Metthew Arnold: The study of poetry

Metthew Arnold (24 December 1822,15 April 1888)

   Metthew Arnold was an English poet and cultural critic.Who worked as an inspector of schools. He was headmaster of Rugby school. He was literary professor,and William Delafield Arnold , novelist and colonial administrator peirod of Victorian age.

In the Victorian period in between the two two esteem of "Art for Art's sake and Art for Life's sake" Arnold presented the Golden mean.

His poem ............

                 Dover Beach, 

                 The scholar Gipsy,

                 Theyrsis,

                 Sohrab and  Rustum,

                 To Marguerite,

                 Continued.........

(1)" poetry is the criticism of life" Explain?
                   
The quality of high seriousness is found in the poetry of Dante, Homer and Milton. It is the power of sincerity that gives their criticism of life the power that they have. Poetry'sSuperiority over Other Forms of Knowledge: According to Arnold, as acriticism of life, poetry has a high destiny.
(2) Metthew Arnold's touchtone method?
       
 idea which I found out-of-date and irrelevant that is Arnold's Touchstone method. In which he introduced scientific objectivity to critical evaluation by providing comparison and analysis as the two primary tools for judging individual poets.In this method talent of individual is not fairly judged and it also seems to neglect the beauty and uniqueness of an individual. It is not necessary to compare the work of an ancient writers with any other writers for passing judgement on their work.Because everyone has his/her own beauty, talent and uniqueness. Arnold's ideal poets are Homer and Sophocles in the ancient world but Chaucer, Dryden,Shelly and Pope fall short of the best because they lack high seriousness.It is not a fairway to judge the work of an art.What Homer and Sophocles wrote it might also be not relevant in today's time.By comparing the work of one with another it is not fairway to judge any writer's work