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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Culture, the acquainting ourselves with the best that has been known and said in the world.

The brave, impetuous heart yields everywhere to the subtle, contriving head.

The freethinking of one age is the common sense of the next.

I do not believe today everything I believed yesterday I wonder will I believe tomorrow everything I believe today.

But each day brings its petty dust Our soon-chok'd souls to fill, And we forget because we must, And not because we will.

...what thwarts us and demands of us the greatest effort is also what can teach us most.

The main effort, for now many years, has been a critical effort; the endeavours, in all branches of knowledge—theology, philosophy, history, art, science—to see the object as in itself it really is.

Poetry is at bottom a criticism of life.

The true meaning of religion is thus not simply morality, but morality touched by emotion.

In poetry, no less than in life, he is ‘a beautiful and ineffectual angel, beating in the void his luminous wings in vain’.

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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.