'"Thinking back, I am amazed at the amount of English literature we absorbed in those four years", recalled Ethel Clark, a Gloucester railway worker's daughter, "and I pay tribute to the man who made it possible... Scott, Thackeray, Shakespeare, Longfellow, Dickens, Matthew Arnold, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Rudyard Kipling were but a few authors we had at our fingertips. How he made the people live again for us!".'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ethel Clark Print: Book
"And that reminds me that the last Contemporary is worth looking at, not only for Gladstone's twaddle about Ritualism, wh. has sold ten editions of the number, twaddle though it is, but for an article of Mat Arnold's wh. amuses me."
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Serial / periodical
"Rather vexatiously Mat Arnold has sent in an article wh. I must read before it goes in because it is supposed to be heterodox & I can't get it back till tomorrow night."
Century: 1800-1849 / 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Manuscript: proofs of article
"S[ain]te Beuve & Mat. Arnold (in a smaller way) are the only modern critics wh. seem to me worth reading - perhaps, too, Lowell."
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Book
?Have you read Mat Arnold?s letters? Some, I see, are addressed to you? I can imagine old Carlyle taking himself to be a prophet, as indeed he was; but Mat Arnold, I should have thought, was too much of a critic even of himself to wear his robes so gravely.?
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Leslie Stephen Print: Book
Joan Evans, "Prelude and Fugue: An Autobiography" (1964): 'One of my few conscious naughtinesses after I had attained the age of perception was to steal into the drawing-room, when I knew my parents were safe in London, open the [book]case, and take deep delicious draughts of verse. Tennyson and Matthew Arnold were all the sweeter for being read in secret' (p.17).'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Joan Evans Print: Book
''"My masters... in poetry, were Swinburne and Meredith among the living, Rossetti, Matthew Arnold and Robert Browning among the lately dead. To these I would add Edward Fitzgerald... In prose, the masters were Stendhal, Flaubert, Villiers del'Isle-Adam, Guy de Maupassant, Prosper Merimee and Walter Pater".'
Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: John Masefield Print: Book
'Bernard Kops, the son of an immigrant leather worker, had a special understanding of the transition from from autodidact culture to Bohemia to youth culture, because he experienced all three. He grew up in the ferment of the Jewish East End... read "The Tempest" at school, and cried over "The Forsaken Merman". At fifteen he became a cook at a hotel, where the staff gave him Karl Marx, Henry Miller and "Ten Days that Shook the World". A neighbor presented him with the poems of Rupert Brooke, and "Grantchester" so resonated with the Jewish slum boy that he went to the library to find another volume from the same publisher, Faber and Faber. Thus he stumbled upon T.S. Eliot. "This book changed my life", he remembered. "It struck me straight in the eye like a bolt of lightning... I had no preconceived ideas about poetry and read 'The Waste Land' and 'Prufrock' as if they were the most acceptable and common forms in existence. The poems spoke to me directly, for they were bound up with the wasteland of the East End, and the desolation and lonelines of people and landscape. Accidentally I had entered the mainstream of literature".'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Bernard Kops Print: Book
Henry James to Thomas Sergeant Perry, from Cambridge, Mass., 20 September 1867: "In English I have read nothing new, except M. Arnold's New Poems, which of course you will see or have seen."
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Henry James Print: Book
'The last few days I have been looking through Matthew Arnold's poems, and find his earlier ones very superior to the later'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: George Eliot [pseud] Print: Book
'Fan lent me the "Cornhill", with Matt's bit of sauciness... I tell Fan (we are always as plainspoken as can be) that I hope it may do more good than harm; but that it will do harm, - to himself at all events'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Harriet Martineau Print: Serial / periodical
'Then, when I was twelve we had a really good poetry book which contained extracts from "The Excursion", part of "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage", "The Eve of Saint Agnes", "Adonais", "The Pied Piper of Hamelin", and Mathew Arnold's "Tristram and Iseult". We were given "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" and "The Pied Piper" to learn by heart in consecutive years. I never liked "The Pied Piper", which, being written consciously as a child's poem, made me feel conscious, and most of "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage" seemed unreal to me... The poems in the book which I liked best were "The Eve of Saint Agnes" and "Tristram and Iseult"...'
Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edwin Muir Print: Book
'one day in Kirkwall my brother Johnnie, who had gone to work in a shop there, gave me three pennies to spend, and I went at once to the bookseller's which sold "The Penny Poets" and bought "As You Like It", "The Earthly Paradise", and a selection of Matthew Arnold's poems. ...I did not get much out of the selection of Arnold's poems... "As You Like It" delighted me, but it was "The Earthly Paradise" that I read over and over again.'
Century: 1850-1899 / 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edwin Muir Print: Book
'He discussed books with me and gave me my first volume of poetry, Selected Poems of Matthew Arnold, marking his favourites.'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Oscar Wilde Print: Book
Sunday 29 December 1940: 'I detest the hardness of old age --I feel it. I rasp. I'm tart.
'The foot less prompt to meet the morning dew,
The heart less bounding at emotion new,
And hope, once crush'd, less quick to spring again.
'I actually opened Matthew Arnold & copied these lines [from "Thyrsis"]. While doing so, the idea came to me that why I dislike, & like, so many things idiosyncratically now, is because of my growing detachment from the hierarchy, the patriarchy [...] I am I; & must follow that furrow, not copy another. That is the only justification for my writing & living.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Virginia Woolf Print: Book
Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Mary Russell Mitford, 1 December 1849:
'We have had the sight of Clough & Burbidge, at last. Clough has more thought, Burbidge more music .. but I am disappointed in the book as a whole. What I like infinitely better, is Clough's "Bothie of Topernafuosich" a "long-vacation pastoral" written in loose & more-than-need-be unmusical hexameters, but full of vigour & freshness, & with whole passages & indeed whole scenes of great beauty & eloquence. It seems to have been written before the other poems [...] Oh, it strikes both Robert & me as being worth twenty of the other little book, with its fragmentary, dislocated, inartistic character. Arnold's volume has two good poems in it .. "The Sick King of Bokhara" [sic] & "The deserted Merman" [sic]. I liked them both -- But none of these writers are [italics]artists[end italics] whatever they may be in future days.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Browning Print: Book
Elizabeth Barrett Browning to Mary Russell Mitford, 1 December 1849:
'We have had the sight of Clough & Burbidge, at last. Clough has more thought, Burbidge more music .. but I am disappointed in the book as a whole. What I like infinitely better, is Clough's "Bothie of Topernafuosich" a "long-vacation pastoral" written in loose & more-than-need-be unmusical hexameters, but full of vigour & freshness, & with whole passages & indeed whole scenes of great beauty & eloquence. It seems to have been written before the other poems [...] Oh, it strikes both Robert & me as being worth twenty of the other little book, with its fragmentary, dislocated, inartistic character. Arnold's volume has two good poems in it .. "The Sick King of Bokhara" [sic] & "The deserted Merman" [sic]. I liked them both -- But none of these writers are [italics]artists[end italics] whatever they may be in future days.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Elizabeth Barrett Browning Print: Book
E. M. Forster to Malcolm Darling, 12 August 1910:
'Do you get any time for reading? I am taking huge chunks of Mat Arnold. he's not as good as he thinks, but better than I thought. His central fault is prudishness -- I don't use the word in its narrow sense, but as implying a general dislike to all warmth. He thinks warmth either vulgar or hysterical.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Edward Morgan Forster Print: Book
From Hallam Tennyson's account of 'My Father's Illness [1888]':
'He read or had read to him at this time the following books or essays: Leaf's edition of the Iliad; the Iphigenia of Aulis, expressing "wonder at its modernness"; Matthew Arnold on Tolstoi; Fiske's Destiny of Man; Gibbon's History, especially praising the Fall of Constantinople; Keats [sic] poems; Wordsworth's "Recluse." Of this last he said: "I like the passages which have been published before, such as that about the dance of a flock of birds, driven by a thoughtless impulse [...]"
