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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Most men eddy about / Here and there—eat and drink, / Chatter and love and hate, / Gather and squander, are raised / Aloft, are hurled in the dust, / Striving blindly, achieving / Nothing; and then they die— / Perish;—and no one asks / Who or what they have been.

Mind is a light which the Gods mock us with, / To lead those false who trust it.

We forget because we must / And not because we will.

Know, man hath all which Nature hath, but more, / And in that more lie all his hopes of good.

To its own impulse every creature stirs; / Live by thy light, and earth will live by hers!

We, peopling the void air, / Make Gods to whom to impute / The ills we ought to bear; / With God and Fate to rail at, suffering easily.

Spare me the whispering, crowded loom, / The friends who come and gape and go, / The ceremonious air of gloom— / All, which makes death a hideous show.

Make us, not fly to dreams, but moderate desire.

For what wears out the life of mortal men? / ’Tis that from change to change their being rolls; / ’Tis that repeated shocks, again, again, / Exhaust the energy of strongest souls / And numb the elastic powers.

Conduct is three-fourths of our life and its largest concern.

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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.