11 Matthew Arnold
Dr. Beena Agarwal
Learning Outcomes
The student will get an opportunity to get a detailed analysis of the three representative poems of Arnold ‘Dover Beach’, ‘the Scholar Gipsy’ and ‘The Buried Life’. A detail introduction of Victorian age along the vision and biographical sketch of Arnold will help the students to construct a clear vision about the poetic creed and poetic sensibility of Arnold presented in those poems. Exercises in the form of long questions, explanation and multiple choice questions will help learners to make an application and assessment of their acquired knowledge. Bibliography will open the windows for further reading on the poetic art of Mathew Arnold.
Introduction
The year 1837, the year of the accession of Queen Victoria, is usually designated as the beginning of the Victorian age. It was an era of drastic changes in every field of life – religious, scientific, social, political, industrial and intellectual activities. In the social arena, the growing industrialization paved the way for prosperity but the industrial expansion resulted in the emergence materialism, collapse of spiritual values, discontent, despair and unrest. The intellectual climate of Victorian era led to the emergence of ideas, beliefs and unconventional value system. The rational approach to established faiths brought a radical charge leading to the conflict between science and religion, doubt and faith. The growing skepticism led to the atmosphere of gloom, melancholy helplessness. It is expressed by the eminent writers of the time – Tennyson, Arnold, Fitzgerald and Thomas Hardy. In the works of Carlyle, Dickens, Newman Hardy Tennyson there are faithful accounts of the social order of Victorian era. They recommended the cause of conventional morality to escape the dreadful influence of rationalism, intellectualism and industrial values. In the Victorian poetry there is a fine blending of classical and romantic elements. It is said, “The social conscience was the creation of Victorian Age.”
Matthew Arnold : A Biographical Sketch
Matthew Arnold is a representative voice of Victorian Age. He is a versatile genius who performed the rule of a critic, poet, social thinker and art critic. Michael Thorpe observes Arnold as “the most prolific of the great Victorian.” Arnold was born at Thames side village of Laleham in the year 1822. His father Dr. Thomas Arnold was the Head Master of Rugby School. From his father, Arnold inherited the influence of high sense of duty, sublime moral ideas and brooding perception on the panorama of human conditions. He got his early education in Rugby School and in 1840 a scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford. In 1845, he was elected a Fellow of Oriel. His literary career was formed in the company of eminent poets like Arthur Clough, Arthur Stanley and J.C. Sharp. On Clough’s death, he composed his famous elegy Thyrasis. In 1851, he was appointed as Inspector of Schools, a post of exceptional dignity and distinction. In the capacity of the Inspector of Schools he made significant contribution for the expansion and promotion of education in England. He recommended the cause of liberal culture and the spread of the best of knowledge for the survival of humanity on this planet. In 1851, he was married to Miss Wightman. In 1857, Arnold was appointed Oxford Professor of Poetry. Here his lectures being of exceptional significance were published in the volume On Translating Homer (1861), On Translating Homer Last Words (1862) and Celtic Literature (1867). In his life time, Arnold got tremendous appreciation and popularity for his poetic achievements and literary vision. In 1870, the Oxford University conferred on him the P.C.L. Degree. In 1833, he was offered by Gladstone as Civil List Pension of 250 pounds as a token of his public recognition of his timeless contribution. Arnold also traveled to America as visiting Professor and his lectures delivered there were published under the title Discoveries in America (1885) and Civilization in the United States (1889). In 1888, he died while catching a train for Liverpool. On the death of Arnold, Lionel Trilling tributes, “It was not merely the death of a Christian but quite at surely the death of a Roman of the great mould, republican, stoic, administrative. For the aim of Arnold’s life long though and art was an idealized and Christianized Roman empire, its correct stone responsibility, its pinnacle unity.”
Matthew Arnold in his life time produced a large number of works including his poetry, prose and critical writings.
Arnold’s Poetical Works
Arnold’s poetical works were published in seven volumes as :
(i) The Strayed Reveler and other Poems by “A”, 1849.
(ii) Empedocles and Etna and Other Poems by “A”, 1852.
(iii) Poems, 1853.
(iv) Poems Second Series, 1855.
(v) Merope: A Tragedy, 1858.
(vi) New Poems, 1867.
(vii) Poems, Collected Edition, 1869.
Arnold’s Strayed Reveler is written on Greek pattern. It reminds the reader of Milton’s Camus. This volume contains 27 poems. The poems contained in this volume invited hostile criticism published in reviews of Blackwood Magazine. Arnold’s famous Sonnet appeared also in this volume.
In Empedocles and Etna, Arnold presented two sequences of love poems but it also could not attract the appreciation of critics. In 1853, Arnold presented this volume of poems with some of his masterpieces Sohrab and Rustam, Church of Bro and The Scholar Gipsy. The enlarged version of volume was published in 1855. Merope came out in the year 1858. It is based on the convention of Sophoclean tragedy. It centres round Merope, the daughter of Cyphus. It is designed on the lines of Greek tragedy but lacks unity of action, and the required tragic force. The collection entitled New Poems came out in the year 1867. It contains the well known poems Thyrasis, Rugby Chapel, Progress of Poesy, A Southern Night, Dover Beach, Immortality, Stanzas from the Grade Chartreuse. The poems in the volume are remarkable for exceptional merit, serious ethical ideas and reflections on the conditions of human life. Arnold’s poetry is remarkable for his concern for the growing materialism, loss of values, melancholic note and lyrical intensity. In his poems, Arnold has proved himself as a successful interpreter of the age by adopting the doctrine of “poetry as criticism of life.”
