Book description
This edition contains all Arnold’s published poems. Although writing verses from his school days until the age of sixty-four, his authentic poetic life was comparatively short. Obliged by circumstances to follow a career, first as a school inspector and then as Professor of Poetry at Oxford, he found less and less time to devote to poetry.
If Arnold wrote fewer poems than his great contemporaries Browning and Tennyson, nevertheless his poetic achievement ranks with theirs. If he lacked Tennyson’s fine ear or Browning’s extraordinary energy, he used his poetic „capital” to better effect than either. He brought to his poetry qualities of an exceptional intelligence and a sensitivity of judgement which will continue to give pleasure to lovers of English verse.