clearly defined. He is never explicit about it. In one of his essays he says that the aim of all literature is criticism of life. The qualifying words "under conditions of poetic truth and poetic beauty" are not illuminatory. He uses the adjective "poetic" liberally, forgetting the fact that his aim is to define poetry, to define what is poetic. But he adds in another place "the noble and powerful application of ideas to life is the most essential part of poetical greatness". Here Arnold, almost suggests a sermon, perhaps one for which his headmaster-father was famous. But Arnold says the ideas are to be discussed, truthfully, and beautifully, highlighted by emotion.

Middleton Murray studies, Arnold and approves of the phrase poetry is criticism of life as a good enough definition of poetry. He says that poetry is criticism of life just as the beautiful is a criticism of the ugly". Perhaps he means that poetry through its excellence is able to show, in juxtaposition, the inferiority of real life to the ideal. But this appears to be an unworthy aim of poetry. When Wordsworth gives us a picture of nature's influence on man, or when Keats describes the Nightingale in the darkening bush, or Shelly the skylark, we do not find anything inferior in life. Rather the poets try to show us the ennobling side of life or reality. Perhaps these lead us to looking at criticism of life in another way. Criticism of life is appreciation of life in such a way as to show the greatness, the beauty and wonder of life. Poetry thereby heightens life. Indulging in the day-to-day freshness of life is lost. A poet with his imaginative interpretation gives a freshness to life. In the opinion of Elton what Arnold means is "something that would illuminate and inspire us for the business of living". But a poet does more than that. His is not only the job of appropriating and interpreting life, but also of creating or recreating life. The raw material of the poet, which is life itself, is rather crude, shapeless, rather amorphous. The poet handles it, selects, modifies and a shapely crystal is made out of it. That crystal is poetry. The method of selection and the manipulation necessary may vary from poet to poet. He selects a chunk of life, applies his ideals to it, finds the suitable diction to describe it, chooses an appropriate style, and arranges words according to certain metrical pattern, embellished with imageries, and poetry is born. It gives aesthetic pleasure. It will be found to have a power of forming, sustaining and delighting us as nothing else can". Arnold's own poetry by its diction and movement provides certainly an aesthetic pleasure, whether it provides the sense of wonder is a debatable question.

Higher Uses and Higher Destinies of Poetry: Arnold starts the essay "The Study of Poetry" with a quote from his own career writing praising the high destinies of poetry.

The future of poetry is immense because in poetry, where it is worthy of its high destinies our race as time goes on, will find an ever surer and surer stay. There is not a creed which is not shaken, not an accredited dogma which is not shown to be questionable, not a received tradition which does not threaten to dissolve. Our religion has materialised itself in the supposed fact: it has attached its emotion to that fact, and now the fact is failing it. But for poetry the idea is everything; the rest is a world of illusion, of divine illusion. Poetry attaches it emotion to the idea: the idea is the fact. The strongest part of our religion today is its unconscious poetry.

The best poetry has the power for "forming, sustaining and delighting us as nothing else can". Religion as it was conceived earlier has declined. If at all religion is to live, it will live because of the "poetry" found in it. Poetry will be the force to console us and sustain us in the long run. Arnold is with Wordsworth in considering poetry as "the impassioned expression which is in the countenance of all science" and "the breath and final spirit of all knowledge". Science is incomplete without poetry, Arnold says, and adds that philosophy and religion will be replaced by poetry in future. But to live up to that great roles, poetry should be of "a high order of excellence". And one should have a high standard of poetry in mind when we pass judgement on poetry, because of the high destinies of poetry.

Preface to the Poems 1853: Arnold prefixed a fairly long preface to the volume of his poetry published in the year 1853. It contains his ideas on poetry and illustrates his easy and graceful prose style. We learn from the essay that he is a classicist by conviction. On the whole Arnold practiced what he preached. The excesses and vagaries of the romantic poetry, especially English romantic poetry, are to his dislike. He denounces the views of those who wanted poets to leave the subject matter of the exhausted past and to choose subjects from present day world. He started, in the preface, the life-long war he waged against the philistines, not only in poetry, but in all walks of life. As for his own poetic composition is concerned we find them wanting in certain ways. On being measured by his own standards. In Empedocles on Etna and Merope, two of his long poems, where the subject matter was chosen in the classical manner, the poetic achievement is nothing remarkable. He himself confessed that, Empedocles was an unsatisfying achievement. Merope remains only as an academic exercise, though some admirers found real grace in it. Probably the people that come nearer to his own theory is Sohrab and Rustum.

The Quintessence of The Preface: Arnold says that poetry should create interest among the readers. Further it should be able to give inspiration to them enabling them to rejoice in poetry. Poetry is an imitation of life, which gives the readers an opportunity to derive joy out of it. Even in a work of art dealing with tragic circumstances, there will be this artistic opportunity to rejoice. Often the intenser the tragic feeling shown, the greater will be the joy of the reader or the beholder, except in situations where suffering do not get an outlet through tragic incidents.

Then Arnold tells of the subjects fit for treatment in poetry. Poetical subjects are those which contains subjects with an inherent interest. This interest inherent in the subject may be communicated to the readers in an interesting manner. The first duty of the poet, then is to select an interesting action. It must be excellent action having a powerful appeal to the primary emotions and elementary feelings of human beings, which are permanent in nature. It follows that the modernity or antiquity of an incident has little to do with its suitability as a subject for poetry. An incident having a basic appeal a few centuries ago will have the same appeal in the present and also in the years to come. What matters is whether an action chosen has a basic appeal, to the emotions or not. If the right essentials are there, the chosen action will be one of perennial interest. The date or locality of the incident is unimportant.

Then Arnold goes on to juxtapose the classical Greek theory of poetry with that of the modern times. The poetical nature of the action and the conduct of it was of utmost importance to the ancients. Modern poets view the action in parts such as thought, style, images etc. separately. The ancients gave predominance to action and the moderns to expression. The Greeks dealt with a narrow range of topics just because only few actions have excellence, for they only have universal and powerful appeal to basic emotions. Therefore we do find only limited number of topics treated in the great tragedies of the ancient Greeks.

Arnold develops the Greek preference for the whole and the modern liking for the parts. He says a modern critic gives credit to a poem for its brilliance in its parts. A single line here and another there, an imagery appropriately presented, or beautiful sound effects, reinforcing the meaning are all appreciated. But they may not make an artistic total impression. There are critics who concentrate on detached expressions, and on the language about the action instead of action itself. They do not give great importance to the total impression a poem makes. They approve of any action the poet chooses and allows it to take its own course, and appreciate occasional purple patches, and isolated thoughts and images. Such poems cater to the rhetorical sense and not to the truly poetical sense. Arnold as a classicist disapproves of such critics. Then he has a word of advice to younger writers. They should try to find an excellent model before them to follow. According to him Shakespeare will not fit as a model for young writers of talent. Shakespeare chose excellent topics for his great plays, for like all great poets, he knew what contributed to excellence in poetic action. To those actions he chose, excellent as they were in poetic qualities, he added his own unique contribution; a gift of happy, abundant, eminent and unrivalled expression. Shakespeare being a superb artist of genius, excelled in the architectonics of poetry, the power of executing the whole systematically, aesthetically binding the different parts of the composition into a unified whole. Lesser artists in imitating Shakespeare go for the excellence in parts, for style or diction or images, but fail in the architectonics. The result is an unsatisfactory work when viewed as a whole.