Matthew Arnold’s Prose Works
In literary world, Arnold enjoyed on distinctive position as art critic and social critic. In his prose writings, his critical vision is to be found in his ‘Preface’ to 1853 volume of his Poems and his two series of criticism, published in his two series of Essays in Criticism published in 1865 and 1869 respectively. His literary criticism appeared in On Translating Homer (1861), On Translating Homer : Last Words (1862), On The Study of Celtic Literature (1867). In these critical essays, he presents his views on subject matter, nature, function of poetry etc. In the preface added to the tragedy Merope, he presents his views on the idea of a great play. In On Translating Homer and in its sequel On Translating Homer: Last Words (1862), Arnold expresses his monumental doctrine of Grand Style. He appreciates Milton, Dante and Homer as the Masters of Grand Style. His well known critical work On the Study of Celtic Literature, is a series a lectures delivered at Oxford in 1865-66. He propounds his views to promote the idea of Celtic literature. He appreciates Celtic literature for its ‘melancholia’, ‘vagueness’ and ‘natural magic.’ Appreciating the significance of this work, F.L. Lucas comments, “Its appearance in 1865 was something of literary sensation, by reason of its style, the novelty and confidence of its opinions and wide and curious range of its subjects.” In the second series of English Criticism, he presents the essays ‘The Study of Poetry’, essays on the six great poets – Milton, Gray, Wordsworth, Byron, Shelley and Keats. In ‘The Study of Poetry’ Arnold defines poetry as criticism of life and further defends the qualities of ‘high seriousness’ and moral values as the basic elements of good poetry. For his unconventional approach to poetry, David Daiches appreciates him as ‘the great modern poet.’
Arnold as a writer expresses his comprehensive views on the issues related to education. In his capacity as Inspector of School, he saw the crisis related to the maintenance and survival of schools. He presented the reports on the system of schools. These reports were published under the title Popular Education in Frame, Holland, Switzerland in 1871.
In Arnold’s prose writings, there are sufficient references to social, political and religious criticism also. He expressed his view on social political issues in the pamphlets entitled England and Italian Question published in 1859. Arnold’s Culture and Anarchy (1969) is a monumental work on the issue of social and political ideals. J.D. Jump calls Culture and Anarchy as “The wisest and wittiest of his longer prose works.” Arnold’s social and political criticism are contained in Mixed Essays (1879), Irish Essays (1882), Discourses in America (1885) and Civilization in the United States (1888). In this series of Essays, he criticizes America for its materialistic approach to life, growing vulgarity, restlessness and the uncontrollable sense of self importance. In the religious views are contained in St. Paul and Protestantism (1870), Literature and Dogma (1873), God and Bible (1871) and The Last Essay on Church and Religion (1873). In his religious views, Arnold in his emphasis on religious conduct, gives importance to chastity, purity and uncompromising faith in chastity. He expresses his digust for unconventional orthodoxy. In God and The Bible, Arnold tries to refute the objections raised by theologians against his views expressed in Literature and Dogma.
Arnold’s Critical Principles and Theory of Poetry
Matthew Arnold was not only a poet but also an eminent critic who presented his critical arguments regarding art, poetry, social ideology and religious faiths. His literary criticism is to be found in Essays in Criticism(1865), Mixed Essays (1879) and Discoveries in America (1885). The basic elements of his critical principles can be cited below:
1. Arnold in his critical principle, has tried to find a balance of the genius of author and the demands of epoch without the harmony of power of man and the power of age, fine creative literature is not possible.
2. Arnold is confident that poetic thoughts can be presented both in verse and prose. He presents a clear cut distinction between prose and poetry.
He accepts the “excellent and indespensible” 18th century in the age of “prose and reason”. For an expressive prose, he admits the qualities of regularity, precision and balance.
3. The significant element of Arnold’s theory is that ‘Poetry is the Criticism of Life.’ For him ‘criticism’ denotes the idea of ‘application of ideas of life.’ In poetic creation, Arnold demands a subject of distinct and of ‘Considerable Magnitude’. He also recommends the qualities of ‘high seriousness’ and of ‘grand style’. The subject master of poetry must include not only human action but also sublime thought which is depository of spiritual aspirations of the human race. Only these thoughts are fit for poetic presentation that can be absorbed in the moral speculations of man. For his essential concern with the sublimity of life, his poetry is essentially moral.
4. Regarding the object of poetry, Arnold admits that poetry has a higher mission i.e. to bring man in harmony with life. He admits that poetry is superior to religion, science and philosophy. According to Arnold, the function of poetry is to discover ideas upon which creative literature must grow.
5. Arnold comes to a significant conclusion that the test of poetry is its truth, its interpretive power. The truth of poetry is the truth of feeling. Poetry uses the logic of feelings as well as logic of science. The range of poetry is comprehensive because it can interpret the whole man. Poetry interprets both by natural magic and by its exceptional moral profundity.
