Poetry As a Criticism Of Life

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Poetry as Criticism of Life - Matthew Arnold Introduction: Mathew Arnold’s greatness lies in the fact that he had a definite aim in writing The Study of Poetry. He clearly stated this aim and tied to conform (be conventional) to his aim. His aim was “a criticism of life”. By “criticism of life” he meant “noble and profound application of ideas to life”; he believes “mankind will discover that we have to turn to poetry to interpret life for us, to console us, to sustain us”. In the beginning of his essay he states: “In poetry as criticism of life, under conditions fixed for such criticism by the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty, the spirit of our race will find, as time goes by and as other helps fail, its consolation and stay.” Thus, according to him, the best poetry is governed by the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty. Poetic truth and Poetic beauty: It shows that Arnold had a very high conception of poetry. However, poetic truth is a characteristic quality of the matter and substance of poetry. It means a sound representation of life. In other words, it is a true depiction of life without any attempt to falsify the facts. On the other hand, poetic beauty is contained in the manner and style. It is marked by excellence of diction and flow of verse. While talking of Chaucer, Arnold mentions fluidity of diction and verse. Poetic beauty springs from right words in the right order. However, poetic truth and poetic beauty are inter-related and cannot be separated from one another. High seriousness: Another quality attributed to great poetry by Arnold is that of ‘high seriousness’. Aristotle was of the view that poetry is superior to History due to the former’s qualities of higher truth and higher seriousness. What we judge from Arnold’s essay is that high-seriousness is concerned with the sad reality. This quality is possessed by poetry which deals
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