Quote

Poetry a criticism of life under the conditions fixed for such a criticism by the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty.

Matthew Arnold

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Matthew Arnold
Age: 65 †
Born: 1822
Born: December 24
Died: 1888
Died: April 15
Journalist
Literary Critic
Poet
School Inspector
University Teacher
Writer
Laleham
Surrey
Poetry
Conditions
Beauty
Law
Truth
Poetic
Life
Fixed
Criticism
Laws

More quotes by Matthew Arnold

Image
English civilization the humanizing, the bringing into one harmonious and truly humane life, of the whole body of English society that is what interests me.
Matthew Arnold
Image
Come, dear children, let us away Down and away below!
Matthew Arnold
Image
Not a having and a resting, but a growing and a becoming, is the character of perfection as culture conceives it.
Matthew Arnold
Image
Now the great winds shoreward blow Now the salt tides seaward flow Now the wild white horses play Champ and chafe and toss in the spray.
Matthew Arnold
Image
ForTime, not Corydon, hath conquered thee.
Matthew Arnold
Image
Sanity -- that is the great virtue of the ancient literature the want of that is the great defect of the modern, in spite of its variety and power.
Matthew Arnold
Image
To thee only God granted A heart ever new: To all always open To all always true.
Matthew Arnold
Image
Years hence, perhaps, may dawn an age, More fortunate, alas! than we, Which without hardness will be sage, And gay without frivolity.
Matthew Arnold
Image
Hither and thither spins The wind-borne mirroring soul, A thousand glimpses wins, And never sees a whole.
Matthew Arnold
Image
The best poetry will be found to have a power of forming, sustaining, and delighting us, as nothing else can.
Matthew Arnold
Image
France, famed in all great arts, in none supreme.
Matthew Arnold
Image
Is it so small a thing To have enjoyed the sun.
Matthew Arnold
Image
All the live murmur of a summer's day.
Matthew Arnold
Image
The difference between genuine poetry and the poetry of Dryden, Pope, and all their school, is briefly this: their poetry is conceived and composed in their wits, genuine poetry is conceived and composed in the soul.
Matthew Arnold
Image
A wanderer is man from his birth. He was born in a ship On the breast of the river of Time.
Matthew Arnold
Image
And thou, who didst the stars and sunbeams know, / Self-schooled, self-scanned, self-honoured, self-secure / Didst tread on earth unguessed at. Better so!.
Matthew Arnold
Image
Thou waitest for the spark from heaven! and we, Light half-believers in our casual deeds . . . Who hesitate and falter life away, And lose tomorrow the ground won today- Ah, do not we, Wanderer, await it too?
Matthew Arnold
Image
Once read thy own breast right, And thou hast done with fears.
Matthew Arnold
Image
How many minds--almost all the great ones--were formed in secrecy and solitude!
Matthew Arnold
Image
Who hesitate and falter life away, and lose tomorrow the ground won today.
Matthew Arnold