'He often looked at his Virgil, more than ever delighting in what he called "that splendid end of the second Georgic."'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Alfred Tennyson Print: Unknown
'[from Mary Arnold, later Ward's diary] "Read Uncle Matt's [Matthew Arnold's] Essay
on Pagan and Medieval Religious Sentiment. Compares the religious feeling of
Pompei and Theocritus with the religious feeling of St Francis and the German
Reformation. Contrasts the religion of sorrow as he is pleased to call Christianity
with the religion of sense, giving to the former for the sake of propriety a slight
pre-eminence over the latter". She does not like the famous "Preface" at all. "The
'Preface' is rich and has the fault which the author professes to avoid, that of being
amusing. as for the seductiveness of Oxford, its moonlight charms and Romeo and
Juliet character, I think Uncle Matt is slightly inclined to ride the high horse
whenever he approaches the subject".'
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Augusta Ward Print: Book
'Mr Burgess read an introductory paper on him [Matthew Arnold] as a man and a politician and Mr Edminson as an essayist with special reference to Literature and Dogma in culture and Anarchy and Mrs Morland as a poet. In these papers, many, and sometimes conflicting estimates of the author were expressed'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Adelaide Morland Print: Book
'Mr Burgess read an introductory paper on him [Matthew Arnold] as a man and a politician and Mr Edminson as an essayist with special reference to Literature and Dogma in culture and Anarchy and Mrs Morland as a poet. In these papers, many, and sometimes conflicting estimates of the author were expressed'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Frederick Edminson Print: Book
'Mr Burgess read an introductory paper on him [Matthew Arnold] as a man and a politician and Mr Edminson as an essayist with special reference to Literature and Dogma in culture and Anarchy and Mrs Morland as a poet. In these papers, many, and sometimes conflicting estimates of the author were expressed'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Frederick Burgess Print: Book
'The following readings were also given:
The Forsaken Merman by Mrs Reynolds
Rugby Chapel by Miss Pollard & Dover Beach by Mr Hawkins'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Bertha Pollard Print: Book
'The following readings were also given:
The Forsaken Merman by Mrs Reynolds
Rugby Chapel by Miss Pollard & Dover Beach by Mr Hawkins'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: John Luther Hawkins Print: Book
'The following readings were also given:
The Forsaken Merman by Mrs Reynolds
Rugby Chapel by Miss Pollard & Dover Beach by Mr Hawkins'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Florence Hawkins Print: Book
'This morning I have been reading Matthew Arnold, for my Anthology, in an easy chair in the sun. This afternoon I shall do some gardening. I have a garden-bed, under my window, which is my own but the whole surrounding the house must be got ready for the reception of Ceres. My chief and most regular exercise is wood-chopping, which I do in honour of Ares.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Walter D'Arcy Cresswell Print: Book
Books read by Oscar Wilde in Reading Gaol, December 1896 - March 1897, taken from his list of books requested and then sent by his friends. Source author notes that Wilde read and re-read everything available to him in prison. 'Gaston de Latour by Walter Pater, MA (Macmillan), Milman's History of Latin Christianity, Wordsworth's Complete Works in one volume with preface by John Morley (Macmillan, 7/6), Matthew Arnold's Poems. One volume complete. (Macmillan, 7/6), Dante and other Essays by Dean Church (Macmillan, 5/-), Percy's Reliques, Hallam's Middle Ages (History of), Dryden's Poems (1 vol. Macmillan. 3/6), Burns's Poems ditto, Morte D'Arthur ditto, Froissart's Chronicles ditto, Buckle's History of Civilisation, Marlowe's Plays, Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (edited by A. Pollard 2 vols 10/-) Macmillan, Introduction to Dante by John Addington Symonds, Companion to Dante by A.J. Butler, Miscellaneous Essays by Walter Pater, An English translation of Goethe's Faust'.
