Matthew Arnold Critical Generalizations
Matthew Arnold's critical generalizations deserve special notice. For him, How to live is a question of supreme importance. The English poets have ever discussed this vital question in relation to the nature of poetry. While France is strong in prose, Arnold thinks that England is strong in poetry. He speaks very high of William Wordsworth. The reason is that English poets are well grounded in abiding morality, and they have the vehicle of blank verse that gives them the freedom of prose. "Voltaire was right in thinking that the energetic and profound treatment of moral ideas- -is what distinguishes the English poetry If what distinguishes the greatest poets is their powerful and profound application of ideas to life, which surely no good critic will deny, then to prefix to the term 'ideas', here the term 'moral' makes hardly any difference, because human life itself is in so preponderating a degree moral."
According to Arnold, poetry is a criticism of life. Criticism of life means the application of ideas to life. It is connected with abiding morality, which is, as Arnold says, the basis of life. Poetry is a transcript of experience of life, and cannot but be grounded in morality. His over- emphasis on the underlying morality of great poetry and his assertion that ideas cannot be other than moral, have seemed to some people as narrowing down the range of poetry, if poetry is solely concerned with the treatment of moral ideas. Poetry may deal with non-moral ideas and may be great too. But no objection can be taken to Arnold's claboration of his concept: "It is important, therefore, to hold fast to this that a poetry is at bottom a criticism of life, that the greatness of a poet lies in his powerful and beautiful application of ideas to life-to the question: How to live? Morals are often treated in a narrow and false fashion; they are bound up with systems of thought and belief that have had their day; they are fallen into the hands of pedants and professional dealers; they grow tiresome to some of us. We find attraction, at times, even in a poetry of revolt against them; in a poetry which might take for its motto Omar Khayam's words: "Let us make up in the tavern for the time we have wasted in the mosque." Or we find attractions in a poetry indifferent to them; in a poetry where the contents may be what they will, but where the form is studied and exquisite. We delude ourselves in either case; and the best cure for our delusion is to let our minds rest upon that great and inexhaustible word life, until we learn to enter in its meaning. A poetry of revolt against moral ideas is a poetry of revolt against life; poetry of indifference towards moral ideas is a poetry of indifference towards life."
The accepted function of poetry, according to Arnold, is powerful and beautiful application of ideas to life. It does not make much of a difference if we affix 'moral' to ideas, if we reject the narrow and the commonly accepted sense of the word 'moral'. Moral comes from the Latin moralis, relating to conduct; Latin mor from nominative mos, which means a manner, custom. This interpretation of moral poetry as a criticism of life will cover all that has become embedded in human conscience through age- long experience. Poetry will express all that is important and fundamental in the conceptions of men with the highest degree of lucidity and the utmost beauty of language and idea. It will draw upon conceptions which have become effective by being assimilated into the moral constitution of men. Accordingly, the object of poetry is to bring us into harmony with life, to explain life to us, to tell us how to live.
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