Matthew Arnold

Matthew Arnold (1822-1888), English poet, whose work is representative of Victorian intellectual concerns and who was the foremost literary critic of his age.

Arnold was born in Laleham, Middlesex, the son of Thomas Arnold, famous headmaster of Rugby School. Matthew Arnold was educated at Rugby and at Balliol College, University of Oxford, where, in 1843, his poem “Cromwell” won the Newdigate prize.

After a period teaching the classics at Rugby, Arnold served as an inspector of schools from 1851 to 1886. From 1857 to 1867, he was also professor of poetry at Oxford. Arnold visited the Continent repeatedly in the interests of education and journeyed twice to the United States as a lecturer, in 1883 and 1886.

A meditative, elegiac tone is characteristic of Arnold's poetry, notably “Empedocles on Etna” (1852), “The Scholar-Gipsy” (1853), “Sohrab and Rustum” (1853), “Thyrsis” (1866), “Rugby Chapel” (1867), “Dover Beach” (1867), and “Westminster Abbey” (1882). Arnold's philosophical despair and sense of isolation are best expressed in the following lines from “Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse” (1855):

Despite his religious doubts, Arnold wrote several pieces seeking to establish the essential truth of Christianity against conventional dogmatism. He also defended culture against scientific materialism in his collection of essays Culture and Anarchy (1867-1868). Arnold believed that literature shaped culture, and he argued for England to become sensitized to art and to accept high standards of literary judgment. His most influential literary criticism is found in essays such as “The Function of Criticism at the Present Time” (1865) and “The Study of Poetry” (1880).