( 2 reviews )
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Posted: Aug 31 2005
Matthew Arnold became a brilliant 'elegiac' poet of poets who helped to form the 'modern consciousness' with his comparative attitude to problems in Western society and culture. Allen Tate, a member of the Vanderbilt 'Fugitives' group of poets, preferred Matthew Arnold to Browning or Tennyson. Now, in English Lit. I liked Browning; my favorite poem was ABOU BEN ADHEM by Leigh Hunt. In Birmingham, England, in the farmland and English Midlands, young Arnold was born in 1822. He was the eldest son of "the greatest Headmaster who ever lived" (an imposint father) who had his own Rugby School. Rugby, Tennessee, here in the beautiful mountains of East Tennessee was built on the principle of this stern headmaster, a communal farming project, which failed in the United States. It is steeped in history and still has the crudely built houses with their own small library. They were English intellectuals, not farmers. They were the first organic farmers in this area, near Oneida -- so high it's the closet place to Heaven I've ever been. Mrs. Arthur Claugh, wife of one of his friends, in London kept every item in Matthew's room "just as he had left it" and "waiting" as a memorial to a great and beloved poet. His carrer was a study in "sensitivity, courage and endurance." Strange for a rebel of the family (I was the rebel in my family -- the baby) to excel at literary endeavors, as he opposed his unpoetic father. Matthew had been lucky in his marriage and lucky with is teachers and friends, an Archbishop of Canterbury, Wordsworth and Browning. His son, Dick shared a passion for family, which had been one secret of Matthew Arnold's success. He became a poetry professor and wrote "Essays in Criticism" and "Culture and Anarchy". I was married to a Lit. professor, the only one at Martin College at the time, who insisted I take English vs. American Lit. His "The Forsaken Merman" inspired Sylvia Plath. He can be compared with Jonathan Edwards with his political treatises.
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( 1 of 2 found this review helpful ) Posted: Apr 25 2004
This is a compact, intelligent account of Arnold's work and life. It is not just a narrative; it argues for the pervasive power of Arnold's spiritual search throughout his work, from the poetry, to the cultural criticism, to the neglected religious criticism. If you want to know more about Arnold, this is the book to read: less dense than the Trilling biography, more intellectual than the Hamilton and Honan biographies, and better than any student introduction.
