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MATTHEW ARNOLD'S


SOHRAB AND RUSTUM


AND OTHER POEMS




EDITED, WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES

BY

JUSTUS COLLINS CASTLEMAN

HEAD OF ENGLISH DEPARTMENT, SOUTH DIVISION
HIGH SCHOOL, MILWAUKEE




1905



CONTENTS

  PREFACE

  INTRODUCTION
    A Short Life of Arnold
    Arnold the Poet
    Arnold the Critic
    Chronological List of Arnold's Works
    Contemporary Authors
    Bibliography

  SELECTIONS FROM ARNOLD'S POETICAL WORKS

  NARRATIVE POEMS

    Sohrab and Rustum
    Saint Brandan
    The Forsaken Merman
    Tristram and Iseult


  LYRICAL POEMS

    The Church of Brou
    Requiescat
    Consolation
    A Dream
    Lines written in Kensington Gardens
    The Strayed Reveller
    Morality
    Dover Beach
    Philomela
    Human Life
    Isolation--To Marguerite
    Kaiser Dead
    The Last Word
    Palladium
    Revolutions
    Self-Dependence
    A Summer Night
    Geist's Grave
    Epilogue--To Lessing's Laocooen


  SONNETS

    Quiet Work
    Shakespeare
    Youth's Agitations
    Austerity of Poetry
    Worldly Place
    East London
    West London


  ELEGIAC POEMS

    Memorial Verses
    The Scholar-Gipsy
    Thyrsis
    Rugby Chapel


  NOTES

  INDEX

       *       *       *       *       *



INTRODUCTION


A SHORT LIFE OF ARNOLD

Matthew Arnold, poet and critic, was born in the village of Laleham,
Middlesex County, England, December 24, 1822. He was the son of Dr.
Thomas Arnold, best remembered as the great Head Master at Rugby and
in later years distinguished also as a historian of Rome, and of Mary
Penrose Arnold, a woman of remarkable character and intellect.

Devoid of stirring incident, and, on the whole, free from the
eccentricities so common to men of genius, the story of Arnold's life
is soon told. As a boy he lived the life of the normal English lad,
with its healthy routine of task and play. He was at school at both
Laleham and Winchester, then at Rugby, where he attracted attention
as a student and won a prize for poetry. In 1840 he was elected to
an open scholarship at Balliol College, Oxford, and the next year
matriculated for his university work. Arnold's career at Oxford was a
memorable one. While here he was associated with such men as John Duke
Coleridge, John Shairp, Dean Fraser, Dean Church, John Henry Newman,
Thomas Hughes, the Froudes, and, closest of all, with Arthur Hugh
Clough, whose early death he lamented in his exquisite elegiac
poem--_Thyrsis_. Among this brilliant company Arnold moved with ease,
the recognized favorite. Having taken the Newdigate prize for English
verse, and also having won a scholarship, he was graduated with
honors in 1844, and in March of the following year had the additional
distinction of being elected a Fellow of Oriel, the crowning glory of
an Oxford graduate. He afterward taught classics for a short time at
Rugby, then in 1847 accepted the post of private secretary to the
Marquis of Lansdowne, Lord President of the Council, which position he
occupied until 1851, when he was appointed Lay Inspector of Schools
by the Committee on Education. The same year he married Frances Lucy
Wightman, daughter of Sir William Wightman, judge of the Court of the
Queen's Bench.

Arnold's record as an educator is unparalleled in the history of
England's public schools. For more than thirty-five years he served as
inspector and commissioner, which offices he filled with efficiency.
As inspector he was earnest, conscientious, versatile; beloved alike
by teachers and pupils. The Dean of Salisbury likened his appearance
to inspect the school at Kiddermaster, to the admission of a ray
of light when a shutter is suddenly opened in a darkened room.
All-in-all, he valued happy-appearing children, and kindly sympathetic
teachers, more than excellence in grade reports. In connection with
the duties of his office as commissioner, he travelled frequently on
the Continent to inquire into foreign methods of primary and secondary
education. Here he found much that was worth while, and often carried
back to London larger suggestions and ideas than the national mind was
ready to accept. Under his supervision, however, the school system of
England was extensively revised and improved. He resigned his position
under the Committee of Council on Education, in 188