Matthew Arnold

Birth: 1822-12-24 , Laleham

Death: 1888-04-15 , Liverpool

Matthew Arnold (24 December 1822 – 15 April 1888) was an English poet and cultural critic. He was Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford from 1857 to 1867. Arnold is remembered today for his poetry and for his critical insights into the social and religious trends of his time. He is also one of the most influential examiners of the 19th century. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, headmaster of Rugby School and historian.

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Who ordered, that their longing’s fire

For the creation of a master-work of literature two powers must concur, the power of the man and the power of the moment.

Ah, love, let us be true / To one another! for the world, which seems / To lie before us like a land of dreams, / So various, so beautiful, so new, / Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, / Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain.

Most men in a brazen prison live, / Where, in the sun’s hot eye, / With heads bent o’er their toil, they languidly / Their lives to some unmeaning taskwork give, / Dreaming of nought beyond their prison-wall.

With women, the heart argues, not the mind.

Calm's not life’s crown, though calm is well.

Man errs not that he deems / His welfare his true aim, / He errs because he dreams / The world does but exist that welfare to bestow.

A wanderer is man from his birth. / He was born in a ship / On the breast of the river of Time.

Once read thy own breast right, / And thou hast done with fears.

Sad patience, too near neighbor to despair.

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Arnold was born in Laleham, Surrey, in 1822. He was educated at Rugby School, where his father was headmaster, and at Balliol College, Oxford. In 1843, he won the Newdigate Prize for poetry. In 1847, he became private secretary to the Viscount of Lansdowne. In 1851, he married Frances Lucy Wightman. He was appointed Professor of Poetry at Oxford in 1857. Arnold published many works, including "The Strayed Reveller" (1849), "Empedocles on Etna" (1852), and "Sohrab and Rustum" (1853). He also wrote critical essays, such as "Essays on Criticism" (1865) and "Culture and Anarchy" (1869). Arnold died in Liverpool in 1888, aged 65.