Arnold propounded his theory of poetry and poetic ideals in The Preface to the Poems of 1853. He tries to establish that the role of poetry is not only to make addition to the field of knowledge but to enhance the sustaining force of life. According to Arnold, “poetry should have for its treatment noble and excellent action to be rendered in noble and dignified language.” Arnold recommends the action of the poem is more important for the poet. The action of the poem must have a unity. He was influenced by the ideals of Greek poets “they regard the whole and we regard the part.”According to Arnold, the noble and profound application of ideas is significant in poetry. Arnold indicates that poet is not a dreamer of life or a creature governed by fanciful imagination but a living being vitally interested in the problems of life.
Arnold admits that “poetry is a criticism of life.” It is, therefore, in his poems, the general atmosphere is reflective and critical. In his poems, Arnold presents an authentic criticism of the poets and the general conditions of his time. In his celebrated poems, Thyrsis, The Scholar Gipsy, Resignation, and A Southern Night, Arnold presents ‘the life of the age, the life of his country, and the lives of individuals.’ Arnold in his poetry, presents his contempt for the passion for power and materialism growing fast in his age. In The Scholar Gipsy, he presents the conflict between science and religion, doubt and faith.
In the essay On Translating homer (1861), Arnold promotes the concept of Grand Style defining the notion of Grand Style, he explains, “arises in poetry when a noble nature poetically gifted treats with simplicity or severity a serious subject.” Affections and artificiality are hurdle to the process of grand style. Grand style possess the quality to elevate, to console and to sustain the virtues of sublimity. Simplicity in thought and nobility in expression are the basic qualities of sublimity. In the words of George Sainsbury, “Grand style must possess the power of transmuting the subject and transporting the reader.” For Matthew Arnold, sublime thoughts and sublime expression are interdependent elements. Great subjects require great style – for the sublimity and application of Grand style, Arnold appreciates Great masters of Grand style – Homer, Virgil, Sophacles, Dante and Milton. he also appreciates, Chaucer, Milton, Shakespeare and Wordsworth.
Critics on Arnold
“Arnold poetry is comparative small in amount but extra ordinary in its beauty. Few poets have stepped so certainly and surely in into the circle of classics. This as has been said, no doubt is due to the main to two causes, an almost perfect workmanship and the response offered to the deeper sadder thoughts which visit even the most careless at some time or other.” (W.A.-Renaissance in Modern Literature)
“There is severity rather than passions in his poetry. He will never be favourite with ardent, impetuous temperament. He is so severe, too child for the sensitive emotion of youth. In conclusion, we can take note of the poet’s fastidious workmanship and of the many rhythmic with which his work around.” (A.C. Rickett – History of English Literature)
“All through Arnold’s poetry there runs that upper tone of sadness – a feature which puts him to great disadvantage as poet when compared with the contemporaries. Browning and Tennyson with their cherry optimism.” (P. Wilson – Leaders in Literature)
“… as a poet he is seldom mediocre, he is either musical unmusical seldom merely musical, and either Apollo visit him and carries him off, or else Apollo deserts him finding that one ‘haunt’ in particular of Matthew Arnold’s namely the pulpit is by no means meet for ‘Apollo’. (Oliver Elton – The Survey of English Literature)
“With Matthew Arnold, beauty was more consciously the object of a desire and cult. He had the fine sensibility of the scholar and his mind was deep imprinted with all the teaching of ancient art. His imagination fondly dwells upon Greek scenes and times… His poetry has the stamp of intellectualism and no writer better represents the new character of the Victorian Age, in it contrast with Romantic period. The poetical work of Arnold is not absolutely in the front rank of literature.” (Legouis and Cazamian) “Arnold’s verse shouts feeling under control, emotion singing through bridled. In poetry both feeling and control must be aesthetic; the poet’s motion must be roused by beauty and those other high essence amid which he is privileged to dwell and the control must be that artistic sensibility.” (H.C. Duffin)
The Scholar Gipsy : An Introduction
Arnold’s celebrated poem The Scholar Gipsy is a poetic account of an Oxford Scholar who left the University about 200 years ago. As a Vagabond, he joined the company of gypsies and shared their knowledge. Arnold got inspiration for this story in Joseph Glanville’s book The Vanity of Dogmas – Zinc. Arnold made a reference to this book in his pocket diary. The poem was composed during a visit to Oxford and it was included in Arnold’s Third volume of poems published in November, 1853. Through this story, Arnold intended to present his own vision of the criticism of life of modern age. In the character of scholar Gipsy, he appreciates the life of a person who is interested in gipsy’s way of life. In his idea of Gipsy’s life, Arnold was also influenced by Wordsworth’s Gypsies and the work of George Barrow. The story of Oxford scholar provided him an opportunity to explore the complexities of contemporary world with all its “Sick hurry” and the “strange disease of modern life.” Arnold borrowed the story from Glanville’s work but made significant alteration to realize his purpose. The idea of the pursuit of occult knowledge has been presented by Arnold as a symbolic representation of the pursuit of Truth in modern age. In The Scholar Gipsy, the scholar is not mere a Vagabond but a seeker of truth. In his pursuit, he represents the virtues of innocence, intuitive wisdom and the uncompromising power of intellect. The emphasis on the qualities of occult and supernatural have been ignored by Arnold. He reconstructs the image of scholar to expose spiritual unrest, despair, nostalgia and growing pessimism in the modern age. Scholar’s quest to find ‘space from heaven’ is projected to expose modern man’s quest to find idealism amid gross materialism. In The Scholar Gipsy Arnold deals with the idea of conflict between imagination and reality, fact and fiction, truth and illusion.