Conclusion: In giving importance to an excellent action in poetry Arnold was following the footsteps of Aristotle, Goethe and Coleridge. All of them insisted on the need of an excellent action treated in a grand style or manner to give a pleasure of the highest order. This pleasure is derived not out of the excellence of individual parts but out of the organic unity of the composition. Perhaps Arnold repeated this opinion of his with a definite purpose. He was aware of the modern view of art, that is either impressionistic or expressionistic or both. Arnold could not appreciate this view. Arnold cannot conceive of great art as an allegorical representation of the poet's own mind. He believed along with Aristotle that the 'plot' is of primary importance. No poet can hope of raising an insignificant act to a level appropriate to great poetry by excellence in treatment. Arnold decided to withdraw his poem, Empedocles on Etna., just because he found the action wanting according to his own theory. The situation presented was painful without being tragic; however, the treatment of the poem has nothing wanting in it.

While dealing with Homer, Arnold said the grand style "arises in poetry when a noble nature poetically gifted treats with simplicity or with severity a serious subject". Arnold is echoing what Aristotle meant by high seriousness and what Dante meant by weight of meaning. Grand words alone will not be sufficient to make the grand style. The greatness of subject is certainly needed an action that is excellent, permanent rather than short-lived. The simple themes of the old, that of perennial interest can be used again and again. However, by advocating to stick on to a narrow range of actions, Arnold is restricting the scope of writers. He discourages the life of our own times being explored for poetical subjects. He feels that the modern age is "an era of progress", in an age of "industrial development", a time "wanting in moral grandeur" and so topics appropriate for great poetry and great art are not found around us. Here Arnold appears to be very short-sighted and time has proved him to be in the wrong, Chekhov, Whitman and Pushkin, Flaubert and Hardy and many more like them chose subjects from contemporary life and created great dramas, great poems, great novels. But according to Arnoldian principles they cannot produce great works. It is an irony that Arnold who considers poetry as criticism of life should consider modern life and its criticism as an unfit subject for poetry. He is not able to give a convincing reason for avoiding modern life which has a complexity unknown to the ancients, a life which is becoming increasingly more complex as time goes on. Also his advocating the guidance of a few pre-eminent models, though worthy in its aim, has a constraining effect. It tends to hide the potential of the new and untried. Experimentation in unexplored fields and innovation are not at all finding a place in his theory of poetry. However in his emphasis on the importance of plot or action, following Aristotle, Goethe and Coleridge, his ideas are quite salutary. He also emphasises that unity or the total impression is that which gives a poem its essential characteristic. Poetry according to him is the representation of an excellent action seriously undertaken, with the object of creating the highest enjoyment. In this, at least, Matthew Arnold is acceptable to the modern mind.

Elegiac Tone in Matthew Arnold's Poetry

2024-05-12T08:00:00.001+05:30

An elegy literally is a song of lamentation for the dead. In most classical elegies, generally, Dactylic Hexameter is used. But Coleridge's definition of the elegy as a "form of poetry natural to the reflective mind" gives it wider scope. According to Coleridge, an elegy may treat of any subject, if it suits the reflective nature of the poet. Both in the narrow literary sense and the wider Coleridgeian sense of the term, Arnold has written many elegiac poems, making him one of the greatest elegy writers of English language. Garrod writing of the elegiac in Arnold says: "If I had to define Arnold's place in, I should be disposed to say of him, quite simply, that he is the greatest elegiac poet in our language, not in virtue merely of Thyrsis but in virtue of the whole temper of his Muse. His genius was essentially elegiac....His poetry profoundly melancholy, runs from the world as, I think, hurt in some vital point".

Milton's Lycidas, Shelley's Adonais and Tennyson's, In Memoriam are certainly great elegies in English. They are personal elegies, lamenting the death of individuals. Arnold too wrote elegies in that traditional sense. His Thyrsis laments the death of his friend Arthur Hugh Clough. He wrote some others too of the same sort. But the elegiac vein in him goes much further. The entire body of his poetry is elegiac, some personal and some impersonal. Nothing in Arnold's poem is more arresting than its elegiac element. There is no other English poet in whom the elegiac reigns as much as in Arnold. Milton, Gray, Shelley and Tennyson have written grand single elegies, expressing their deep personal sorrow. But none amongst them returns to the elegiac again and again as Arnold does. He found that the elegy is the form naturally suited to his native melancholy. Not only are his elegies numerous but they are also, always among his best poems.

Matthew Arnold wrote many types of elegies, the personal ones, encomiums, commemoratives and pastorals. He mourns the death of several public figures, Senancour (author of Obermann), Wordsworth, Wordsworth's son-in-law Edward Quillinan, Charlotte Bronte, Heinrich Heine, Hugh Clough, Stanley as well as his own brother and illustrious father. Most of them were public figures representing certain intellectual and moral tendencies of the time. Then there are the poems that are elegies in the larger Coleridgeian sense of the word; Balder Dead is an elegy reaching epic dimensions. Sohrab and Rustum is an elegy on lost youth. The Church of Brou is an elegy on Duke of Savoy. The Sick King in Bokhara is a double elegy for the king and the mullah. There is another double elegy in Tristram and Iseult. Empedocles, too, is nothing if not an elegy. And all the love poems of Arnold, together, can be considered an elegy, where, as A.D. Culler says Marguerite dies and is reborn as Mrs. Arnold.

Most of Arnold's poetry shows the elegiac temper. Perhaps the impact of the age created the melancholic in him. He with his superior intellectual capacities was able to realize the surrounding gloom more than Tennyson or Browning. When Tennyson was full of hope for a better future and Browning was content with the present, Arnold noticed himself

Wandering between two worlds one deed

The other powerless to be born.

Arnold himself summed up what was happening around in the Study of Poetry: "There is not a creed which is not shaken, not an accredited dogma which is not shown to be questionable, not a received tradition which does not threaten to dissolve". And the dissolution he noticed, was partly responsible for the melancholic in him. The loss of faith spreading in the aftermath of Darwin's book, The Origin of Species and the spread of scientific spirit gave a jolt to Arnold who was brought up in the orthodox Christianity under the shadow of an Oak of a father. The conflict between his loyalty to his father and what that grand man stood for, on the one hand and his own intellectual honesty on the other, hurt aim deeply and his poems often expressed the intensity of the conflict.

With nowhere yet to rest my head

Like these on earth I wait forlorn

In Dover Beach this conflict-born melancholy comes out plainly.