Century: 1850-1899 Reader/Listener/Group: Oscar Wilde Print: Book
'F.J. Edminson read a paper on Matthew Arnold with special reference to Literature & Dogma. Readings from both the prose & poetical works of Matthew Arnold were given by various members.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Members of the XII Book Club Print: Book
'F.J. Edminson read a paper on Matthew Arnold with special reference to Literature & Dogma. Readings from both the prose & poetical works of Matthew Arnold were given by various members.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Frederick J. Edminson Print: Book
Meeting held at 70 Northcourt Avenue 28/4/1933
C. E. Stansfield in the chair
1 Minutes of last read and approved
2 For the Next Meeting's subject "The Jew in Literature" was chosen with Geo Burrow H. R. & E. B. Smith as
committee
[...]
4 The evening's subject of Berkshire in Literature was then opened up by Charles E. Stansfield reading from
Tom Browns School days a description of the Vale of the White Horse[.] He carried us into a quietude of time
& space where a great lover of the Vale tells of the great open downs & the vale to the north of them.
Dorothy Brain told us something of Old Berkshire Ballads surprising us with their number & variety & read an
amusing Ballad about a lad who died of eating custard, & the Lay of the Hunted Pig.
C. E. Stansfield read an introduction to "Summer is a Cumen In"which was then played and sung on the
Gramophone.
H. R. Smith read a description of "Reading a Hundred Years Ago" from "Some Worthies of Reading"
F. E. Pollard introduced Mary Russell Mitford to the Club giving a short account of her life and Work quoting
with approval a description of her as "A prose Crabbe in the Sun"
M. S. W. Pollard read "The Gypsy" from "Our Village"
Geo Burrows gave us a short Reading from Mathew Arnolds "Scholar Gypsy" and a longer one from
"Thyrsis"[.] During this the Stansfield "Mackie" put in a striking piece of synchronization.
E. B. Castle read an interesting account of the Bucklebury Bowl Turner from H. V. Mortons "In Search of
England".
Unknown
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: George Burrow
Meeting held at 70 Northcourt Avenue 28/4/1933
C. E. Stansfield in the chair
1 Minutes of last read and approved
2 For the Next Meeting's subject "The Jew in Literature" was chosen with Geo Burrow H. R. & E. B. Smith as
committee
[...]
4 The evening's subject of Berkshire in Literature was then opened up by Charles E. Stansfield reading from
Tom Browns School days a description of the Vale of the White Horse[.] He carried us into a quietude of time
& space where a great lover of the Vale tells of the great open downs & the vale to the north of them.
Dorothy Brain told us something of Old Berkshire Ballads surprising us with their number & variety & read an
amusing Ballad about a lad who died of eating custard, & the Lay of the Hunted Pig.
C. E. Stansfield read an introduction to "Summer is a Cumen In"which was then played and sung on the
Gramophone.
H. R. Smith read a description of "Reading a Hundred Years Ago" from "Some Worthies of Reading"
F. E. Pollard introduced Mary Russell Mitford to the Club giving a short account of her life and Work quoting
with approval a description of her as "A prose Crabbe in the Sun"
M. S. W. Pollard read "The Gypsy" from "Our Village"
Geo Burrows gave us a short Reading from Mathew Arnolds "Scholar Gypsy" and a longer one from
"Thyrsis"[.] During this the Stansfield "Mackie" put in a striking piece of synchronization.
E. B. Castle read an interesting account of the Bucklebury Bowl Turner from H. V. Mortons "In Search of
England".
Unknown
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: George Burrow
Meeting held at Eynsham, Shinfield Rd., 20.XII.33.
E. Dorothy Brain in the chair
1. Minutes of last read & approved
[...]
7. Schoolmasters in Literature were portrayed by a series of readings from biography and
fiction. There were ten in all and they reflected the various estimation in which these beings
are held, and were held generations ago. In spite of the dullness, the jealousy and the morbid
introspection that characterize the assistant, the profession is in part redeemed by the haloes
that flicker around its heads - generally, it must be admitted, very much in retrospect.
