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
summer lonely gay
On Sundays, at the matin-chime, The Alpine peasants, two and three, Climb up here to pray; Burghers and dames, at summer's prime, Ride out to church from Chamberry, Dight with mantles gay, But else it is a lonely time Round the Church of Brou.
humble paris bears
If Paris that brief flight allow, My humble tomb explore! It bears: Eternity, be thou My refuge! and no more.
men trying christ
Was Christ a man like us?-Ah! let us try If we then, too, can be such men as he!
ancient-literature want sanity
Sanity -- that is the great virtue of the ancient literature; the want of that is the great defect of the modern, in spite of its variety and power.
love heart speak
Alas! is even love too weak To unlock the heart, and let it speak?
time men complaining
Time, so complain'd of, Who to no one man Shows partiality, Brings round to all men Some undimm'd hours.
energy-of-life soul battle
No, no! The energy of life may be Kept on after the grave, but not begun; And he who flagg'd not in the earthly strife, From strength to strength advancing--only he His soul well-knit, and all his battles won, Mounts, and that hardly, to eternal life.
school differences soul
The difference between genuine poetry and the poetry of Dryden, Pope, and all their school, is briefly this: their poetry is conceived and composed in their wits, genuine poetry is conceived and composed in the soul.
yellow looks muse
Grey time-worn marbles Hold the pure Muses. In their cool gallery, By yellow Tiber, They still look fair.
taken men numbers
Nations are not truly great solely because the individuals composing them are numerous, free, and active; but they are great when these numbers, this freedom, and this activity are employed in the service of an ideal higher than that of an ordinary man taken by himself.
passion dull saws
Business could not make dull, nor passion wild; Who saw life steadily, and saw it whole.
truth son hue
But thou, my son, study to make prevail One colour in thy life, the hue of truth.
history bells foam
On the breast of that huge Mississippi of falsehood called History, a foam-bell more or less is no consequence.
faith night wind
The sea of faith Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled. But now I only hear Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, Retreating, to the breath Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear And naked shingles of the world.