The sea of faith

Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore

Lay like the folds of a bright girdly furl'd,

But now I only hear

Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,

In Grande Chartreuse, we find the soul of Arnold being pulled in opposite directions by diametrically the opposite ideas. He gives the due honour to the rigorous teachers who

Show'd me the high white star of Truth

There bade me gaze and there aspire.

And profusely apologizes for the mistake of going into the irrationality of religion:

Forgive me, masters of the mind!

At whose behest I long ago

So much unlearnt, so much resign'd!

I come not here to be your foe.

I seek this anchorites not in ruth,

To curse and deny your truth;

But a few lines later we find him seeking the solace that might come from religion. He requests the monks;

Oh, hide me in your gloom profound,

Ye solemn seats of holy pain!

Take me, cowl'd forms, and fence me round,

Till l possess my soul again!

It becomes increasingly clear his melancholy is associated with his inability to find solace in life. He says,

The world apparently looking like a dream

Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light

Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain

Swept with confused alarm of struggle and fight

Where ignorant armies clash by night.

The progress that has changed society destroyed his "soul", his faith and nothing else has come up to fill up the void in him.

The murky effects of the impact of the modern science, democracy, industrialism and the rising materialistic civilization have shattered Arnold's peace of mind. He knew that the increased production of iron and coal and the associated worship of fetish and machinery would bring in a lot of human unhappiness and suffering. External embellishments would multiply, civilization would become less and less human and more and more heartless, culture would decline and philistinism would be in the rise. As a result Arnold's grief grew. His was a philosophic gloom resulting from the loss of all the treasured things, from the life of all the human beings of the world. Tennyson too had a similar experience. But he being the arch-champion of the Victorian compromise regained his equilibrium. But Arnold who was shown

The high white star of Truth

By his rigorous teachers was not the one ready for any compromise. Dowden says that Arnold's was "no common spirit which can thus feel and delicately mirror for us the malady of the century".

It is ironic that Arnold who tried to offer some solutions to the baffling problems in his prose writings didn't offer any in his poems. The stoic character he developed - the philosophy of endurance amidst suffering was the effect of his untold suffering. Middleton Murray makes it clear. "Arnold's most consistent achievement was in the mood of restrained grief for the life which he could not accept and the soul which he could not make his own. Moreover in his elegiac poetry he was in keeping with a true and living tradition". His anguish is heightened by a sense of loneliness he felt and which, he understood to be the lot of every human being. Isolation makes it amply clear.

Yes: in the sea of life enisl'd,

With echoing straits between us thrown,

Dotting the shoreless watery wild,

We mortal millions live alone.

In the end he shows his disapproval at the Creator, causing such an isolation amongst the humans.

A God, a God their severance rul'd:

And bade betmixt their shores to be

The unplumb'd, salt, estranging sea.

In Obermann Once More, too we find the theme of loneliness dealt with.

But now the past is out of date,

The future is not yet born-

And who can be alone elate,

While the world lies forlorn?

There is an accent on loneliness through the words alone and forlorn. The same loneliness is to be noticed even an Nature.

Alone the sun arises and alone

Spring the great trees.

There are some critics who find something morbid in a personality that feels loneliness everywhere. D.G. James is of opinion that Arnold came to writing poetry to speak out his grief and feeling of hopelessness. The poem Growing Old illustrates the point. It has been called a "pitful libel on life", and surely it was written to counter the illogical optimism expressed in Browning's Rabbi Ben Ezra. If Browning gives an illogically bright picture of old age, Arnold errs on the other extreme by picturing it as unreasonably gloomy. Arnold looks into the drawbacks of old age, and finds the loss of glory of form and the decline of strength, more or less truthfully. But then he denies the possibility of a grateful remembrance of the past days of youth. Growing old;

is to spend long days

And not once feel that we mere young.

There is definitely a strain of bitterness and dissatisfaction in these lines, a flection of the notable ingredients in his mental make up.

The Arnoldian melancholy could be the result of the absence of freedom in his boyhood. Duffin says Wordsworth enjoyed that childhood freedom aplenty, to wander and to explore life among nature. Garrod attributes the melancholy to disappointment in love, a hint of which can be seen in the Marguerite poems. However, this argument does not appear convincing. Outwardly Arnold was happy till the age of twenty-five, despite the fact that three of his children died. He had in him human goodness and kindness, attributes an unhappy man do not possess. From the age of twenty-five we find him in a mood of permanent dejection. By the time he was thirty he complains to his friend Clough about the pain at growing old and watching life rushing away. He could not appreciate fully, any of the poets of his time. Amongst the whole lot of English poets he could appreciate fully only Shakespeare, Milton and Wordsworth. From this attitude, one has the influence of his native to think that Arnold's critical faculty too came under the influence of his native melancholy.

The unhappy social conditions of England also might have made him a melancholy man. Some conjecture that his estrangement from his friend Clough caused it. Another factor could be the influence of Senancour's philosophy of shunning all responsibility resulting in an ennui. Despair appears to be the medium through which Arnold tasted life. The philistinism or vulgarity of the English middle class surely caused sharp reactions in him leading to some distress, But the period, as history has recorded it, was an age noted for its interest in religious problems, seriousness of thought, and self discipline in character. It is again an irony that Arnold didn't feel at home with the positive things of the age. A great artist is to be in harmony with the best philosophy of the time, as Shakespeare was and Milton was. But Arnold never felt at home, not even among the good, that was found in society, at his time.

Arnold's Thyrsis along with Lycidas and Adonais will remain the three greatest elegies in English language. It's "quiet and tender undertone" is commented to be similar to Milton's. It is unexcelled in its "beauty, the delicacy and affluence of colour, fragrance and the freedom". In John Morley's opinion Thyrsis is the second best elegy in English. When the poem was published, it is said, Tennyson sent a letter to Arnold requesting him to stop writing prosaic things like Literature and Dogma and to write more pieces like Thyrsis.

The Scholar Gipsy is another impressive elegy, an impersonal kind. According to some, Arnold's fame rests to a great extent on that poems. The poet complains of the "sick hurry", "divided aims", and the people who are "vague half believers of casual creeds". The melancholic tone that pervades the poem is plain and clear.

Both Thyrsis and The Scholar Gipsy are cast in the pastoral mould, modelling on Theocritus, Virgil, Bion and Moschus, but mostly on the last. Arnold's elegies have given permanent life to Oxford countryside as no other poem, has. Fowler says that to the lovers of Oxford, this poem (Thyrsis) and The Scholar Gipsy are especially dear as having caught and handed on so much of the genius loci - the colleges, the studies, the sports, festivities, the rivers, the flowers and the peasant folk and place names of the surrounding country". Elton calls Thyrsis an associative poem, a poem dealing with a place and a person. At the same time it contains criticism of life-of Victorian life. So it becomes personal and impersonal at the same time. Garrod has this to say about Thyrsis.

