Arnold, Matthew

(1822-1888)

   English Victorian poet, literary and social critic, the eldest son of Dr. Thomas Arnold, famous as headmaster of Rugby School. His poem "Alaric at Rome" won him a place at Rugby, and from there he went to Balliol College, Oxford. In 1847 he was appointed private secretary to the Marquis of Lansdowne. Later he became inspector for schools, a post he held for 35 years, during which time he strove to improve education in England. In 1857 he was elected professor of poetry at Oxford. In his later years Arnold turned more to writing essays on literary, educational and social topics. He is noted especially for his attacks on the contemporary tastes and manners of the "Barbarians" (the aristocracy), the "Philistines" (the commercial middle class), and the "Populace." There is a bust of him in Poets' Corner, Westminster Abbey. Some of his poems: "Absence," "At Some Lone Alehouse," "Bacchanalia; or, The New Age," "Below the Surface-Stream," "Growing Old," "Lines Written in Kensington Gardens," "The Buried Life."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). The Academy of American Poets (http://www.poets.org/index.cfm). The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers. org). The National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk). The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. Westminster Abbey Official Guide (no date).