Nature in Arnold’s Poetry

Internal Assessment (Term Paper) for Paper ENGL-405

Prepared under the supervision of:

Abstract

Nature is the central theme of Mathew Arnold's poetry. His most of the poems deal with
the elements of nature but it's inner meaning is different. He presents his view on religion,
relationship, sad moment through Nature. He takes nature as his main tool to write poetry. He
presents his sorrow, happiness and all the emotions by using different elements of nature. His
poetry leads metaphysical meaning. The name of Arnold reminds of nature. And, using of nature
in a different way in his different poetry make him a famous poet. This papar is an attempt to
show Arnold's view on nature which is totally different from ordinary one.

Keywords: [ Nature, Different,Poetry]

Arnold belives that poetry does not present life as it is, rather the poet adds something to it
from his own noble nature, and this something contributes to his criticism of life. ... Arnold is
against direct moral teaching; he regards didactic poetry as the lowest kind
of poetry. Poetry plays an eminent role in life .To Arnold, nature was a great and indifferent
force which man must transcend. ... He believed that nature participated in man's moral growth,
through the senses, with the aid of some super-sensuous power – 'a superadded soul', an 'auxilier
light', which he believed to be the imagination
According to him, the best poetry is a criticism of life, abiding laws of poetic truth
and poetic beauty. By poetic truth, he meant representation of life in a true way.
By poetic beauty, he meant the manner and style of poetry. He said the poet should be a man
with enormous experience.
Poetry according to Matthew Arnold: According to Matthew Arnold, poetry is “simply the most
delightful and perfect form of utterance that human words can reach”; It is, “a criticism of life
under the conditions fixed for such a criticism by the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty.
Both poets use clear imagery to convey the theme of nature being magnificent, calm and
peaceful. In the poem “Dover Beach” by Mathew Arnold, the poet starts off by describing the
setting; a nightly scene at the seaside. The poet makes the seaside look like a cool and calm
place on that night
Both the poems “Dover Beach” by Mathew Arnold and “Calm is all Nature as a Resting Wheel”
by William Wordsworth; are nature poems written by poets of the Romantic era. Both poets use
clear imagery to convey the theme of nature being magnificent, calm and peaceful.

In the poem “Dover Beach” by Mathew Arnold, the poet starts off by describing the
setting; a nightly scene at the seaside. He sets a scene of peace and beauty. He states that the sea is
“calm” to give the reader a picture of how peaceful and quiet the seaside is at that very moment.
He goes ahead to show us that the night is bright and “fair”which means it’s beautiful. The night
looks beautiful because of the light that “gleams” and later goes and also because of the moon.
The night air is so lovely that the poet doesn’t want to experience it alone and calls the lover to
come and join him as he appreciates “the sweet night air”. Arnold describes the night air as
“sweet.” He goes ahead to invite the lover to come and smell the fresh air and its sweetness and
tranquillity. The poet uses “sweet is the night air” to show us how lovely and peaceful the night
looks and smells when everywhere is filled with clean and smokeless air. The poet makes the
seaside look like a cool and calm place on that night.

Then, the poet uses “Listen” so as to shift the reader’s attention from visual imagery to
auditory imagery. The beauty of nature can not only be seen, but can also be heard. The poet uses
listen with an exclamation mark, to grab the reader’s attention, leaving the reader alert and eager
to hear what he has to say.He goes ahead to mention the “grating roar of pebbles”which is a harsh
sound produced by the pebbles as they are moved by the roaring waves that “draw nature
removes his stresses of life and provides peace and comfort. The poet keeps repeating“home” to
emphasize on the point that harmony can only be found and felt while at home.“oh! Leave me to
myself,” the writer is all alone in nature with no one around to console him.When the writer is
sad, he prefers isolating himself but being surrounded by nature which takes away his pain and
sorrows. It is clear from the poem that the writer experiences some relief when surrounded by
nature and it’s only in the beauty of nature the writer can spend time thinking about.The poet
successfully conveys nature as harmonious.In both poems “Dover Beach” by Mathew Arnold and
“Calm is all Nature as a Resting Wheel” by William Wordsworth, both poets use explicit imagery
to make their poems an incredible work of literary art, in conveying their appreciation and love
for nature.

