Thinking Activity : The Study of Poetry by Matthew Arnold

     
  Hello ! Readers,

                    Here is my blog on Thinking Activity : The Study of Poetry by Matthew Arnold, task assigned by Dr. Dilip Barad sir. Here is my points of understanding of this essay in short. For more information visit the blog of Dilip Barad sir.  For visit his blog Click here.

                     Criticism of Matthew Arnold 

                                On Poetry

Born :-   24th December 1822

Death :- 15th April 1888

               He was a English poet,cultural critic and also novelist and colonial administrator. He was elected as a professor of poetry at oxford in 1857. He called the third great Victorian poet. His literary career leaving out the two prize poems had begun in 1849 with the publication of " The Strayed Reveller and other poems " The mood of his poetry tends to be of plaintive reflection and he is restrained in expressing emotions. He felt that poetry should be the Criticism of life and Express a philosophy. 

♧ His Famous poems are :-

      

         • " Thyrsis " ( 1865 )

         • " Sohrab and Rustum " ( 1853 )

         • " The Scholar Gipsy " ( 1853 )

         • " Rugby Chapel " ( 1867 ) 

         • " Memorial Verses to Wordsworth  "

● The Study of Poetry by Matthew  Arnold :-

Matthew Arnold criticised Victorian age and gave his view on two major point :-

¤ Arts and Morality : Arts for life's sake 
¤ Arts and Aesthetic pleasure : Art for Art's sake 

According to Arnold the first great principle of Criticism is that, 

               " Disinterestedness or detachment.  Disinterestedness on the part of the critic implies freedom from all prejudices , personal or historical. "

                   He asserts that literature and poetry is, " Criticism of life. " Two great principle must needed in the Criticism of life : Laws of Poetic truth and seriousness of matter, felicity and perfection of diction and manner are exhibited in the best poets.

              Matthew Arnold says that poetry interpret life and two ways for that, " Poetry is interpretative by having natural magic in it, and moral profundity. " The aim of the poet must be high and excellent seriousness in all that he writes for that there are two essential qualities:

~ The first is the choice of exellent action.

~ The second is what Arnold calls the Grand style - The perfection of form, choice of words, drawing its force directly from the matter which it conveys. 

                    Touchstone Method

His general principle of the poetry was, " Touchstone method "  which introduced Scientific objectivity to critical evaluation by providing comparison and as the two primary tools for judging individual poets. While giving Touchstone method he makes readers aware about two fallacies Historical fallacy and personal fallacy. While expressing his view of the historic, for the personal or the real he writes that,
         " In reading poetry, a sense for the best, the really, excellent and of the strength and joy to be drawn from it, should be present in our minds and should govern our estimate of what we read. But this real estimate, the only true one, is liable to be superseded, if we are not watchful by two other kinds of estimate, the historic estimate and the personal estimate both of which are fallacies. "

                 For the business of Criticism he says that, The best which has been thought and said in the world. "  by using this knowledge to create a current of fresh and free thought.