Arnold’s The Scholar Gipsy can be appreciated as an elegy in the wider sense. It is a lament not on the death of an individual but also it is a lament the death of intuitive vision, pursuit of knowledge and spiritual vacuity in the modern materialistic world. It is a criticism of modern life. The Scholar Gipsy being disgusted with the loss of faith in this world, turns to pastoral idyllic. It is, therefore, Oxford countryside constitutes the background of the poem. He celebrates the importance of ancient wisdom to save man from the shadows of gloom and despair. In The Scholar Gipsy, Arnold follows the tradition of Pastoral elegy developed by Theocritus and Bion. In this poem, Arnold follows the tradition of pastoral elegy to establish his own idea of the criticism of life.
The Scholar Gipsy : A Critique
The poem The Scholar Gipsy consists of 25 stanzas of ten lines each. The poem can be classified in two sections – The first section includes first fourteen stanzas and remaining eleven stanzas are the part of second section. In the first section, Arnold presents the panoramic view of Idyllic pastoral landscape around Oxford. In this section Arnold presents the myth of gipsy. In the second section, Arnold after presenting the panoramic view of countryside turns to the miserable conditions of modern life with ‘strange disease’ and ‘divided aims’. He presents his criticism of life and contempt for the contemporary Europe and culture that is essentially materialistic devoid of faith, love and hope. The scholar Gipsy constructs the natural life of feelings and imagination sharing the happy life of shepherds, country folk, children, gypsies, young girls and young men. The poems begins with the invocation of the spirit of an unidentified Shephard preparing the atmosphere of pastoral setting.
In the first stanza, poet addresses a fellow shepherd, a companion of his quest of scholar Gipsy to go to guard and to protect his sheep. But warns him to come back soon. In this stanza, there is a broad description of fascinating pastoral scene. He represents the quest, “Come Shepherd, and again renew the quest.
Stanza II : In this stanza, poet reveals his position where will he wait for the return in the ‘dark corner’ where reaper must have been waiting. Poet curiously waits for the return of Shepherd hearing the bleating of “the folded flocks” and ‘distant cries’ of reaper cutting the corns like Keats, here Arnold presents the suggestive picture of the activities going on in the countryside.
Stanza III : In this stanza the description of natural beauty continues with the exposition of its soothing effect on poet’s sensibility. He mentions how plants and creepers provide a shade and shelter to him protecting him from the heat of scorching sun. In this stanza Arnold accepts the power of sensation of sights, smell and sound.
Stanza IV : Poet is holding the book of Glanville’s book and is in desperate search to study the story of the scholar. He is curious to know the reason of Scholar’s escape from the University. In this stanza, Arnold promotes the idea of escape and withdrawal.
Stanza V : After a gap of several years, the scholar of University were motivated to know the secret of his life. They were informed that he was trying to learn the secret of the life and art of gypsies. He admits, “the secret of their art, when fully learned, will to the world impart. But it needs heaven – sent moments for his skill.”
Stanza VI : Scholar reveals the hidden intentions behind his escape. He leaves the peace but his spirit remains haunting in those surroundings. He is seen by farmers and Shepherds. However, the scholar avoids human company to lead an isolated and solitary life and to escape the turmoil of human world.
Stanza VII : In this stanza, poet makes a reference to another escape to scholar. While peasants were busy in drinking. The scholar abruptly disappeared from the scene.
Stanza VIII : Poet comes to the realization that solitary places are the favourite haunts of the scholar. It is therefore, he can be found with ‘heap of flowers’ or moving his wet fingers in the ‘cool stream’. He seems to be lost in his own sad thoughts in ‘moon lit stream’. Here the soothing images of nature closely corresponds with the solitary atmosphere and inner isolation of the scholar.
Stanza IX : Scholar Gipsy comes in the company of maidens lost in thier own dance. He offers them various type of flowers but never share his thoughts with them. It shows that scholar survive in his private space withdrawing from the external world.
Stanza X : Some of the peasants in the month of June while going for their bath have seen the scholar sitting on the river bank and deliberately avoids human company.
Stanza XI : At the Cumber hills, the scholar is also seen by house-wife standing at her door steps. Scholar remains busy watching the green pastures and cattle. During the day, he remains outside but during the night, he escapes.
Stanza XII : During the autumn, the scholar is seen on the foreground of Thessaly by blackbird. The bird picks up her food without being disturb by the presence of scholar Gipsy. However, scholar remains busy in his own thoughts and fancies. He waits for “the sparks from heaven to fall.”
Stanza XIII : The scholar was once seen by the poet himself wearing a clock during winter. The scholar was looking a Hinky and its wintry ridge. He climbed the Cumber hills but finally escaped the scene to find shelter in some solitary granary.