Matthew Arnold was conscious that in Thyrsis, he had too much left out Clough, that the man was not there, or that he had not made him sufficiently real. But if he has not made Clough live for us, at least, he has expressed in the perfect art with which Oxford countryside is delineated, a living scene

Garrod continues,

If Thyrsis and The Scholar Gipsy had no other merits yet their art in landscape, and the fine sentiment with which they particularise, with which they fix natural details - these two talents alone - might vindicate for Matthew Arnold a place with the greatest poets.

On the death of his younger brother William Arnold, the poet wrote two elegies. A Southern ight and Stanzas from Carnac. William was Director of Public Instruction in The Punjab and he died, near Gibralter, on his way home from India, He was buried in Gibraltor. His wife Fanny had died earlier in India and was buried at Dhurmsila. Arnold wrote a poignant letter to his mother, indeed a prose poem full of pathos.

How strange it seems that he could have overlived his first trouble-illness when his wife was alive to nurse him.......to die alone with only a chance acquaintance to attend him, and leaving those four poor littles orphans to whom no tenderness can ever quite replace a father and a mother? And then that he should have over lived the misery of his poor wife's death to struggle through an year of loneliness and then to die too. Poor Fanny. She at Dhurmasila and he by the rock of Gibralter.

One Summer night, Arnold, sleepless, restlessly paced to and fro, his soul pained and perturbed at the memory of his dear brother, William. His brother and wife were buried far away from England. The wife in the Himalayas and the husband in Gibralter. The snowy Himalayas would have been a fitting resting place for Indian Yogis and Gibralter for the crusaders of medieval age. There are many lines that go straight to the heart with its pathos.

Ah such a night so. Soft so lone

So moon-lit, saw me once of yore

Wander unquiet and my own

Vext heart deplore

Westminster Abbey written to commemorate Dean Stanley does not show any personal grief. Stanley wrote a biography of Arnold of Rugby, Matthew Arnold's father. He was also one of the favourite students of the headmaster. The elegy is considered by many as Arnold's gratitude and appreciation for his father's biographer.

In Rugby Chapel we find an elegy on his own father, the illustrious headmaster. A review of Thomas Hughes' famous book Tom Browns School Days, appeared in The Edinburgh Review. The real hero of Tom Brown's School Days is the headmaster Arnold. The reviewer, Fitz James Stephen questioned the validity of the halo created around the personality of the headmaster. Arnold's elegy, a tribute to his father, was a defense of the reputation of Arnold of Rugby. The poet's leter to his mother makes this aspect clear. "I knew.. that the Rugby Chapel poem would give you pleasure. Often and often it had been in my mind to say it to you, and have forborne because my own saying of my things does not please me. It was Fitz James Stephen's thesis, maintained in the Edinburgh Review of papa's being a narrow bustling fanatic which moved me first to the poem. I think I have done something to fix the true legend about papa as those who know him best feel it ought to run and this is much". The son had great regard to the father both as a man and for his father's contribution to the Public School System of England. Both the father and the son fought against the philistinism in society Arnold wrote to his mother that he (father) was not only a good man saving his own soul by righteousness, but carried so many others with him in his hand and saved them.

The son didn't have the same religious outlook as the father. Still he too was a champion of righteousness. The poem is a testimony to this fact. Doughlas Bush wrote, that the poem "seems to echo the themes of Dr. Arnold's Rugby Sermons. remembered or read, and in the latter half the religious tone and the character of the man are heightened by parallels with Moses leading the Israelites through the wilderness". Arnold was certain of the influence of his father's on a "feeble wavering line" of mankind.

In such hour of need

Of your fainting dispirited race

Ye like angels, appear

Radiant with arduous divine.

..............................................

Ye fill up the gaps in our files

Strengthen the wavering lines

Stablish, continue our march

On to the bound of the waste

On to the city of God.

The author's consciousness of the decline of values in society, and the need of strong men like Moses in leading mankind in the right path comes out, along with a gloomy and melancholic stoicism.

In Mycernius Arnold gives a sympathetic picture of the king. He complains of the listlessness and futility of life, in the following line from A Question

Love lends life a little grace

A few sad smiles; and then

Both are laid in one cold place

In the grave

Dreams dawn and fly, friends smile and die

Like spring flowers;

Our vaunted life is one long funeral

Men dig grave with bitter tears

For their dead hopes

Even the smiles are sad. Dreams and friends "smile and die" like summer flowers. The inevitability of the certain and impending death throws a pallour of melancholy here. One is reminded of the mood in Omar Khayyam's poetry as translated by Fitzgerald

It is a all a chequerboard of nights and days

Where destiny with me for pieces, plays.

Hither and thither moves and mates and stays.

And one by one back in the closet lays.

It appears the mood of melancholy was in the air of the time and it was discernible to all those intellectuals who cared to ponder over such things.

The dejection of Arnold, the cause which is vague appears to have become chronic. His mind seems to be immersed in gloom. The sight of a gipsy girl brings to his mind poppy flowers and grey haired kings who hated life. Writing on Shakespeare, in the sonnet, Arnold tells only of the pain and the grief, shunning the hilarious gaiety found in the romantic comedies. Even the sentiment of love that brightens up normal people does not alleviate the sense of his gloom. The Marguerite poems do not show him deriving any real happiness from his beloved. To Marguerite starts with We were apart" The thought of separation comes back to him causing anxiety and pain. Youth had been a "hated time" full of hurrying fever". A few people could be happy, for brief periods, but prolonging of that happiness brings in unhappiness to others. Happy thoughts might make some people happy but he says it "never shone" for him. In The Buried Life he says:

I feel a nameless sadness o'er me roll

Arnold, typically in his love poems, mentions a pair, grown old lamenting their faded and ignoble lives of by gone days. At the end of The Buried Life there is a hint that love may bring peace and more importantly a certainty, that he eagerly sought. He has a parallel in Coleridge, who too failed to arrive at the absolute either in love or in poetic inspiration. All the poems in the 1852 volume deals with the gloom that destiny casts on man. The poems of 1853-57 continues on the dejected tone. Requiescat is a beautiful poem, but ends in a dark note sympathising with the girl who has, gone to The vasty Hall of Death',

At the beginning in a tone of self pity he says, expressing a death-wish,

In quiet she reposes

Ah! would that did too.

Haworth Churchyard is an elegy on Emile Bronte, in conventional form. It deals with untimely death of a genius and unrealised hopes. The Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse give a picture of the troubled mind of the poet out of tune with his age. Like his Empedocles he is a misfit in his time. In one place he tells about the cowl'd forms".

Not as their child or friend I speak

But a few lines later he shows his preference for them and prays

Oh hide me in your gloom profound

Ye solemn seats of holy pain.

Perhaps these lines give an authentic clue to his gloom. Is it not to escape from the uncertainty and futility he found in life that he adopted the protection of chronic melancholy? Arnold's personal state of mind, spurred by the fast changing age, facing an uncertain future produced the whining tone of his poems. His mood brightened up, at least slightly by the time New Poems appeared in 1867 for there was a general brightening up in society too during the period. Certainly New Poems shows Arnold in a more hopeful mood. A Wish and The Last Word are poems on death, but contrasted with Growing Old is milder. In A Wish. the poet pictures himself letting his spirit go refreshed and ennobled, by the natural scenic beauty. The Last Word shows some bitterness, but the human spirit goes out, heroically. However one finds the dejection intensified in Dover Beach. There the poet says that:

The world; which seems

..........................................

