Discussion Questions (See Second Set of Q's ):
852:
What question, according to
the editors, is raised in Arnold's poetry?
853:
In what way, according to the
editors, did Arnold differ from such authors as Tennyson and
George Eliot?
What debt, according to the
editors, does Arnold's writing owe to Wordsworth's?
In
Arnold's view, what is the function of poetry? How well does
his own poetry serve this function?
854:
What,
according to the editors, does Arnold mean by "culture"?
"Dover Beach" (ca. 1851, 1867)
863-64:
How
does this poem compare to Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey"?
Describe the tone of this
poem.
What
does the sea represent to the speaker?
What does Arnold mean by the
"Sea of Faith" (21)?
Explain
the speaker's message to his lover in the final stanza.
Other Discussion Questions:
853
What advantages, according to
the editors, did Arnold's work as an inspector of schools give
him?
Describe the four periods of
Arnold's career as a writer.
854:
Describe Arnold's views of
the middle class.
Describe Arnold's view of
religion.
"Dover Beach"
Explain the degree to which
this poem exemplifies the ideas found in Culture and Anarchy.
Explain lines 35-37.
Another Text to Consider:
from Culture and Anarchy (1867-68, 1869) 865:
Explain Arnold's conception of "sweetness and light"
(865). See also footnote 1.
In another excerpt not included in the Norton anthology,
Arnold says, "He who works for sweetness and light, works to
make reason and the will of God prevail" (Longman 1697).
Describe Arnold's views on the Puritans.
866:
Explain: "On what he is to do when is thus free to do as he
likes, we do not lay so much stress" (866).
867:
Explain: "[As] we are left with nothing but our system of
checks, and our notion of its being the great right and
happiness of an Englishman to do as far as possible what he
likes, we are in danger of drifting towards anarchy" (867).
Other Discussion Questions
(Another Text to Consider):
from
"The Function of Criticism at the Present Time" (1864,
1865)
(Pages numbers refer to the 10th edition)
How do Arnold's thoughts on poetry compare with
Wordsworth's and Percy Shelley's?
830:
Does Arnold agree with
Wordsworth's views on criticism? Explain.
Explain: "The critical faculty is lower than the
inventive" (830). (See also: "The critical power
is of lower rank than the creative" (831)).
Explain: "It is almost too much to expect of poor
human nature, that a man capable of producing some effect in
one line of literature, should, for the greater good of
society, voluntarily doom himself into impotence and obscurity
in another" (830).
831:
Explain: "The exercise of the
creative power in the production of great works of literature or
art . . . is not at all epochs and under all conditions
possible" (831).
Explain: "[C]reative literary genius does not
principally show itself in discovering new ideas, that is
rather the business of the philosopher" (831).
Explain: "The grand work of literary genius is a
work of synthesis and exposition, not of analysis and
discovery" (831).
Explain: "For the creation of a master-work in
literature two powers must concur, the power of the man and
the power of the moment, and the man is not enough without the
moment" (831).
832:
Explain: "The critical power . . . tends to
establish an order of ideas . . . to make the best ideas
prevail" (832).
Explain: "A poet, for instance, ought to know life
and the world before dealing with them in poetry; and life and
the world being in modern times very complex things, the
creation of a modern poet, to be worth much, implies a great
critical effort behind it" (832).
Explain: "The English poetry of the first quarter of
the century . . . did not know enough" (832).
833:
Explain: "In the England of the first quarter of
this century, there was neither a national glow of life and
thought, such as we had in the age of Elizabeth, nor yet
a culture and a force of learning and criticism such as
were to be found in Germany" (833).
833-34:
Describe Arnold's views on the significance of the French
Revolution.
835:
According to Arnold, what was the "grand error" of the
French Revolution?
836:
Explain what Arnold means by "living by ideas" (836)?
837:
What does Arnold mean by
"curiosity"?
837-38:
What does Arnold mean by "disinterestedness"?
838:
Explain: "Its business is . . . simply to know the
best that is known and thought in the world, and by in its
turn making this known, to create a current of true and fresh
ideas" (838). (See also 843).
Explain: "Our organs of criticism are organs of men
and parties having practical ends to serve, and with them
those practical ends are the first thing and the play of mind
the second" (838).
839:
What, according to Arnold, is criticism's "best spiritual
work" (839)?
Explain: "The little that is done seems nothing when we
look forward and see how much we have yet to do" (qtd. 839).
840:
Explain Arnold's juxtaposition of Roebuck and Wragg.
841:
Explain: "In no other way will these songs of triumph be
induced gradually to moderate themselves, to get rid of what
in them is excessive and offensive, and to fall into a softer
and truer key" (841).
Explain: "The mass of mankind will never have any
ardent zeal for seeing things as they are; very inadequate
ideas will always satisfy them" (841).
Explain: "It is only by remaining collected, and
refusing to lend himself to the point of view of the practical
man, that the critic can do the practical man any service"
(841).
842:
Why, according to Arnold, must the English literary
critic "dwell much on foreign thoughts" (842)?
Explain: "It is by communicating fresh knowledge,
and letting his own judgment pass along with it, . . . that
the critic will generally do most good to his readers" (842).
843:
What, finally, is Arnold's definition of criticism?
): 