Stanza XIV : Having heard the story of the scholar Gipsy, poet concludes that he left Oxford two hundred years back, gypsy embarked in search of ‘strange arts’. He must have been dead long ago and his body must have been buried in ‘an unknown grave’ in the shades of ‘red-fruited yew-trees shade’. With this revelation poet comes back to the world of realities. He comes to the realization that his dream of Oxford was like a fantacy or a dream.
Stanza XV : Arnold admits that Scholar’s spirit as an mage of eternal quest for knowledge skill exists in the environment. The poet reflects on the conditions of human life. People waste their life and energy with the shocks, “Tis through repeated shocks again and again, exhausts the energy of strongest souls.” Consequence of this exhaustion, man ultimately surrenders to the spirit governing their destiny. They get the realization of nothingness and isolation.
Stanza XVI : In this stanza, Arnold celebrates the idea of immortality in scholar Gipsy’s effort to leave this world. He remains indifferent to the materialistic pursuits. He stands for faith and intuitive vision. Arnold tributes, “But thou possessed an immortal lot, and we imagine the exempt from age.”
Stanza XVII : At this stage scholar Gipsy left this world with the vitality and freshness of youth unaffected by the futile struggle of materialistic world. The scholar left this world in the hope fulfillment without any doubts in his mind.
Stanza XVII : Scholar Gipsy with the single aim of life waits for the illumination of spirit. On the other hand people in his time were “half believer”. They are not sure of their religious faiths and their idealism. This fragmented approach to life distort their visions and hinder the process of progress.
Stanza XIX : Arnold proceeds with the argument that people move with the quest of divine spark but in absence of it, they lead an insecure and miserable life.
Stanza XX : Arnold admits Tennyson, the wisest among Victorious, suffer in spite of the hope of best to come. Inspite of meaninglessness and failure, patience is their only aim. However scholar Gipsy is the only person who has the real faith.
Stanza XXI : In this stanza, Arnold presents a contrast of the primitive life to the life of worries in the modern times. He admits that the scholar was born at a time when people were not affected by doubts, materialistic loyalties. It was the time when life used to flow smoothly like ‘The sparkling Thames’.
Stanza XXII : In this stanza too continues the idea of solitary life. He must cherish the ‘unconquerable hope’ of achieving his own ideals. He must be guided by his uninhabited impulse in pastoral landscape. He advises the scholar to stay in dark valleys listening to the songs of nightingales. In this stanza, the reference to Nightingale gives a paradoxical suggestion.
Stanza XXIII : In this stanza, Arnold continues to advice to avoid the feverish contacts with human being. The intellectual struggle and spiritual unrest of people only distorts the calm of mind and makes life intolerable. With human interactions, his clear aims and ideals will be thwarted and frustrated.
Stanza XXIV and XXV : In these two concluding stanzas, poet advises to fly from human society and justifies it with an Homeric Simili. He advises to escape from human society just as Tyrran trader did when he saw Greek Traders. He keeps running away from the approaching Greek ships and merchants until he arrived at a safe distance and unloaded his goods on the shores of Spain.
10.7 The Scholar Gipsy : Critical Appreciation
Matthew Arnold’s The Scholar Gipsy is a representative poem of Victorian age representing the all pervasive gloom and darkness amid the emerging opulence of Industrial world. It is also a representative poem of Arnold’s poetic profundity and artistic skill. Appreciating its master poetic skill Michael Thorpe remarks, “… this, the second most admired poem of 1853, Volume … today perhaps the first in theme and attitude no more uplifting than the renowned. ‘Empedocles’, and this fact was obscured by its rich beauty and muffling nostalgia.” In The Scholar Gipsy, Thorpe appreciates the balance of thought and diction. He admits, “Arnold has followed his true poetic bent and fashioned with intense feeling and consummate artistry, a perfect reflection of the condition of mind with many of his contemporaries, both famous men like Clough, Sterling, Newman and Froude and Ordinary sensitive readers could recognize all to well.”
The poem The Scholar Gipsy represents the elegiac mood of Matthew Arnold and it can be appreciated as the sequel of Thyrasis. On the lines of pastoral elegy, Arnold constructs the poem in the background of pastoral landscape. The calm and serene atmosphere of the natural surroundings provide a successful background to the turmoil affecting human life and sensibility. According to Kenneth Allot, “The Scholar Gipsy is Arnold’s modification of the Pastoral Elegy.” In the first section (Stanza 1-14) the pastoral element can be appreciated in the description of Oxford countryside. In the second section (Stanza 15-25) the pastoral background turns into an anti-materialistic sensibility expressed in terms of Scholar’s singleness of mind – the quest for happiness. He celebrates the life of peace, contentment, idealism, love, honesty and religious faiths.
Arnold’s vision that ‘poetry is the criticism of life’ has successfully been exposed in The Scholar Gipsy. In the first section of poem where Arnold presents the soothing beauty and fascination of natural life constructs the atmosphere of peace and consolation as a foil to the evil passions and artificialities of urban life. In the second part Arnold presents a painful picture of human suffering where people survive with “divided aims”. There is a hope and faith in the wake of growing commercial passions. It induces fatigue and languor. It brings, despair, gloom and disappointment. Being disgusted with the tortures and distrust, the scholar gipsy escapes in the world of beauty, soothing impact of nature, love and human sympathy.