So various, so beautiful, so new

Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light.

It is certainly the mood of dejection we find here, but then this poem was composed in the year 1850.

The poem Calais Sands, shows Arnold expressing the tenderness of love. It does not show the utter dejection found in the other love poems. In the Epilogue to Lessing's Lacoon the author talks enthusiastically about poetry:

Beethoven and Raphael cannot

The charm which Homer, Shakespeare teach.

Mankind should be more grateful to its poets than to painters or musicians. The labour, poets put into their art, is greater and this fact makes poets nearer to the hearts of people. Palladium shows that Arnold has learnt to "accept the universe", during his middle years. There is hope in the future.

Men will renew the battle in the plain,

To-morrow; red with blood will Xanthus be:

Hector and Ajax will be there again;

Helen will come upon the wall to see.

And the nobility of the human soul is upheld.

Still doth the soul, from its lone fastness high,

Upon our life a ruling effluence send;

And when it fails, fight as we will, we die.

And while it lasts, we cannot wholly end.

Arnold appeared to have realised by this time that life is a blessing with unlimited possibilities.

Despite the fact that the dejection pervading the earlier poems gave way to one of comparative satisfaction in later works, he never held a positive optimistic outlook on life. The best, one can hope in Life, Arnold suggests, is a state of calm. He points out to his sister Fausta, his conception of life that its "secret is not joy but peace", though earlier he had said that "calm's not life's crown". He also believed that man is not born for the calm of death. As in the Hindu philosophy, he seems to have had a belief that a "bliss on this side of death was possible. Early Death and Fame appear to have the message that one should live while one is young, so that in case of untimely death, one may have a feeling that one has lived.

Matthew Arnold as A Classicist Throughout His Poetry

2024-05-09T08:00:00.001+05:30

Mathew Arnold himself defined the classic, going into the Latin root of the words, as belonging to the best class. The literature of ancient Greece and Rome were considered to be the best in letters, especially after the European Renaissance. By the passage of time the word classic acquired a wider connotation. Anything that imbibed the spirit of the ancient Greece and Rome began to be considered classic or classical. The Greeks believed in proportion, harmony and balance in art and architect, literature and drama, music and dance and also in Iife. Restraint and moderation were considered necessary in reaching perfection, they thought. Strict formalism suppressed unwelcome emotional exuberance and richness of details. The Doric order of Architecture, as was shown in Parthenon would give an idea of the classic. A severe economy of expression, is the main characteristic of classicism. The unity of the whole, and the beauty arising out of it, are more important than beauty of individual parts. 'Perfection within limits' is the classicist's aim. They are concerned with what can be known, what can be clearly understood and appreciated in the light of pure reason. Nothing mysterious or vague is to be found in a classic work. If classicism in Architecture is represented by the Doric order of building like the Parthenon, a Gothic church with its rising spires and ornate decoration will represent the Romantic. However classicism and Romanticism cannot be neatly separated as pigeon holes. Overlapping of qualities can often be found, as in the poetry of Milton and Matthew Arnold, both avowed classicists. So also in the arch Romantics, Shelley and Keats one can trace classical veins. Cecil Day Lewis puts it very clearly.

We must resist the temptation, as strong now as ever it was, of dividing poets into teams and making them play against each other-alas, poor critic, having to referee a match in which the players, are constantly fraternizing, exchanging jerseys, running in the wrong direction and turning the rules to anarchy.

Matthew Arnold, a Classicist by bringing up and education, found in Victorian Literature all that is anti-classic; an emotional exuberance, fantastic flight of the fancy challenging reason and common sense, an escape into the irrationality and into medievalism, and an intensive subjectivity tending to the silly. He criticised those romantic tendencies in the most provocative way. A believer in the intellectual faculties and the critical spirit he attacks the licence the romantics took severely. In a letter to a friend, he wrote "Keats and Shelley were in the wrong track when they set themselves to reproduce the exuberance of expression, the charm, the richness of images and felicity of the Elizabethan poets".

Arnold declared his classical bent in his preface to his 1853 volumes, and declared war against the subjectivity and the individualism in contemporary literature. He emphasised the need of taking the Greek heritage as the model for the moderns. He wanted the classical spirit brought into English. Watson commenting on the Preface wrote, What we do want - and the 1853 preface might almost be considered a manifesto is the savour of Arnold's own sense of poetry of the romantics and the Elizabethans in favour of poems that are particular, precise and firm dealing with human actions not rooted in one time or place, but which most powerfully appeal to the great primary human affection; to choose elementary feelings which suits permanently in the race. Here in the grasp of essentials, lay the virtue of civilization of the Greeks:

They regarded the whole; "we regard the parts". Later in the advertisement to the second volume of poems and in his Oxford Lecture on The Modern Element in Literature" and in other writings, Arnold paid glowing tributes to the masters like Homer and Sophocles. Merope is a drama strictly following Sophocles. Arnold wanted the love of precision and arrangement, and a respect for the love of precision and arrangement, and a respect for Form brought into English Literature, to be worked as a corrective, against the excesses found among Victorians. Hugh Walker says that.

As regards his poetical method, Arnold is essentially classic, not romantic. Not since Milton, has there been any English poet more deeply imbued with the classical spirit. Arnold was so by native predilection; as but his innate tendency was strengthened by the operation of a principle he was never tired of insisting upon - the principle that what we ought to attempt should be determined for us by a consideration of what is needful.....

Arnold's own design was "to tone down what was excessive and to supply what was deficit".

His ideas led him to Hellenism and to emphasise the importance of the whole rather than being content with the beauty of the separate parts. He advocated lucidity, restraints and proportion, the essence of his classicism. However, at times only, he chose an ancient theme for his poetry, in the Greek manner and when he did so, sometimes he succeeded but sometimes failed. Merope is a case where he chose the ancient theme and failed. The story of Empedocles is old, but the idea happened to be quite modern. In the chant of Empedocles, the reader can hear Arnold speaking of his own predicament. But in all of his poems, one can find, just like in the Greeks, a definiteness of thought, and a lucidity of expression. Never does the exuberance of expression in the romantic manner enter his poems. However, he didn't think that the Neo-classicism of Dryden and Pope was to be the model. Arnold knew pretty well that their age was the age of prose and real poetry is absent in their versification. A sort of spiritual east wind was blowing drying up poetic sensibilities. Arnold makes his view very well clear, in his telling manner, in his Study of Poetry. "Dryden and Pope are not classics of our poetry, they are the classics of our prose". He distinguishes genuine poetry from that of the 18th century Neoclassical poetry as follows. While "Their poetry is composed and conceived in their wits, genuine poetry is composed and conceived in the soul". However he qualifies the age as "our excellent and indispensable eighteenth century". Their clarity of thought and vision helped the nineteenth century to correct its mistiness and mysticism.

