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
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.
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
near neighbor patience sad
With close-lipped Patience for our only friend, Sad Patience, too near neighbor to Despair.
genius seems sphere
It always seems to me that the right sphere for Shelley's genius was the sphere of music, not of poetry.
call
Go, for they call you, shepherd, from the hill.
forth lost
Friends who set forth at our side, / Falter, are lost in the storm. / We, we only, are left!
floor shine stars whose
From whose floor the new-bathed stars / Emerge, and shine upon the Aral Sea.
god light pursuit reason sweetness works
The pursuit of perfection, then, is the pursuit of sweetness and light. . . ./ He who works for sweetness and light united, works to make reason and the will of God prevail.
morality religion simply touched
The true meaning of religion is thus, not simply morality, but morality touched by emotion.
english-poet perfection
Not a having and a resting, but a growing and becoming, is the character of perfection as culture conceives it.
enjoyed lived small
It is so small a thing to have enjoyed the sun, to have lived light in the spring, to have loved, to have thought, to have done.
brings dust forget memory petty souls
But each day brings its petty dust our soon-choked souls to fill, and we forget because we must, and not because we will.