In The Scholar Gipsy, there is a fine blending of classical and romantic elements. Arnold composed this poem in classical form but with the spirit of romanticism. It is composed on the lines of pastoral elegy. The treatment of nature in the background of Oxford countryside, the all pervasive melancholy, the glorification of past and the romantic longing to escape the wearisome burden of the modern materialistic world suggests the romantic spirit of the poem. In the glorification of natural life, Arnold follows the spirit of Wordsworth. Further in the criticism of materialism of modern world and its impact on human sensibility, Arnold represents the poetic sensibility of Keats. It has been appreciated as one of ‘the most Keatsian of Arnold’s Poems.’ However in terms of language, phrases, ornamentation, style and Imagery, The Scholar Gipsy is a typical classical poem full of elegance and artistic skills.
In The Scholar Gipsy, Arnold presents an accurate and suggestive picture of nature exposing the sights of moonlight, flowers, river and sea. He maintains a fine balance of sights, sounds, smell and colour corresponding human sensibility. These descriptions are sensuous and pictorial. There is a colourful description of various flowers and plants like ‘pale-pink convulsions’ and ‘scarlet poppies’. The meter and versification have also been employed carefully. He adopted an original stanza pattern. The poem is composed in ten line stanza form in which all the lines except the sixth are iambi pentametric. The rhyme scheme of the whole poem is abcbca deed. In The Scholar Gipsy, there is also a fusion of Hellenism and Hebraizing. Arnold exposes the imperfections of both the worlds but promotes a philosophy of balance and reconciliation of the opposites.
Besides of Artistic skills, with its deep symbolic significance, The Scholar Gipsy has been appreciated as a press of eternal significance. The Scholar Gipsy is symbolic of freedom and fulfillment. His quest for ‘divine spark from heaven’ is a symbolic representation of man’s eternal quest for truth in an age of doubts and uncertainty. The Scholar gipsy intends to escape the world of ‘divided aims’ but the idea of haunting the countryside shows his turning back to reality leaving aside the world of crude idealism. He comes to the realization of the acceptance of life instead of the rejection of it.
Significant Excerpts from The Scholar Gipsy
(a)
No, no thou hast not felt the lapse of hours
For what wears out the life of mortal men?
‘Tis that from change to change their being rolls;
‘Tis not repeated shocks again and again Exhaust
the Enemy of strongest souls.
(b)
Thou waitest for the spark from Heaven and
we Light, half believers of our casual creeds
Who never deeply feet, nor clearly willed
Whose insight has never borne fruit in deeds,
Whose wake resolver have been fulfilled.
(c)
O born in days when wits were fresh and clear,
And life is rain gaily as sparkling Thames,
Before this strange disease of modern life.
With its sick hurry, its divided aims.
10.9 Dover Beach : An Introduction
The poem Dover Beach was published in 1867 in the New Poems. In this poem in the background of natural beauty, he expresses his views on the nature of complexity of personal relations. It is composed in melancholic mood. The poem is generally classified as a lyrical poem. It contains serious reflections on the conditions of world in the process of “divided aims”. The situation is that the poet sitting near shingle beach at Dover in moonlight. He encounters the noise of waves dashing the sea shore but the sound of waves strikes in his inner soul and it inspires his deeply buried painful thoughts and sentiments. It reminds him of the crumpling religious faiths of human beings. The poem is a suggestive exposure of Arnold’s spiritual unrest in the world of growing materialism. In April 1851, after being appointed as the Inspector of Schools, Arnold married Frances Lucy Wightman. Immediately after marriage, the couple went on a honeymoon. Before this tour, they were at Dover in June. The final print of the poem came out after serious reflections. It blends the Theme of love and sense of loss. In Dover Beach, on the basis of personal reflections, he draws some serious conclusions and generations on the conditions of human survival.
10.10 Dover Beach : A Critique
The poem Dover Beach consists of 37 lines that can safely be classified in four stanza. In the first stanza consisting of 1-14 lines, poet describes calm and tranquil atmosphere of sea shore often echoing the clattering of pebbles in the soothing moonlight. Poet expresses his longing to be in the company of his wife to enjoy the beauty of sea shore. Poet describes the sounds of pebbles produced by waves of the sea that not only disturb the peaceful atmosphere of the sea shore but also the peace of poets mind. It generates the “notes of sadness” in his peaceful heart. The movement of waves corresponding with the sensibility of the poet is expressed in the phrase, “Begin and cease, and then again Begin. The eternal note of sadness in.”
In the second stanza (lines 15-20), poet turns back to ancient past and refers to the Greek poet Sophocles. He admits that ebb and flow of the sea made Sophocles to have a realization of misery and suffering in human life. The melancholic echoes coming from the sea waves produce in him thoughts about human suffering and the piercing misery of human life. There occurs an harmony in his isolated heart corresponding with the atmosphere of nature, “We find also in the sound a thought, heaving it by this distant northern sea.”
In the third stanza, (lines 21-28) the thought moves in the direction of generalization. According to Arnold’ sea of faith was also surrounded by the shores oath like girdle. At this time people had deep faith in religious values. However in the present time religious faiths are loosing their grounds. The loss of moral values and religious faiths has only produced misery, doubts and despair.