Arnold objected to the romantic poetry on two counts, firstly for its own intrinsic weakness and secondly for its unwelcome social effects.

Born at a time when romantic poets had their heyday, he could not escape some of the influence of romantic poetry even if he wished to do so. His tastes were too catholic and his intelligence too sharp to deliberately avoid that influence. The lovely apostrophe he wrote in prose to Oxford declares how he was immersed in the romantic spirit. In his poems too, despite his loudly declared classicism, we find romanticism lurking now in a love for myth, now in an appreciation for the exuberance of a Keats now by imitating the style of the sensuous Keats and always in the all pervading melancholy of his poems. He admired Shelley not at all, Keats only lately, and was fully aware of the demerits of Coleridge along with his strong points. However, he admired the spirit and power that is found in the Elizabethan literature. But he found Chapman's translation of Homer faulty for the classical plainness and directness was missing in it. Instead fancifulness, characteristic fancifulness, of the Elizabethan, has gone into it. Even in Shakespeare he found many drawbacks especially in the tortured passages, faulty diction and fantastic imagery though in the Sonnet he addressed him and mentioned,

Others abide our question; Thou art free.

The classicist in Arnold recommends, Milton as the model for English writers. And he is all praise for Milton's classical style which according to him is superior to even Shakespeare's. He declares in The Study of Poetry that,

Shakespeare is divinely, strong rich and attractive. But sureness of perfect style Shakespeare himself does not possess...Milton, from one end of Paradise Lost to the other, is in his diction and rhythm is constantly a great artist in the great style.

Temperamentally Arnold was against the romantic exuberance in poetry. For a century or so, romantic poetry was getting involved more and more into medievalism. Arnold thought that, its grotesqueness, its conceits, its irrationality" were its characteristic drawbacks. Eccentricity, arbitrariness and self will (in other words subjectivity in its extreme) resulted from romance; unity is neglected and exaggerated importance was given to isolated purple patches. He says;

We have poems which seem to exist merely for the sake of simple lines and passages; not for the sake of producing any total impression. We have critics who seem to direct their attention merely to detached expressions, to the language about the action, not to the action itself.

Certainly, it is the opinion of a classicist who considers a unified whole better than the sum of its ununified parts. In the same vein, he has something to say about Isabella, that sensuous poem of Keats. It is a "perfect treasure, house of graceful and felicitous words and images" but "is absolutely null" in producing a total effect. Arnold was convinced that the romantics were wrong in paying too much attention to the parts at the cost of the total effect of a poem. The pre-raphailite poets who went to an extreme form of romanticism according to Arnold did not realise that the peculiar effect of Nature resides in the whole and not in the parts".

Arnold considered that romanticism in English was doubly dangerous because the romantic spirit was innate to the English nation. As a corrective to this tendency Arnold recommends the rules of classicism. In several of his essays from the Preface to the 1853 edition of his poems, he emphasised his firmly held belief that the classical spirit and style can enrich the English literature. For, though English was rich in many respects, it was deplorably deficient in classical quality. At least he thought so. He admired the "calm, cheerfulness, disinterested objectivity" of classic Greek literature. He found the idea of the whole dominating in the Greek works. Further what he calls the grand style is to be found in them; the equal to that could be seen among only two of the moderns-Dante and Milton. In Divine Comedy and Paradise Lost, there is nothing superfluous, and the qualities of those two epics are what is needed in English literature. The grand style of those two are not at all found among the contemporaries. The calm, cheerfulness of those works will act as a curative for the "sick hurry" and divided aims" of the troubled life of the times allowing man once again to "possess his soul".

Charmed by the beauties of classical literature. Arnold aimed at bringing in restraint and simplicity into his own poems. The "wild disorder of Romanticism" was disparaged often. What he wanted were balance order, design and care in architectonics. With those ideals in mind he went for a choice diction that contributed to accuracy and fitness. And he has succeeded in realizing his aims in the best of his works. Thyrsis, The Scholar Gipsy, Resignation, Dover Beach, The Buried Life, Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse, A Summer Night and Sohrab and Rustum are some of them. Even in his not-so-successful poems, his love for classicism can be evidently found in the choice of the theme, in the detachment or subjectivity and in the choice of diction and images. Sohrab and Rustum, probably is the best of his classic poems, showing all the classical features the author admired. It is an epic poem in miniature. Fate seems to reign supreme and both Sohrab and Rustum resign themselves to fate. The diction is restrained through-out, after the classical fashion. The story is noble revealing "primary human affections" which are of perennial importance. The coding helps the reader to accept the course of fate; leaving him animated and ennobled. Though there are some un-Homeric descriptions of the river Oxus, the similes are surely classical. The slain Sohrab remains,

Like some rich hyacinth, which by the scythe

Of an unskillful gardener has been cut,

Mowing the garden grass-plots near its bed

And lies, a fragrant tower of purple bloom

On the mown dying grass--so Sohrab lay,

Lovely in death, upon the common sand.

The Scholar Gipsy and Thyrsis are cast in the pastoral mould. He has followed Theocritus, Bion and Moschus, outwardly, though he has differed substantially from them in their conception. Arnold himself was not fully satisfied with The Scholar Gipsy.

We find him writing to Clough,

I am glad you like The Gipsy Scholar - but what does it do for you? Homer animates - Shakespeare animates - in its poor way I think Sohrab and Rustum animates. The Gipsy Scholar at best awakens a pleasing, melancholy.

But this is not what we want.

The complaining millions of men

Darken in labour and pain,

What they want is something to animate and ennoble them - not merely to add zest to their melancholy or grace to their dreams.

The nostalgic feeling of the scholar for Oxford, certainly, is romantic. Thyrsis is probably a better piece because of its quiet tender note. Swinburne wrote about its style, that, "No poem can be more perfect as a model style unsurpassable certainly, it may be unattainable". The diction is classical. The debt to Theocritus is more evident.

The name Thyrsis is found in Virgil's Eclogues, and in the Idylls of Theocritus. Resignation, certainly shows the influence of Lucretius and is an "assertion of the way, to human freedom in the abandonment of the romantic temperament". The Buried Life and Dover Beach are love poems, but they do not show any exuberance of emotional outflow. They show the classical restraint in depicting feelings but the feeling of incertitude and the melancholic love is romantic. In some of his other poems, not considered best, also one finds his classicism. Merope is a classical tragedy where the classical rules set by Aristotle in Poetics are observed. Arnold himself thought it to be:

The most complete reproduction in English of the forms and conventions of Sophoclean tragedy.

Even the severe critics of Arnold agree that in Merope the classical form is meticulously followed. There is a genuine Hellenic quality in it, but only in the form, and the spirit is lacking. As W. P. Ker says it

Falls into the cold empty space where nothing lives but vacant, the pithless phantoms of mere form". Empedocles on Etna is a poem classical theme but romantic in treatment. Arnold himself withdrew "the poem as he thought that in it "the suffering finds no vent in action; in which incident, hope or resistance in which there is everything to be endured, nothing to be done.

