Thinking Activity: (Matthew Arnold)

Thinking Activity
(Matthew Arnold)

(Characteristics of Good Poetry and criticism)

"Poetry is criticism of life, governed by the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty."

- Matthew Arnold

By giving his views on good poetry he says that, “The superior character of truth and seriousness, in the matter and substance of the best poetry, is inseparable from the superiority of diction and movement marking its style and manner.”

W.J.Long says for Arnold that, “The best has been thought and said in the world and by using this knowledge to create a current of fresh and free thought.”


Hello friends,

This blog is response to the task assigned by Dr.Dilip Barad sir for Thinking Activity on Matthew Arnold. Here is the link to view the task.Click Here

Arnold's view on good poetry:

Characteristics of good poetry

Poetry should be detached from the personal fallacies of the poet.  Poet has to detach himself from personal prejudices. Remember the term disinterestedness. Poet must keep himself aloof from the poem. No personal attachment.

All literature is the application of ideas to life. So "poetry is an application of ideas to life" is simply a vain repetition. Arnold believes that the ideas and sentiments to have any permanent value must be based on actual life. Thoughts and feelings excluded from the action might be the creed of a few poets. But they have no charm for him.

In respect of our analysis above, we can say that Arnold's theory of poetry expressed in "The Study of poetry" may be questionable in details and on minor points. It is true that his views on poetry are quite mature. They are in harmony with modern ideas. Arnold believes in the high destiny of poetry. So he does not hesitate to express his exalted view of poetry. He has analysed the nature and function of excellent poetry highlighting its striking features.

Touchstone Method:

Touchstone Method is a term coined by Matthew Arnold, the famous Victorian poet and critic. He introduced the term in his essay “Study of Poetry” to denote short but distinctive passages, selected from the writing of great poets, which he used to determine the excellence of passages or poems which are compared to them.

Arnold delineated his idea of excellent poetry and formulates a practical method for identifying the true poetry. This method is comparative method of criticism.

• General principles

Scientific objectivity to critical evaluation by providing comparison and analysis as the two primary tools for judging individual poets.  

As Arnold puts it, “There can be no more useful help for discovering what poetry belongs to the class of the truly excellent.. than to have always in one's mind lies and expressions of the great masters and to apply them as a touchstone to other poetry.”

The best way to know the class, to which a work belongs in terms of the excellence of art, Arnold recommends, is

“To have always in one’s mind lies and expressions of the great, masters and to apply them as a touchstone to other poetry.”

Comparing with the best lines and passages from Homer and Shakespeare, Arnold surveys the entire track of English poetry, and divides the various poets into the categories of the good-and-great and the not-so-great. His idea of tradition is select in that only the great constitute the body of literary history we should care for, and the rest we better ignore. 

Arnold’s view of the greatness in poetry and what a literary critic should look for are summed up as follows:

“It is important, therefore, to hold fast to this;

 That 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.”

William Galbraith says that..

“Familiarity may breed contempt in some areas of human behavior, but in the field of social ideas it is the touchstone of acceptability.”