Selected Poems (Penguin Classics)

By Matthew Arnold

Book Overview

Matthew Arnold is not only a significant poet, but also a critic of the Victorian age. It is partly because a prose-writer's intelligence shapes his finest poetry that he is set somewhat apart. Believing that poetry should be a criticism of life, in his poetry Arnold often explores personal responses to the society he critizes in his prose. The characteristic notes, in major poems such as Dover Beach or Thyrsis, are meditative and elegiac, informed by doubt and by the conflict between necessity and desire.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140423761
• ISBN13: 9780140423761
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: Penguin Group USA
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.44 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 0.5" x 5.0"

Customer Reviews

well versed, full of life, full of truth

Matthew Arnold is one of my favourite poets and I think that this collection showcases some of his best work. The poems are mostly his older and longer works, so I wouldn't recommend this for someone who likes short poems; some in here are pages long! I was disappointed by the fact that "A Question: To Fausta" wasn't printed in this volume, though.