The two fragments Antigone and Dejaneira were pieces where Arnold aimed at classical destiny, but in those rose above classicism, according to some critics. Arnold wrote to Clough "But my Antigonc supports me and in some degree subjugates destiny". While writing Dejaneira, he had the thought of the death of his 18 year old son in his mind.

W. H. Hudson sums up his evaluation of Arnold's poetry like this:

"Arnold's poetry has in a high degree the classic qualities of pose temperance and reserve. Careful workmanship and purity and dignity of style are among its prominent technical features. Though his ear was not perfect, his lyrical measures are generally satisfying, while his blank verse has a stately movement of its own. His moral spirit is always noble and his fine stoicism prevents his melancholy from becoming debilitating, But his austerity and apparent coldness and his want of joyful and bounding emotion have stood in the way of his popularity and he is still a master for the cultured few".

Hudson has traced the classical in him carefully. Arnold had a clear idea what ideal poetry should be. However the inhibitions that worked on him and his constraint in sensibilities prevented him from becoming a greater poet than what he had become. To him Wordsworth and Byron were the two chief poets of the century. However he didn't possess the sixth sense of Wordsworth; neither did he have the abandonment to passion one finds in Byron. The Switzerland lyrics show him, though not as a master of passion, certainly not as a slave of it. The elegiac and not the pure lyric, appears to suit him best. This is so because of his natural melancholic resignation in his mental make up. His best poems are where he was inspired by his love for a friend, a brother, a father or a university.

Arnold's poetry is the poetry of a scholar and critic. He had learned from the Greeks that a good poem, must have a good subject, must be beautiful not in patches but as a whole, orderly, lucid, and sane. He disliked, had felt their charm, the insubstantiality of Shelley, Tennyson's jewellery and the eccentricity and obscurity of Browning though he himself. The Sonnet To a Friend clearly talks of his regards for the classical poet,

Who saw life steadily and saw it whole

However there is an element of clear romanticism in him. Perhaps he could not prevent the spirit of the age influencing him. The Neckan, The Forsaken Merman, the nostalgia filled description of the Oxford countryside in The Scholar Gipsy, the scenic description of the Alps in Obsermann Once More, are all romantic in the true sense of the term. In To a Gipsy Child there is the blending of the romantic and the classic. And in A Summer Nigh, possibly the best of Arnold, we find him rising above classicism and romanticism, giving free play to his sorrow at the death of a dear brother.

Arnold is an intellectual poet but not a didactic poet aiming at teaching. His poetry is mainly moral in spirit, but he escapes didacticism because the moral substance is always passionately conceived. And he presented it in a poetic style which rarely faltered.

God, Soul and Man in Matthew Arnold's Poetry

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Arnold who was certainly more intellectual than Tennyson or Browning felt very deeply, the clash between the advancing rational scientific spirit on the one hand and the orthodox religion and the belief in a personal God on the other. He mentioned it quite clearly in the Study of Poetry "Our religion has materialised itself in the fact, in the supposed fact, it has attached its emotion to the fact, and now the fact is failing it". Arnold is certainly talking of the scientific spirit spreading and exploding the myth, "the supposed fact" of religion. Brought up under the Oak of the devoutly religious, Dr. Arnold, his father, the great headmaster of Rugby, he too had attached his emotion to the "Supposed fact" of the religion. But then he had other influences too in him, about whom he mentions in the Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse. He says,

Rigorous teachers siezed my youth

And purged its faith, and trimm'd its fire

Show'd me the high white star of Truth

There bade me gaze and there aspire.

He was too much of an intellectual to continue believing in the myths and superstitions of orthodox religion. However, his love, respect and regard for his father and what that great man stood for, too was lying buried in Arnold. Many people attribute the cause of the Arnoldian melancholy, to this conflict of ideas in his min; that between reason and religion. Consciously reason won and in no way could he "believe" in the tenets of orthodox Christianity. At the same time the sub-conscious which retained the childhood influence kept lingering on. So we find him, a restless soul;

Wandering between two worlds, one dead

The other powerless to be born

With nowhere yet to rest.

The grown up Arnold had no belief in God, as the Christian religion perceived Him. He had grown into what may be called an agnostic. The mystical faculty which made Tennyson and Browning believers was not developed in Arnold. However he believed in Certain Ultimate Truth and Beauty. It is possible to have a vision of this ultimate, in some glimpses, through the realisation of love. Man may get a glimpse of it when his beloved responds to his love. He says in The Buried Life

Then he thinks he knows

The hill where his life rose

And the Sea where it goes.

Sometimes man gets this glimpse from Nature fully subjectively. In A Summer Night we find the poet telling to the heaven and the stars,

I will rather say that you remain

A world above man's head, to let him see

How boundless might his soul's horizons be,

How vast, yet of what clear transparency.

The laboriousness of life in contrast with the effortless working of nature is treated in Morality. In it Nature says,

There is no effort on my brow

I do not strive, I do not weep

I rush with the swift spheres and glow

In joy and when I will, I sleep.

But Nature "wore manacles of space" in some other clime and space

'T was when the heavenly house I trod

And lay upon the breast of God.

Arnold's conception of the "sacred world" forming itself silently in the imagination of God, taking shape, form and colour is found in this.

In Utrumque Paratus tells that

In the silent mind of One all-pure

At first imagin'd lay

The sacred world

Man can enter this coloured dream of God by achieving a "lovely pureness". This is similar to that of the experience of a mystic. But he defers from a mystic by admitting that this universe might have come into existence, caused by material forces alone, with man not the part of the dream.

Though an agnostic, reference to the word God appears in many of Arnold's poems. We see in Self Dependence his description of man

Bounded by themselves, and unobservant

In what state God's other works may be,

The idea of God and man's relations with Him appears in Rugby Chapel

Servants of God! - or sons

Shall I not call you because'd

Not as servants ye knew

Your Father's innermost mind.

A few lines later he tells of

A God

Marshall'd them, gave them their goal

The end of the poem gives a picture of the memory of his father leading people,

On to the City of God.

In Isolation, one finds the relationship between God and Man.

Who order'd that their longing's fire

Should be, as soon as kindled, cool'd? Who renders vain their deep desire-

A God, a God their severance rul'd;

And bade betwixt their shores to be

The unplumb'd, salt, estranging sea'.

In the first, man is ungrateful to his God while in the second the God appears to be unjust causing the "estranging sea" that isolates man.

In Progress God is depicted as only a power;

The unseen Power whose eye

For ever doth accompany mankind.

However, he is with the revolutionary Christ who redefines the old ideas of God. The poem opens with the Master (Jesus Christ) preaching from the mount as the disciples listen with "a fire" in their eyes. They said "The old law is wholly come to naught". The reply of Jesus is, "Ye keep that law More faithfully" than the Scribes and Pharisees. Arnold talks admirably about what "Christ said eighteen hundred years ago about God and religion. God "hath look'd on no religion scornfully that man did ever find". Not only that, religion has done good things to man. Christ asks, about religion,

Which has not taught weak wills how much they can,

Which has not fall'n on the dry heart like rain,

Which has not cried to sunk, self-weary man:

Thou must be born again!

