Beuve: 'a critic of measure, not exuberant; of the centre, not provincial . . . with gay
and amiable temper, his manner as good as his matter?the 'critiquesouriant' [smiling
critic].' Unlike authors such as Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Thomas Carlyle who committed
themselves solely to their literary pursuits, Arnold confined his writing and reading
to his spare time. In 1847 he took the post of private secretary to Lord Lansdowne;
and in 1851, the year of his marriage, he became an inspector of schools, a demanding
and time-consuming position that he held for thirty-five years. Although his work as
an inspector may have reduced his output as a writer, it had several advantages. His
extensive traveling in England took him to the homes of the more ardently Protestant
middle classes, and when he criticized the dullness of middle-class life (as he often
did), his scorn was based on intimate knowledge. His position also led to travel on
the Continent to study the schools of Europe. As a critic of English education, he
.
MATTHEW ARNOLD / 135 1
was thus able to make helpful comparisons and to draw on a stock of fresh ideas in
the same way as in his literary criticism he used his familiarity with French, German,
Italian, and classical literatures to talk knowledgeably about the distinctive qualities
of English writers. Despite the monotony of much of his work as an inspector, Arnold
became convinced of its importance. It contributed to what he regarded as his cen
tury's most important need: the development of a satisfactory national system of
education. In 1849 Arnold published The Strayed Reveler, his first volume of poetry. Eight
years later, as a tribute to his poetic achievement, he was elected to the professorship
of poetry at Oxford, a part-time position that he held for ten years. Later, like Charles
Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray before him, Arnold toured America to
make money by lecturing. His lectures could leave audiences indifferent, but some
times they were highly acclaimed: thus the Washington Post reported that, following
a two-hour address in the U.S. capital, the African American leader Frederick Doug-
lass 'moved that a tremendous vote of thanks be tendered to the speaker.' A further
inducement for his two visits (in 1883 and 1886) was the opportunity of seeing his
daughter Lucy, who had married an American. In 1888 Arnold died of a sudden heart
attack. Arnold's career as a writer can be roughly divided into four periods. In the 1850s
most of his poems appeared; in the 1860s, literary criticism and social criticism; in
the 1870s, his religious and educational writings; and in the 1 880s, his second set of
essays in literary criticism.
Today Arnold is perhaps better known as a writer of prose than as a poet, although
individual poems such as 'Dover Beach' (1867) continue to be widely popular. In his
own era his decision to spend hardly any time composing poetry after 1860 was
considered wrongheaded by some: 'Tell Mat not to write any more of those prose
things like Literature and Dogma,' Tennyson wrote in a letter, wishing that Arnold
would instead 'give us something like his 'Thyrsis,' 'Scholar Gypsy,' or 'Forsaken
Merman.' ' Others have felt that he made the right move: Arnold's poetry has been
criticized, in both the nineteenth and the twentieth centuries, on numerous grounds.
Some have disliked its excessive reliance on italics instead of on meter to emphasize
the meaning of a line, while others object to the prosy flatness of certain passages or,
conversely, to overelaborated similes in others. Yet despite these cavils, many readers
find much to cherish and admire. Given Arnold's sophistication as a writer, it is
perhaps surprising that his evocations of nature function so memorably in his poetry:
rather than simply providing a picturesque backdrop, the setting?seashore or river
or mountaintop?draws the poem's meaning together. In this respect, as in many
others, Arnold displays a debt to William Wordsworth, whose poetry he greatly