After all, would other professions fare much better?
We are certainly indebted to the committee who prepared the readings, and regret that
Reginald Robson felt it necessary to omit the one he had allotted to himself.
The readings were given in this order.
1. From Roger Ascham V. W. Alexander
2. [From] Westward Ho H. R. Smith
3. [From] Essays of Elia Janet Rawlings
4. [From] T. E. Brown's Clifton Celia Burrow
6. [From] Stalky & Co G. H. S. Burrow
5. [From] Life of Frederick Andrews Mary Robson
7. [From] Vanity Fair S. A. Reynolds
8. [From] Mr. Perrin and Mr. Traill Dorothy Brain
9. [From] Jeremy at Crale E. B. Castle
10. [From] Rugby Chapel F. E. Pollard
'
Unknown
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Francis E. Pollard
'Meeting held at 68 Northcourt Avenue
20th III 1935
Howard R. Smith in the chair
1. Minutes of last Meeting were read & approved
[...]
4. The Program of anonymous readings was then proceeded with[;] members reading in the
order in which they sat round the room. An interval of about 2 minutes at the end of each
piece was allowed for cogitation at the end of which the reader anounced the authors name &
the work from which he had read. Identification proved unexpectedly dificult[.] No one reading
was identified by everyone & the highest scorer only guessed eight authors & 4 & ½ works
Reader Author Work
E. B. Castle Plato Phaedo
M. S. W. Pollard R. Browning Pictures in Florence
E. Goadby Saml. Butler Notes
M. E. Robson Flecker Hassan
R. H. Robson Belloc Eyewitness
E. C. Stevens M. Arnold Self dependance
E. D. Brain B. Shaw Pre. to Back to Methuselah
M. Castle T. Carlyle Sartor Resartus
A. Rawlings R. Browning Pheidippides
J. Rawlings G. Eliot Middlemarch
E. B. Smith Lewis Carroll Phantasmagoria
F. E. Reynolds Tennyson Locksley Hall
S. A. Reynolds E. B. Browning Lady Geraldine’s Courtship
H. R. Smith Chas. Kingsley Westward Ho
F. E. Pollard Shelley Prometheus Unbound'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Ethel C. Stevens Print: Book
'Meeting held at 72 Shinfield Road. 5th May 1941
A. G Joselin in the chair.
1. The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved
2. Apologies of absence were read from Violet Clough & Mr. & Mrs. Knox
Taylor.
[...]
4. Our evening was devoted to a study of the work and writings of Matthew Arnold
and we are very grateful to the Committee who arranged the programme and in
particular to A. G. Joselin and F. E. Pollard for a most interesting and enlightening
evening.
First Mr. Joselin told us something of Matthew Arnold’s work as an Educationalist —
of his attempts to secure the improvement of education & particularly secondary
education in England. His views on Education are expressed in “Culture and
Anarchy” which was published in 1869, and Mr. Joselin read several extracts from
J. Dover Wilson’s editorial introduction to this book. [...] Other readings given to
illustrate Matthew Arnold the Educationalist and Prose Writer were “Dover Beach”
by Mrs. Joselin and further extracts form “Culture and Anarchy” read by R. D. L.
Moore.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Arnold Joselin Print: Book
'Meeting held at 72 Shinfield Road. 5th May 1941
A. G Joselin in the chair.
1. The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved
2. Apologies of absence were read from Violet Clough & Mr. & Mrs. Knox
Taylor.
[...]
4. Our evening was devoted to a study of the work and writings of Matthew Arnold
and we are very grateful to the Committee who arranged the programme and in
particular to A. G. Joselin and F. E. Pollard for a most interesting and enlightening
evening.
First Mr. Joselin told us something of Matthew Arnold’s work as an Educationalist —
of his attempts to secure the improvement of education & particularly secondary
education in England. His views on Education are expressed in “Culture and
Anarchy” which was published in 1869, and Mr. Joselin read several extracts from
J. Dover Wilson’s editorial introduction to this book. [...] Other readings given to
illustrate Matthew Arnold the Educationalist and Prose Writer were “Dover Beach”
by Mrs. Joselin and further extracts form “Culture and Anarchy” read by R. D. L.