However, on the whole, Arnold's conclusions about man are not of an optimist; he has nothing cheering to say about mankind. Most men live a life without any meaning, as if in a prison as if they are the slaves. Those who escape the prison walls behave very irresponsibly and come to grief. They are the madmen. Is there not any alternative to these two kinds of life, he asks,

Madmen or slave, must man be one?

There may be other possibilities, but Arnold does not see a third group of people, neither slaves nor madmen, some sane workers and inspired thinkers. How ever, Rugby Chapel shows his belief in some, who pursue a worthy ideal. But even those are likely to fall by the wayside unless strengthened and supported by great souls like his father, the great headmaster.

Man has a dual character according to Arnold. Outwardly he is frivolous, and futile in behaviour. But in him remains, rather hides, a "genuine self" his true value. Man has a deep urge in him to realize his "genuine self", the truth about himself. However, he does not succeed in fulfilling the urge; this failure leads to sadness. In addition to this dualism in man, there is the feeling of loneliness that surrounds him.

The separation is between man and man, between man and society, between his own self and his outward appearance. Arnold like Omar Khayyam tries to excuse the weaknesses of man by attributing the responsibility to the action of God. It is God who had ordered man's isolation.

A God, a God their severance ruled.

In another Marguerite poem too this idea is seen. The poet's desire to marry Marguerite is frustrated by God.

It is rather ironic that an intellectual, like Arnold should find the devil" or the powers of Fate, responsible for follies of man and the ills of life. The skeptic in him didn't believe that man's reason would lead to a divine end. The striving of humans do not serve any purpose. For the long-battered world uplifts its wall" as an unbreachable fort". Man's effort is a blindfolded one. Dover Beach makes it amply clear. In the end it is mentioned, that the world which seems so beautiful and so new like a land of dreams is

A darkling plain

Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,

Where ignorant armies clash by night.

The feeling of powerlessness and loneliness is very much upon the poet. However, he cannot be a full-fledged agnostic. The roar of sea of faith, though withdrawing, is heard clearly. One may consider him driving in the sea of life away from his moorings. Often he longs for the past when faith gives a direction and a certainty to man's life. In The Scholar Gipsy we find him envying the Gipsy,

Born in days when wits were fresh and clear

And life ran gaily as the sparkling Thames.

And

Still nursing the unconquerable hope

Still clutching the inviolable shadest

In Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse we find him waiting on the cowl'd forms and declaring

Their faith, my tears, the world deride

I come to shed them at their side.

However he is not for the monastic life. Rigorous teachers, during his youth, urged him to aspire for truth and he cannot seek shelter in the monastic life for solace. Such an act will be doing ill service to those teachers by denying their truth. He admits

I seek these anchorites, not in ruth

To curse and to deny your truth.

Further the "melancholy, long withdrawing roar" of the sea of faith reminds him of the futility in anchoring on to something that is already dying out. Religion was a moribund thing to Arnold and it offered no consolation, though he lingers around it, vainly probing for the needed calm and peace.

He could get a little of the needy comfort and consolation from Nature. However the doubts about, and discontent in a Power that causes severe loneliness to man is not subdued. W. L. Jones notes this point when he says

"By a strange irony, it was the lot of a poet who found these mighty consolations in life of Nature to pine with noting the fever of his own soul to such an extent as to mark him out among the poets of the Victorian age as the one who articulates more distinctly than any other the cry of the maladie die siecle - the doubts, disputes, distractions, fears of an iron time. He has no certain spiritual anodynes to proscribe to those who suffer from the sickness beyond a stoical recognition of the paramount claims of beauty, and an effort to live 'self-poised', like the powers of Nature, until we feel our souls becoming vast like them. But in spite of these counsels of fortitude, we find the poet him-self often possessed by a wistful yearning to make for some impossible shore, agitated and stretching his hands for something beyond".

About 'soul' as conceived by Christian religion Arnold has nothing to say. However, he talks of a soul in Palladium

So in its lovely moonlight, lives the soul.

Mountains surround it, and sweet virgin air;

Cold plashing, past it, crystal waters roll;

We visit it by moments, ah! too rare.

It is far different from the Christian concept of soul. It is some vague sort of Universal Will, Beauty or Truth. However it has, according to Arnold, some definite influence on man, which is made clear in the last lines of Palladium.

Still doth the soul from its lone fastness high

Upon our life, a ruling effluence send;

And when it fails, fight as we will, we die

And while it lasts, we cannot wholly end.

The belief in the immortality of the soul in some peculiar way, is present here; also found is a belief that man cannot "wholly end" as long as the soul exists. However it is not the accepted Christian notion about soul and its immortality. The poem Self Dependence gives another hint about a different concept of the soul. In it he identifies the soul with the self. Man can possess the soul when he discovers himself by leading a serene life, the contemplative life. In the last stanza of the poem he hears a voice, perhaps from the soul,

O air born Voice! long since severely clear, A cry like thine in my own heart I hear.

Resolve to be thyself: and know that he

Who finds himself, loses his misery.

But this is no solution to the problem at all. How to find oneself? What exactly does he mean by a serene life? Contemplating on what? All these remain unanswered. In Bacchanalia we find a depiction of the beauty of spiritual quiet. Memorial Verses, show him admiring Wordsworth's quietism, and its healing power. Wordsworth like Arnold himself,

...too upon a wintry clime

Had fallen - on this iron time

Of doubts, disputes, distractions fears.

But

He laid us as we lay at birth

On the cool flowery lap of earth;

Smiles broke from us and we had ease.

The Scholar Gipsy is the utmost in quietism. The first stanza of the poem ends with a "quest", "Come shepherd and again renew the quest". The poem tells of Arnold's own quest to arrive at a peace, or a calm or a balance. But he could not attain it. He has nothing, neither religion nor rationality, to help in this quest. Occasionally he ponders around the shores of the sea of faith where he could only hear its long withdrawing roar and see the shingles. Occasionally we find him honouring the rigorous teachers who made him aspire for the Truth. But neither did they give his restless soul, the needy comfort. Nature at times gave him solace, but those occasions were rare. He talks of a soul, but only in uncertain terms. He talks sometimes of a power, which is occasionally indifferent, but sometimes causing the unhappiness of man. On the whole his ideas on God, soul religion etc. is an amorphous one, never crystallising into something concrete. Though almost an agnostic, he cannot accept an amoral life. Perhaps he is the typical representative of the Victorian restlessness. This restlessness itself is caused by the lack of certainty in matters of religion, God and man's place in the immense universe. Being an intellectually honest man he was baffled by the world around him and he asked enquiring questions. Those questions were so fundamental that he could not get clear answers. However this questioning eventuality itself was the sign of a search for a God, or for the need of a religion. In all this he was perhaps, modern, a misfit among the compromising Victorians.