These elements have destroyed the harmonious life of man. In this respect, the poem gradually become the criticism of life. He laments on the “naked shingles” of world.
In the concluding stanza (lines 29-37) poet presents an obscure picture of contemporary world where religious faiths have been lost. Poet requests his beloved to be faithful and true to one another. He admits that the joyful appearances of world are useless. The notions of beauty and freshness are like “land of dreams.” In reality human life is devoid of joy, love, security, peace or relief from pain. It is like a battle field full of confrontations and strives. People are wasting their time and energy in futile activities in struggling and fighting in the dark. Lost in conflicts, people are divided in their aims. Arnold in the concluding stanza of the poem, presents the contrast between the ideal world of joy and the world full of doubts and conflicts. The poem ends in reflective note with the shadows of despair and sadness. He admits:
“Nor certitude, nor peace nor help from pain
And we are here on darkling plain…”
10.11 Dover Beach : Critical Appreciation
Dover Beach is one of the representative poems of Matthew Arnold. It is composed in the elegiac mode with the undertone of melancholy. It was published at a time when Victorian England was passing through the cross current of romanticism and classicism. According to Michael Thorpe, “Dover Beach is the Victorian Lyric poem of painful doubt and disorientation. It stands above the many ruminations upon this theme both in Arnold’s own poetry amid’s that of such other poets of the time of Tennyson and Clough.”
Theme of the Poem
In Dover Beach, Arnold presents his views regarding the loss of religious faiths in the growing materialism. The growing doubts and uncertainties are dangerous for the balance and happiness in human life. People are lost in the web of confusions and conflicts. He defends that there is no sea of faith on this earth. Poet admits:
“The sea of faith was once, too at the full,
and round earth’s shore.
Lay like the folds of bright girdle furlled.”
The loss of faith has given birth to skepticism and distrust. People are loosing themselves in the fights in the darkness of ignorance. The aimless struggle has taken all pleasure and happiness.
Melancholy note in Dover Beach
The poem Dover Beach is composed in the atmosphere of gloom and melancholy. It is constructed as an elegy on the death of religious faith. Poet expresses his deep felt anguish on the increasing misery of mankind. The personal realization of the loss of faith transforms into a generalization on the futility of human relationship and human existence. He cries out:
“… for the world which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams
So various, so beautiful, so new
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light Nor
certitude, nor peace, nor help from pain.”
The realization of the conditions of human society only generates ‘theatrical note of sadness’. The growing indifference in personal relation has left man lonely and isolated. Besides of the idea of true love, Arnold stresses the need of faithlessness in this love. He invites his beloved to ‘come to the window’ and listen the rhythmic sound of waves and pebbles. He expresses his faith that only true love relationship can contribute to restore trust, faith and good relationship. True love provides ground for emotional bonding. According to H.C. Daffin, “Dover Beach provides a lovely a picture of married love, the poet looking out on the calm moonlight straits, speaks over his shoulder, to his second love and wife Frances Lucy Wightman.”
As the thought develops, Arnold sacrificing the burden of immediate reality, deals with universal facts related to human life. In this way the reflective mind presented in Dover Beach has both a personal and universal significance.
The Poem Dover Beach exposes romantic melancholic atmosphere of Victorian age with the fine blending of the wife of modernity. The image of society gripped in aimless conflicts and ignorance anticipates the conditions of human survival in the modern times. He suggests that the remedy for the sickness of modern times is turning to true love relationship. The idea of isolation and alienation as challenges for human survival echoes the Existentialist Thoughts of Modern age. In the opinion of J.D. Jump, “Arnold’s most impressive and most pregnant poetic utterance on modern life.”
Artistic Qualities and Excellence of Craftsmanship in Dover Beach
Besides of the profundity of thought, Dover Beach is a masterpiece of artistic skill. The personal abstract feelings have successfully conveyed through the adequate use of concrete descriptions and images. The movement of poetic content from personal to universal provides an exceptional depth to the expressions. Its artistic qualities can be appreciated as the following:
1. The poem Dover Beach is an spontaneous overflow of deep felt emotions of Arnold and therefore in abounds in lyrical note. It is an expression of the subjective state of poets sensibility and therefore, it is remarkable for musical strain, melancholy, rhythmic flow, seriousness and reflective mood. In Dover Beach musical effect is sustained through the repetition of the consonant ‘I’. Further the poem is full of descriptions that produce virtual and auditory sensations. There is a fine balance of audio and virtual symbols.
2. Dover Beach is composed in irregular metre and it maintains variety in its material structure. The four stanzas of the poem contained 14, 6, 8 and nine lines respectively. It follows the pattern of an irregular rhyme scheme. For the strong musical effect, he follows pentameter pattern of sounds.
- The poem Dover Beach has widely been appreciated for the use of suggestive poetic images. In the following lines reflect the image of waves striking against the pebbles.
“Listen, year hear the grating roar
of pebbles which the waves draw back and fling
At the return.”
