Matthew Arnolds Sohrab and Rustum and Other Poems | Page 2

Oxford, where he began his career as a lecturer,
in which capacity he twice visited America. Merope, a Tragedy (1856)
and a volume under the title of New Poems (1869) finish the list of his
poetical works, with the exception of occasional verses.
Arnold's prose works, aside from his letters, consist wholly of critical
essays, in which he has dealt fearlessly with the greater issues of his
day. As will be seen by their titles (see page xxxviii of this volume), the
subject-matter of these essays is of very great scope, embracing in
theme literature, politics, social conduct, and popular religion. By them
Arnold has exerted a remarkable influence on public thought and
stamped himself as one of the ablest critics and reformers of the last
century. Arnold's life was thus one of many widely diverse activities

and was at all times deeply concerned with practical as well as with
literary affairs; and on no side was it deficient in human sympathies
and relations. He won respect and reputation while he lived, and his
works continue to attract men's minds, although with much unevenness.
It has been said of him that, of all the modern poets, except Goethe, he
was the best critic, and of all the modern critics, with the same
exception, he was the best poet. He died at Liverpool, where he had
gone to meet his daughter returning from America, April 15, 1888. By
his death the world lost an acute and cultured critic, a refined writer, an
earnest educational reformer, and a noble man. He was buried in his
native town, Laleham.
Agreeably to his own request, Arnold has never been made the subject
for a biography. By means of his letters, his official reports, and
statements of his friends, however, one is able to trace the successive
stages of his career, as he steadily grew in honor and public usefulness.
Though somewhat inadequate, the picture thus presented is singularly
pleasing and attractive. The subjoined appreciations have been selected
with a view of giving the student a glimpse of Arnold as he appeared to
unprejudiced minds.
One who knew him at Oxford wrote of him as follows: "His perfect
self-possession, the sallies of his ready wit, the humorous turn which he
could give to any subject that he handled, his gaiety, audacity, and
unfailing command of words, made him one of the most popular and
successful undergraduates that Oxford has ever known."
"He was beautiful as a young man, strong and manly, yet full of dreams
and schemes. His Olympian manners began even at Oxford: there was
no harm in them: they were natural, not put on. The very sound of his
voice and wave of his arm were Jove-like."--PROFESSOR MAX
MÜLLER.
"He was most distinctly on the side of human enjoyment. He conspired
and contrived to make things pleasant. Pedantry he abhorred. He was a
man of this life and this world. A severe critic of this world he indeed
was; but, finding himself in it, and not precisely knowing what is
beyond it, like a brave and true-hearted man, he set himself to make the

best of it. Its sights and sounds were dear to him. The 'uncrumpling fern,
the eternal moonlit snow,' the red grouse springing at our sound, the
tinkling bells of the 'high-pasturing kine,' the vagaries of men, of
women, and dogs, their odd ways and tricks, whether of mind or
manner, all delighted, amused, tickled him.

"In a sense of the word which is noble and blessed, he was of the earth
earthy.... His mind was based on the plainest possible things. What he
hated most was the fantastic--the far-fetched, all-elaborated fancies and
strained interpretations. He stuck to the beaten track of human
experience, and the broader the better. He was a plain-sailing man. This
is his true note."--MR. AUGUSTINE BIRRELL.
"He was incapable of sacrificing the smallest interest of anybody to his
own; he had not a spark of envy or jealousy; he stood well aloof from
all the bustlings and jostlings by which selfish men push on; he bore
life's disappointments--and he was disappointed in some reasonable
hopes--with good nature and fortitude; he cast no burden upon others,
and never shrank from bearing his own share of the daily load to the
last ounce of it; he took the deepest, sincerest, and most active interest
in the well-being of his country and his countrymen."--MR. JOHN
MORLEY.
In his essay on Arnold, George E. Woodberry speaks of the poet's
personality as revealed by his letters in the following beautiful manner:
"Few who did not know Arnold could have been prepared for the
revelation of a nature so true, so amiable, so dutiful. In every relation of
private life he is shown to have been a man of exceptional constancy
and