00082--Discuss Matthew Arnold's definition of poetry as 'Criticism of life.' OR Discuss Mathew Arnold's views on the relationship between poetry and morality.

.

Matthew Arnold defines poetry "as a criticism of life under the conditions fixed for such a criticism by the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty."  He adds by saying that the future of poetry is immense because in poetry we will find an ever surer and surer stay.  The strongest part of our religion today is its unconscious poetry.
AUDIO BOOKS

            Quoting Wordsworth, he says that poetry is "the impassioned expression which is in the countenance of all science."  But these observations apply to the high and sublime poetry of high excellence.  High poetry has a power of 'forming, sustaining, and delighting us as nothing else can.' This kind of poetry is, therefore, essentially moral, not in the narrow didactic sense, but in the larger sense of conforming to the highest ideals of truth, goodness, and beauty.  In his essay on Wordsworth he says, "A poetry of revolt against moral ideas is a poetry of revolt against life; a poetry of indifference towards moral ideas is a poetry of indifference towards life."  But the term 'moral' should be used in its broadest sense, bearing upon the question 'how to live?'

.

.