All art is dedicated to joy, and there is no higher and no more serious problem than how to make men happy. Only the right art creates the highest enjoyment. In order to achieve this end, the first problem that comes before a poet is to choose a subject fit for high poetry. What can be those subjects? Arnold himself replies: "Those certainly, which most powerfully appeal to the great primary human affections; to those elementary feelings which subsist permanently in the race, and which are independent of time."
The modernness or antiquity of a subject has nothing to do with its fitness for poetical representation. Its fitness depends upon its inherent qualities. The date or the age of an action signifies nothing. The action or situation itself, its appeal to permanent human feelings, its power to please, to move, and to elevate - these are the basic requisitions of the subject fit for high class poetry. Whether past or present the subject should be excellent because without an excellent subject excellent poetry cannot be written. Quoting Aristotle, Arnold says, "All depends upon the subject: Choose a fitting subject, penetrate yourself with the feeling of its situation; this done, everything else will follow."
A trivial subject cannot be raised to poetic excellence only by the art and craft of the poet. Homer, Virgil, Shakespeare, Spenser, Milton, Wordsworth, Keats and all other great poets were able to write excellent poetry because they were able to choose excellent subjects to write upon. The proper choice of subject is, therefore, a matter of prime importance for a great poet.
