ENGLISH LITERATURE (CBSE/UGC NET)

Detailed explanation-1: -…in the 1888 volume, “The Study of Poetry, ” was originally published as the general introduction to T.H. Ward’s anthology, The English Poets (1880). It contains many of the ideas for which Arnold is best remembered. In an age of crumbling creeds, poetry will have to replace religion.

Detailed explanation-2: -’A Study of Poetry’ is a critical essay by Matthew Arnold. In this essay Arnold criticizes the art of poetry as well as the art of criticism. Arnold believes that the art of poetry is capable of high destinies. It is the art in which the idea itself is the fact.

Detailed explanation-3: -Matthew Arnold was one of the foremost poets and critics of the 19th century. While often regarded as the father of modern literary criticism, he also wrote extensively on social and cultural issues, religion, and education.

Detailed explanation-4: -The efforts of ancient thinkers to determine what makes poetry distinctive as a form, and what distinguishes good poetry from bad, resulted in “poetics"-the study of the aesthetics of poetry.

Detailed explanation-5: -He endorses Wordsworth’s view that “poetry is the impassioned expression which is the countenance of all science” and calls poetry the breath and finer spirit of knowledge. According to Arnold, the greatness of Wordsworth lies in his powerful application of the subject of ideas to man, nature and human life.