Matthew Arnolds Sohrab and Rustum and Other Poems | Page 5

so perfectly;--to serve as an eternal protest against
charlatanism and vulgarity;--is exactly the mission he would have
chosen for himself.... The few writers of our language, therefore, who
give us 'an ideal of excellence, the most high and the most rare,' have
an important function; we should study their works continually, and it
should be a matter of passionate concern with us, that the 'ideals,' that is,
the definite and perfect models, should abide with us forever." The
Greeks recognized three kinds of poetry,--Lyric, Dramatic, and Epic.
Arnold tried all three. First, then, as a lyricist.

=Arnold as a Lyricist=.--Lyric poetry is the artistic expression of the
poet's individual sentiments and emotions, hence it is subjective. The
action is usually vapid, the verse musical, the time quick. Unlike the
Epic and Drama, it has no preferred verse or meter, but leaves the poet
free to choose or invent appropriate forms. In this species of verse
Arnold was not wholly at ease. As has been said, one searches in vain
through the whole course of his poetry for a blithe, musical, gay or
serious, offhand poem, the true lyric kind. The reason for this is soon
discovered. Obviously, it lies in the fundamental qualities of the poet's
mind and temperament. Though by no means lacking in emotional
sensibility, Arnold was too intellectually self-conscious to be carried
away by the impulsiveness common to the lyrical moods. With him the
intellect was always master; the emotions, subordinate. With the
lyricist, the order is, in the main, at least, reversed. The poet throws off
intellectual restraint, and "lets his illumined being o'errun" with music
and song. This Arnold could not or would not do. Then, too, Arnold's
lyrics are often at fault metrically. This, combined with frequent
questionable rhymes, argues a not too discriminating poetical ear. He
also lacked genius in inventing verse forms, and hence found himself
under the necessity of employing or adapting those already in use. In
this respect he was notably inferior to Tennyson, many of whose
measures are wholly his own. Again, considerable portions of his lyric
verse consist merely of prose, cut into lines of different length, in
imitation of the unrhymed measures of the Greek poet, Pindar. The
Bishop of Derry, commenting on these rhythmic novelties, likens them
to the sound of a stick drawn by a city gamin sharply across the area
railings,--a not inapt comparison. That they were not always successful,
witness the following stanza from Merope:--
"Thou confessest the prize
In the rushing, blundering, mad,

Cloud-enveloped, obscure,
Unapplauded, unsung
Race of Calamity,
mine!"
Surely this is but the baldest prose. At intervals, however, Arnold was
nobly lyrical, and strangely, too, at times, in those same uneven
measures in which are found his most signal failures--the unrhymed
Pindaric. Philomela written in this style is one of the most exquisite

bits of verse in the language. As one critic has put it, "It ought to be
written in silver and bound in gold." In urbanity of phrase and in depth
of genuine pathos it is unsurpassed and shows Arnold at his best.
_Rugby Chapel, The Youth of Nature, The Youth of Man_, and A
Dream are good examples of his longer efforts in this verse form. In the
more common lyric measures, Arnold was, at times, equally successful.
Saintsbury, commenting on Requiescat, says that the poet has "here
achieved the triple union of simplicity, pathos, and (in the best sense)
elegance"; and adds that there is not a false note in the poem. He also
speaks enthusiastically of the "honey-dropping trochees" of the New
Sirens, and of the "chiselled and classic perfection" of the lines of
Resignation. Herbert W. Paul, writing of Mycerinus, declares that no
such verse has been written in England since Wordsworth's Laodamia;
and continues, "The poem abounds in single lines of haunting charm."
Among his more successful longer lyrics are _The Sick King in
Bokhara, Switzerland, Faded Leaves_, and Tristram and Iseult_, and
Epilogue to Lessing's Laocoön_, included in this volume.
=Arnold as a Dramatist=.--The drama is imitated human action, and is
intended to exhibit a picture of human life by means of dialogue, acting,
and stage accessories. In nature, it partakes of both lyric and epic, thus
uniting sentiment and action with narration. Characters live and act
before us, and speak in our presence, the interest being kept up by
constantly shifting situations tending toward some striking result. As a
dramatist, Arnold achieved no great success. Again the fundamental
qualities of his mind stood in the way. An author so subjective, so
absorbed in self-scrutiny and introspection as he, is seldom able to
project himself into the minds of others to any considerable extent. His
dramas are brilliant with beautiful phrases, his pictures of landscapes
and of nature in her various aspects approach perfection; but in the