In this expression, the image of sea waves advancing and retreating
conveys the idea of the decline of religious faith. The image of sea closely corresponds with the inner sensibility of the heart of the poet. In the movement of sea waves, poet finds the reflection of his own sensibility. The poem is replete with suggestive phrases that convey a meaning beyond its verbal significance. The phrases like ‘granting roar’, ‘drew back’, ‘tumultuous cadence’, ‘the eternal notes of sadness’, ‘the sea of faith’, ‘naked shingles’, ‘ignorant armies’, are potent enought to communicate the emotional stress of the poet on the realization of human suffering without any pedantic disorder
10.12 Excerpts from Dover Beach
(a)
Begin and cease and the begin again
With tumultous cadence slow and bring
The eternal note of sadness in
Sophocles, long ago.
Hear it on the Aegaman and it
brought Into his mind the turbid ebb
and flow of human misery;
(b)
Ah! Let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams.
so various, so beautiful, so new
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light
Nor certitude, nor peace, norhelp from pain
And we are here on darkling plain.
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight
When ignorant armies clash by night.
10.13 The Buried Life : An Introduction
The poem The Buried Life was originally published in 1852 edition of Arnold’s verse. Second time it got a place the second volume entitled “Lyric Poems: appeared in the year 1869. In this Arnold promotes the idea of man’s ignorance of his inner self. The poem is a suggestive exposition of Arnold’s idea that it is difficult for man to have a perfect knowledge of the inner self of man. Man can’t have a real understanding of his hidden self, “the unseen source of his thoughts and feelings – the secret of his being.” To quote the words of M.G. St. Quentin, “Fate has by design concealed from man his inmost self, yet often there comes to him the desire to find the secret of inward striving gives himself up to the ‘stupefying power’ of his immediate surroundings…” He proceeds with the assumption that majority of mankind conceal their real thoughts and feelings because they survive under the fear of cold neglect and unsympathetic criticism. This fear prevents the possibilities of comprehension of the real self of an individual. For this reason, they survive in illusions they fail to realize the significance of real relationship, mutual understanding, love, pure intimacy and the possibilities of the emancipation of human spirit.
10.14 The Buried Life : A Critique
The poem The Buried Life is a long poem consisting of 98 lines. The lines are organized to convey serious idea of Arnold. In the first stanza (line 1-12) poet expresses his desire to read the ‘innermost’ soul of the lover. Arnold points out that in this world human being remain busy in futile and controversial discussions. It leads to deep melancholic thoughts that bring no positive conclusions. It is an irony that in human life, people spent their time in smiles, jokes and laughter but beneath them, there remains “hidden unrest.” In this sate of melancholy a pain, human beings seek the possibilities of consolation in sincere love relationship. He expresses his longing:
“And turn those limpid eyes on mine
And let me read there, love they inmost soul.”
In the second stanza (lines 12-23), Arnold in utter disgust admits that even love fails to pour out the hidden secrets of the private self. He admits that majority of mankind conceal their real feelings. They fear that the revelation of personal secret will only lead to neglect, ridicule and painful criticism. They conceal their tears and tragedies, pain and sadness. They survive with the burden of those secrets and move in all sorts of pretensions. It is an irony of human life that in spite of consistent beating of heart, we can’t share the truth of inner sensibility with others.
In the third stanza consisting of two lines only (24-25) he admits that all human beings share the identical feeling of aloofness.
In the fourth stanza (26-29), Arnold suggests that man must try to find out occasions to expose the hidden thoughts surging within.
In the fifth stanza, (line 30-44) Arnold makes a confession that soul has deliberately hidden our secrets within ourselves. He personifies fate who acknowledges the foolishness of human beings who loose their manhood in the process of meddling of every strife. The river of life flows in unseen manner and is tossed about its current. Only the realization of the power of fate can guide our path.
In the fifth stanza (line 45-54) Arnold admits that in accordance with irresistible urge, it is difficult to dive deep to find out the truth. Inspite of discontent, sometimes man suffer with an irresistible urge to find out the origin of our buried life. It becomes a passion with the individuals to discover the secret of the self, to probe into the mystery of our thoughts and feelings.
In the sixth stanza (line 55-76), Arnold says that several human beings are involved in the search to find out the mystery of soul but they fail in that effort. One faces distractions and diversions in the process of self investigation. In this process, individual encounters numberless and nameless feelings. It leads to further despair. The feelings come as from a distant land generating only thoughts with melancholy.
In the seventh stanza, Arnold takes a positive stride to justify his point of view. Experiences and obscurities enable individual to have a comprehension of their feeling. It is only in the company of beloved person that one can lead to confidence. It motivates an individual to keep into his own soul. In this moment, an individual withdraws from the external heat of life and enjoys the pleasure of inner life. Man gets a realization of the secret of his life, its origin, expectations and destination. The emancipation of human spirit is possible through the qualities of real friendship, understanding, love and pure intimacy.
10.15 Excerpts from The Buried Life
(a)
I knew they liv’d and mov’d
Trick in disguises, alien on the rest
of men, and alien to themselves and yes The
same heart beats in every human breast.
(b)
But often in the world’s most crowded streets
But often, in the din of strife There
rises an unspeakable desire And the
knowledge of our buried life.
(c)
With in ward striving and demand
of all the thousand nothings of the
hour There stupefying power;
And yes, and they benumb us at our calf.
And yet from time to time, vague and for lover
From the soul’s subterraned depth upborne.
And from an infinitely distant land
Come airs, floating echoes and convey
A melancholy in all our day.
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Reference
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