Matthew Arnold
Matthew Arnold
Matthew Arnoldwas an English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the famed headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold, literary professor, and William Delafield Arnold, novelist and colonial administrator. Matthew Arnold has been characterised as a sage writer, a type of writer who chastises and instructs the reader on contemporary social issues...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth24 December 1822
champ great horses salt tides toss white wild winds
Now the great winds shoreward blow, / Now the salt tides seaward flow; / Now the wild white horses play, / Champ and chafe and toss in the spray.
borne casual clearly deeply fruit insight light nor vague whose
Light half-believers of our casual creeds, who never deeply felt, nor clearly will d, whose insight never has borne fruit in deeds, whose vague resolves never have been fulfilled.
cannot fire heart kindle mystery soul spirit
We cannot kindle when we will / The fire which in the heart resides, / The spirit bloweth and is still, / In mystery our soul abides.
demands effort greatest teach
...what thwarts us and demands of us the greatest effort is also what can teach us most.
near neighbor patience sad
With close-lipped Patience for our only friend, Sad Patience, too near neighbor to Despair.
governing
The governing idea of Hellenism is spontaneity of consciousness; that of Hebraism, strictness of conscience.
arises grand nature noble serious severity simplicity style subject treats
The grand style arises in poetry, when a noble nature, treats with simplicity or with severity a serious subject
expressive eyes lovely
Eyes too expressive to be blue, / Too lovely to be grey.
hum land low majestic mist river solitary
But the majestic river floated on, / Out of the mist and hum of that low land, / Into the frosty starlight, and there moved, / Rejoicing, through the hushed Chorasmian waste, / Under the solitary moon.
breaks cliff haunts meet
Not here, O Apollo! / Are haunts meet for thee. / But, where Helicon breaks down / In cliff to the sea.
nursing
Still nursing the unconquerable hope, / Still clutching the inviolable shade.
english-poet enjoyed light lived small
It is so small a think to have enjoyed the sun, to have lived light in the spring, to have loved, to have thought, to have done.
names medicine doctors
Nor bring, to see me cease to live, Some doctor full of phrase and fame, To shake his sapient head, and give The ill he cannot cure a name.
life-is obscure
I keep saying, Shakespeare, Shakespeare, you are as obscure as life is.