An interesting use of nature by Arnold comes in "The Scholar Gypsy." Here nature is
presented as a place of retreat from the falsity and ceaseless flux of the modern world. When
Arnold wrote the poem, Victorian England was experiencing rapid change, with industrial
capitalism destroying many of the old certainties. It seemed to many, and not just Arnold, that
everything was being turned upside-down. The scholar gypsy turns his back on this world in
search of a more natural, more authentic life, wandering the remote English countryside, a place
as of yet untouched by the relentless development of industrial capitalism. Not only that, but the
scholar gypsy seeks—and finds—the kind of knowledge in nature that he could never find at
Oxford, or in any other urban environment.

Arnold, in the cusp between the late Romantic and early Victorian periods (1822-1888)
acknowledges Nature, but laments the distance from it that Mankind is experiencing as it moves
away from the pastoral life. A signature example is this line from "Thyrsis" (1866), a poem
lamenting the loss of the pastoral life: “Too rare, too rare, grow now my visits here, /But once I
knew each field, each flower, each stick.” At other times he compares the mystery of the sea in
earlier times to the sea in the modern world, lamenting the loss of the sea’s mysteries--Dover
Beach (1867) is his most famous example. His homage to Shakespeare (1849) contains the
image: “For the loftiest hill,/Who to the stars uncrowns his majesty,/ Planting his stedfast
footsteps to the sea…” Perhaps the most poignant statement is from To Marguerite: "We mortal
millions live alone." So for Arnold, the loss of Man's sympathetic attachment to Nature is one
price that had to be paid for “progress,” that is, for the looming Industrial Revolution.
 In Arnold's poetry, natures symbolizes all that is pure, beautiful, and unchanging in the
world. Nature, particularly wide open fields and sunny pastures, serve as Arnold's anchor in a
constantly changing world full of constantly changing people. Further, humans are able to rise
above the cluttered modern world by reflecting on the purity of nature. Sometimes, nature can
cause consternation, because it reminds the speaker that he can never quite transcend or leave
society to the extent that he desires. One good example of Arnold's use of nature is in "A Wish,"
in which the speaker's dying wish is to be placed by a window as he dies, so that he may look out
at the beautiful landscape that will be there long after he is gone. Natural metaphors are woven
all throughout Arnold's poetry, typically symbolizing beauty and purity, and the human ability to
transcend.

Matthew Arnold is a poet best remembered by his sophisticatedly reasoned critical poems
and essays. His themes are modest and simple, while simultaneously being touching and
emotional. Matthew didn’t apply complicated concepts to his poems, he used unpretentious
themes such as faith, love, and nature. And that’s precisely where he excelled at, he managed to
write about simple and popular topics while striking the reader where it counts, feelings. But
there’s one theme that Arnold paid close attention to, respected, even admired it. Matthew used a
variety of natural allegories throughout his writings. The connection between man and nature in
Arnold’s poetry, is superbly displayed in a sea of tranquility. It represents everything that is
constant, genuine, and pretty. He observed nature and its …show more content…
The poem is based on a small lake located in Southeast England, possibly one of the places where
Arnold privately enjoyed seeing nature. Line one states: ‘’A region desolate and wild’’, an
obvious and direct reference to the theme of nature. Additionally, it also has the tone of
loneliness, a tone Matthew is famous for using. The words: lonely and single (Lines 3, 4, and 16)
set the mood for the poem. Hints of nature, while subtle, are extremely effective, and form the
theme of the poem. Hayeswater is the most direct tribute made by Arnold to nature, being solely
written with the intention of describing a spectacular location.

Nevertheless, poetry is to Arnold what it was to Wordsworth, ‘the breath and spirit of all
knowledge.’ the impassioned expression of what is in the countenance of all science.’ And “the
greatness of a poet lies in his powerful and beautiful application of ideas to life—to the question
: How to live.” Again he says “In poetry, however, the criticism of life has to be made
conformably to the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty. Truth and seriousness of substance
and matter, felicity and perfection of diction and manner, as these are exhibited in the best poets,
are what constitute a criticism of life made in conformity with the laws of poetic truth and poetic
beauty; and it is by knowing and feeling the work of those poets that we learn to recognise the
fulfilment of such conditions.” At another place he says, “Poetry interprets in two ways : it
interprets by expressing with magical felicity the physiognomy and movement of the outer
world, and it interprets by expressing with inspired conviction, the ideas and laws of the inward
world of man’s moral and spiritual nature. In other words, poetry is interpretative by having
natural music in it; and by having moral profundity.

Works Cited

Arnold, Matthew. Nature in Arnold’s Poetry,1995

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