马修·阿诺德传记

诗人的传记

马修·阿诺德(Matthew Arnold, 1822-1888)以其文笔优美的评论文章而闻名于世，但他的诗人生涯始于他在拉格比学校(Rugby School)的学生时代，他的父亲托马斯·阿诺德(Thomas Arnold)作为一名严格而富有创新精神的校长赢得了全国的赞誉。阿诺德还曾就读于牛津大学贝利奥尔学院。1844年，在牛津大学完成本科学位后，他回到拉格比担任古典文学教师。1851年结婚后，阿诺德开始了一份政府学校督学的工作，这是一份艰苦的工作，但也给了他周游英格兰和欧洲大陆的机会。在他担任这个职位的35年里，阿诺德对教育产生了兴趣，这种兴趣在他的批评作品和诗歌中都有体现。《恩培多克勒论埃特纳》(1852)和《诗歌》(1853)为阿诺德奠定了诗人的声誉。1857年，他获得了牛津大学诗歌教授的职位，他接受了这个职位，并一直担任到1867年。阿诺德成为第一位用英语而不是拉丁语授课的教授。在此期间，阿诺德写了他大部分最著名的批评作品，《批评随笔》(1865年)和《文化与无政府状态》(1869年)，在这些作品中，他提出了一些思想，这些思想极大地反映了维多利亚时代的主流价值观。沉思和修辞，阿诺德的诗歌经常与心理孤立的问题作斗争。例如，在《致玛格丽特——续》(To Marguerite——续篇)中，阿诺德修正了多恩“没有人是一座孤岛”的说法，暗示我们“凡人”确实“在生命的海洋中被孤立”。 Other well-known poems, such as "Dover Beach," link the problem of isolation with what Arnold saw as the dwindling faith of his time. Despite his own religious doubts, a source of great anxiety for him, in several essays Arnold sought to establish the essential truth of Christianity. His most influential essays, however, were those on literary topics. In "The Function of Criticism" (1865) and "The Study of Poetry" (1880) Arnold called for a new epic poetry: a poetry that would address the moral needs of his readers, "to animate and ennoble them." Arnold's arguments, for a renewed religious faith and an adoption of classical aesthetics and morals, are particularly representative of mainstream Victorian intellectual concerns. His approach—his gentlemanly and subtle style—to these issues, however, established criticism as an art form, and has influenced almost every major English critic since, including T. S. Eliot, Lionel Trilling, and Harold Bloom. Though perhaps less obvious, the tremendous influence of his poetry, which addresses the poet's most innermost feelings with complete transparency, can easily be seen in writers as different from each other as W. B. Yeats, James Wright, Sylvia Plath, and Sharon Olds. Late in life, in 1883 and 1886, Arnold made two lecturing tours of the United States. Matthew Arnold died in Liverpool in 1888.