Matthew Arnold view on good poetry and criticism

"Matthew Arnold characteristic of good poetry and criticism"

Hello readers, this is my new to block task on literary criticism, this particular task given by professor Dilip Barad Sir click here to see the worksheet of him about Matthew Arnold view on good poetry and criticism.

 Leslie Stephen described Arnold as 

“one of the poets who are made, who are not born”

G. W. E. Russell in Portraits of the Seventies,

is 

"A man of the world entirely free from worldliness and a man of

letters without the faintest trace of pedantry" 

Matthew Arnold (24 December 1822 – 15 April 1888) was a British

poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools. He was

the son of Thomas Arnold, the famed headmaster of Rugby School,

and brother to both Tom Arnold, literary professor, and William

Delafield Arnold, novelist and colonial administrator. Matthew Arnold

has been characterized as a sage writer, a type of writer who chastises

and instructs the reader on contemporary social issues.(Wikipedia)

Arnold is sometimes called as  the third great Victorian poet,

 Arnold was keenly

aware of his place in poetry. He compares himself with eminent poets and he make an argument that he was started new Reflection of literature.

''My poems represent, on the whole, the main movement of mind of the last quarter of a century, and thus they will probably have their day as

people become conscious to themselves of what that movement of mind is, and interested in the literary productions which reflect it. It might

be fairly urged that I have less poetical sentiment than Tennyson and less intellectual vigor and abundance than Browning; yet because I have

perhaps more of a fusion of the two than either of them, and have more regularly applied that fusion to the main line of modern development, I

am likely enough to have my turn as they have had theirs."

Whenever we glanced the very poetic views of Matthew Arnold in his

"The study of Poetry.” Arnold is fundamentally concerned with poetry’s “high destiny;” he  firmly believes that ....

“mankind will discover that we have to turn to poetry to interpret life for us, to console us, to sustain us”

Arnold himself also concern with

“the austerity of poetry”,

when we see the outstanding Life of Arnold, speaks memorably of this self-disputing or self-cancelling quality in the Arnoldian voice:

“Habitually, his poems seemed to speak against themselves, to question their own right to have been written”.

Arnold believes that the 

" Art of poetry is capable of high destinies"

It is the art in which the ''idea itself is the fact'' He says that we should understand the worth of poetry as it is poetry that shows us a 

"Mirror of life"

The mood of Arnold’s poetry tends to be of plaintive reflection, and he is restrained in expressing emotion. He felt

that poetry should be the 'criticism of life' and express a philosophy. hare is the three major parameters to judge good poetry.

Historical estimate: Historic estimate raises poetry to a high pedestal and thus hinders one from noticing its weaknesses. It is the historic estimate that leads to the creation of classics and raises the poet to a nearly God like standard.

Real estimate:Arnold says that if a poet is truly a classic his poetry will give the reader real pleasure and enable him to compare and contrast other poetry which are not of the same high standard. This according to Arnold is the real estimate of poetry.

For Arnold poetry is not meant to delight,

 it is meant to provide food to soul.

Personal estimate: Personal estimate poetry should be far from personal and individual vision it must be based on truth and scientific evidence instead of being biased and emotional on particular subject.

 “As a criticism of life under the condition

 fixed for such a criticism by the laws of poetic

truth and poetic beauty.”

For Arnold ‘criticism of life’ means the noble and profound

application of ideas to life and the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty as truth and

seriousness to substance and matter, and felicity and perfection of diction and manner.

Arnold believes that poetry does not present life as it is.

“The language of poetry and emotion, 

approximate language, thrown out, as it were”.

 He says that  all poets possess a high poetic quality. He says that a critic need not labour in vain trying to explain the greatness of poetry. Poet has to be initially a great and endowed with high poetic quality.

 Arnold says that the high quality of poetry lies in its matter and its manner as well as the method and manner in a parallel way in poetry. Here Milton quoted :

"And courage never to submit or yield,

And what is else not to be overcome?"

We find that these lines no doubt have ethical value, and strength, but in regard to the ‘style

and manner’.

All literature is the application of ideas to life and to say that poetry is the application of ideas to life, under the condition fixed for poetry, is simply a vain repetition.

 The fact is that Arnold believes that the ideas and sentiments to have any permanent value must be based on actual life.

However, he argues that we should not live in the

belief that we shall one day inherit eternal bliss. If we are not happy on earth, we should moderate our desires rather

than live in dreams of something that may never be attained. This philosophy is clearly expressed in such poems as

"Dover Beach" and in these lines from "Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse":

"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."

Thus for Arnold poetry has a great role to play. In fact he makes the moral purpose of poetry

as the integral function. He says,

“A poetry of revolt against moral ideas is a poetry of revolt-

against life; a poetry of indifference towards moral ideas in a poetry of indifference towards

life”.

Arnold valued natural scenery for its peace and permanence satisfaction and rationality towards life.

His own abstract conception of poetry remained classical and forbiddingly elevated, and he revered the old masters, pre-eminently Homer, for their cultivation of “the Grand Style”, something much more than merely a way of writing, rather a whole authoritative purchase on experience, “that elevation of character, that noble way of thinking and behaving, which is an eminent gift of nature”.

"Views on criticism"

"Mathew Arnold is an important 

critic of English Literature. 

Before him, English criticism was

in fog"

Given Arnold’s view that criticism should extend notonly to literature but also to life, some of his cultural theory also comes across in the text.

''Disinterested endeavor to learn

 and propagate the best that is known

 and thought in the world.”

On  disinterestedness as the rule for criticism:The rule may be summed up in one word—disinterestedness ,which is to be a free play of mind on all subjects which it touches,[Criticism’s] business is ... simply to know the best that is known and thought in the world, and by in its turn making this known, to create a current of true and fresh ideas.

"Here is some views of criticism given by Matthew Arnold"

1) Criticism has the power to make the best ideas prevail. It is the business of criticism to know the best that is known and thought in the world and in its turn making this known to create a current of true and fresh ideas. It creates stir and growth which makes creation possible. That is why great creative epochs are preceded by great epochs of criticism. The freshness of idea with critical appreciation and critical approach is a part of Criticism it gives new direction and new version to judge  any literary work.

2) In order to be successful, criticism must exercise curiosity, which is a desire to know the best, and which should not be taken as a term of disparagement. Curiosity the prime element of Criticism curiosity leads critic towards new direction of to give new frame of literary work.

3) Criticism is  must also be disinterested. It must keep aloof from the ‘practical view of things’. The critic must try to view an object with detachment to see it ‘as it really is’, without being stifled by practical/political considerations. Arnold is of the view that a critic’s judgment should never be swayed by the prejudices of the Barbarian, the Populace and the Philistines.

4) Judging is often spoken as the critic’s main business, but such judging has to be in a clear and fair mind, along with knowledge. Knowledge therefore should be the critic’s concern. So, in his search for the best that is known and thought in the world, the critic has to study literature's other than his own.

5)   False standards of judgment-personal and historical must be avoided. Particularly any criticism a critic should be e free from biased and personal emotions, he must be very serious and his idea of judging any literary work must be  followed by the universal temperament, he must be the neutral person instead of being emotional and try to examined and judge particular work with our totality with neutralizes way.

So here are some characteristics of good poetry as well as I tried to explain the some more characteristic of Criticism. A true definition of good poerty and criticism is must be followed by a very  objective state of mind and heart then it will be a fruitful criticism .

Thank you 😊