The Voice of Victorian “Longing like Despair”

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Matthew Arnold’s Poetry: The Voice of Victorian “Longing like Despair”

John Stuart Mill defined the Victorian Era as “an age of transition”, where “Mankind will not be led by their old maxims, nor by their old guides.” Other contemporary minds saw in this transition the main source of profound intellectual and moral confusion, “that may validly be described as a crisis of personal identity.” (R. A. Forsyth) The poet and Victorian literary and social critic Matthew Arnold distinctly expresses his age’s deepest anxieties, rising from a world being utterly redefined by industrialisation. Much of his poetry is infused with intense personal and emotional discussions of love and loneliness, which spring the rising feeling of isolation and alienation. His writings respond to the disintegration of the traditional Christian social order and to the Victorian human condition. Arnold’s voice is one of despair, although it is also one of longing; one that seeks comfort in intimate companionship. “To Marguerite: Continued” (1852) and “Isolation: To Marguerite” (1857) are primarily love poems where Arnold expresses his struggle with personal isolation and his hope in the potential remedying power of love. “The Buried Life” (1852) is a reflection on the Victorian human condition, notably man’s identity crisis founded on social and self-alienation. Finally, “Dover Beach”, often characterised as a historical poem, mourns the disintegration of the traditional Christian order, as the Church was a pillar of England’s society for all of modern history. Despite these distinctions, Arnold’s verse responds to the Victorian human condition, as he weaves together his despair of the present industrialised world with a longing to overcome its darkness a...

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...ety. Ed. J. B. Schneewind. London, 1965, pp. 30-31. Print.

"Matthew Arnold : Dover Beach." Representative Poetry Online. Ed. Ian Lancashire. University of Toronto Librairies, 2009. Web. 26 Jan. 2012. .

"Matthew Arnold : Isolation: To Marguerite." Representative Poetry Online. Ed. Ian Lancashire. University of Toronto Librairies, 2009. Web. 26 Jan. 2012. .

"Matthew Arnold: The Buried Life." Representative Poetry On-line: Version 3.0. Ed. Ian Lancashire. University of Toronto Librairies, 2009. Web. 26 Jan. 2012. .

"Matthew Arnold : To Marguerite: Continued." Representative Poetry On-line: Version 3.0. Ed. Ian Lancashire. University of Toronto Librairies, 2009. Web. 26 Jan. 2012. .

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