The Study of Poetry

                                                   The Study of Poetry

"For poetry the idea is everything; the rest is a world of illusion, of divine illusion. Poetry attaches its emotion to the idea; the idea is fact" -  Matthew Arnold.

According to him IDEA is supreme and in poetry it is the idea that matters, that is attached by poetry through emotions. According to him THE FUNCTION OF POETRY is to interpret life for us, to console us, to sustain us. He says if SCIENCE IS APPEARANCE then the POETRY IS EXPRESSION and there is no appearance without expression

Then Arnold talks about setting our standard for poetry high. We must accustom ourselves to HIGH STANDARD and STRICT JUDGEMENT and there is no place for CHARLATANISM in poetry. Charlatanism is for confusing the difference between excellent and inferior, sound and unsound or only half sound, true and untrue or only half true. Judging with little differences has a paramount importance, so there is no place for charlatanism in poetry.

Then Arnold tells about THREE KINDS OF ESTIMATES and these estimates are related to poetry and its reading. These estimates are:

·         Historic Estimate

·         Personal Estimate

·         Real Estimate

HISTORIC ESTIMATE: It is fallacious estimate that deals with the poets of past. When we are effected by a poet's historical background, we may easily consider his poetry of more importance than in reality it is. We must over-rate it. So, this type of fallacy is caused in judgment by Historic Estimate.

PERSONAL ESTIMATE: It is also fallacious estimate that deals with the contemporary (modern) poets. Our personal affinities, likings and circumstances have great power to sway our estimate. Due to our personal likings we give more importance to that poetry which does not deserve that much importance. So second fallacy in our poetic judgment is caused by personal estimate.

REAL ESTIMATE: Real Estimate is the only TRUE ESTIMATE which is not affected by any kind of estimate. A sense for the best, the real excellence, strength and joy can be drawn from it. It is present in our minds and governs our estimate of what we read. We are sure of frequent temptation to adopt the Historic estimate and Personal estimate which are fallacious but forget the Real Estimate.

         The benefit or Real Estimate is high and it is the benefit of clearly feeling and of deeply enjoying the real excellence, the true classic in poetry. Everything depends on the reality of a poet's CLASSIC CHARACTER. If he is a dubious classic, let us sift him, if he is a false classic, let us explode him. But if he is a REAL CLASSIC, if his work belongs to the class of the VERY BEST, then the great thing for us is to feel and enjoy his work as deeply as we can. We must read our classic with open eyes and not with eyes blinded with superstition. We must perceive when his work comes short and when it drops out of the class of very best. This type of NEGATIVE CRITICISM enables us to have clearer sense and deeper enjoyment of what is REAL EXCELLENCE.

But the question arises here is:

How can one recognize or identify that "truly excellent" or

"really excellent" or "real classic" ?

Arnold gives a method to identify the real classic and he gives the name TOUCHSTONE METHOD to this method. It is a method TO JUDGE THE QUALITY OF POETRY. A goldsmith hit the gold against stone to know the quality or purity of gold, he uses this method to know about the purities and impurities of gold. In the same way, Arnold uses this method to know about the qualities of poetry. It is a COMPARATIVE METHOD OF CRITICISM. According to this method, in order to judge a poet's work properly, a critic should compare it to the passages taken from the works of great masters of poetry. Even a single line or selected quotation can serve the purpose. If the other work moves us in the same way as these lines and expressions do only then it is a real classic otherwise not.

To apply this method on various poets and ages, Arnold takes passages from the works of the great classics like Homer and Dante. The passages that Arnold takes, have these qualities in common:

The possession of the very highest poetical quality.

Characters of high quality.

Both substance and matter on one hand, style and manner on other hand, have a mark, accent of HIGH BEAUTY, WORTH and POWER.

                           High Truth and HIGH SERIOUSNESS. 

By keeping these qualities in center, Arnold applies Touchstone Method on CHAUCER first. According to Arnold, Chaucer is genuine source of joy and strength. There is an excellence of style and subject in his poetry. He has divine fluidity of movement and diction. But he CAN NOT BE CALLED A CLASSIC because his poetry lacks high seriousness which according to Aristotle is very important.

         After Chaucer, he applies the method on ELIZABETHAN AGE. Arnold says that all of us recognize it as great poetry. He says this because according to him Shakespeare from Elizabethan and Milton from PURITAN AGE are CLASSIC POETS. They have all the qualities including high truth and high seriousness.

         Then he applies the method on THE AGE OF DRYDEN. This age is regarded as superior to that of the others for 'sweetness of poetry'. Dryden and Pope are the famous poets of this age. But this age was full of rules and regulations. The restrictions that were imposed on the poets were uniformity, regularity, precision and balance. This age is famous as AGE OF PROSE and Arnold also says that Pope and Dryden are not poet classics but 'prose classics'.

Then Arnold applies the method on GRAY. He is our CLASSIC POET according to Arnold. He lived with the great poets, with the Greeks, studying and enjoying them and caught their poetic point of view and poetic manner. He is scantiest and frailest of classics in our poetry but he is a classic.

         Then he applies the method on BURNS. His poems deal with Scottish dress, Scottish manner and Scottish religion. The Scottish World is not beautiful one according to Arnold. Burns moralizes in some of his poems and disregarded morality in actual life. So it seems insincere. His pathos is intolerable. Like Chaucer, he lacks high poetic seriousness. So he is NOT A CLASSIC.

In this way Arnold applies Touchstone Method on various poets and finds out that poets like SHAKESPEARE, MILTON and GRAY are CLASSIC POETS while Chaucer, Dryden, Pope and Burns are not classics.

          Through this essay, Arnold wants to convey that we should not be effected by Historical and Personal Estimate rather we should enjoy the REAL CLASSIC that belongs to the class of VERY BEST. We can clearly feel and deeply enjoy the best by effecting ourselves only by REAL ESTIMATE. The best way to identify the real classic is to apply TOUCHSTONE METHOD by which we can clearly identify the wide difference between the real classics and the others as Arnold identifies the difference between classics (Shakespeare, Milton, Gray) and others (Chaucer, Dryden, Pope, Burns).