Moore.'
Unknown
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Alice Joselin
'Meeting held at 72 Shinfield Road. 5th May 1941
A. G Joselin in the chair.
1. The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved
2. Apologies of absence were read from Violet Clough & Mr. & Mrs. Knox
Taylor.
[...]
4. Our evening was devoted to a study of the work and writings of Matthew Arnold
and we are very grateful to the Committee who arranged the programme and in
particular to A. G. Joselin and F. E. Pollard for a most interesting and enlightening
evening.
First Mr. Joselin told us something of Matthew Arnold’s work as an Educationalist —
of his attempts to secure the improvement of education & particularly secondary
education in England. His views on Education are expressed in “Culture and
Anarchy” which was published in 1869, and Mr. Joselin read several extracts from
J. Dover Wilson’s editorial introduction to this book. [...] Other readings given to
illustrate Matthew Arnold the Educationalist and Prose Writer were “Dover Beach”
by Mrs. Joselin and further extracts form “Culture and Anarchy” read by R. D. L.
Moore.'
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Roger Moore Print: Book
'Meeting held at 72 Shinfield Road. 5th May 1941
A. G Joselin in the chair.
[...]
5. F. E. Pollard then undertook to guide us through “the moon-silvered inlets” of
Matthew Arnold’s poetry.
First Muriel Stevens read three sonnets
Shakespeare
The better Part
& The Good Shepherd with the Kid.
illustrating most convincingly that Matthew Arnold ranks among the great sonnet
writers of the English language. Most of his poetry was written in the earlier part
of his life, it is serious and moral in spirit and reveals a stoical philosophy. ‘The
Scholar-Gypsy’ and ‘Thyrsis’ (the latter written in memory of his friend Arthur
Hugh Clough) are probably the best of his longer poems — their austere but serene
melancholy contrasts strangely with his lively and controversial prose. Mr. Pollard
pointed out how Matthew Arnold has a way of writing on a very tragic subject and
then rounding up the poem with a few lines of serene beauty, and he read from
‘Sohrab and Rustum’ to illustrate this.
Rosamund Wallis read “Stagirius” a very beautiful prayer offered up by a young
monk.
Mr. Pollard then told us of Matthew Arnold’s “Theory of Poetry” as expounded in
his “Essays in Criticism” — this was that great poetry has to be a criticism of Life —
a questionable theory since it rules out all the great lyrical poetry which has been
written. Arnold’s own poetry is for the most part rather rugged in metre, irregular
and unrhymed and for tis reason is said by some to be lacking in music. His
Philosophy is illustrated in the ‘Sonnet to a Friend” which Mr. Pollard read, and
summed up in the line “He saw life steadily, and saw it whole”. Mr Pollard then
read from ‘Tristram & Iseult’ and Mrs. Pollard read ‘The Forsaken Merman’ to
illustrate other rather different verses.
Questioned as to whether he agreed with the critics who place Matthew Arnold
third to Browning and Tennyson among Victorian Poets Mr Pollard said he thought
not — that they are all on one level but each in a different category. He concluded
by reading William Watson’s Poem on Matthew Arnold “In Laleham
Churchyard”.
[Signed as a true record] R. D. L. Moore
May 31. 1941'
Unknown
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Muriel Stevens
'Meeting held at 72 Shinfield Road. 5th May 1941
A. G Joselin in the chair.
[...]
5. F. E. Pollard then undertook to guide us through “the moon-silvered inlets” of
Matthew Arnold’s poetry.
First Muriel Stevens read three sonnets
Shakespeare
The better Part
& The Good Shepherd with the Kid.
illustrating most convincingly that Matthew Arnold ranks among the great sonnet
writers of the English language. Most of his poetry was written in the earlier part
of his life, it is serious and moral in spirit and reveals a stoical philosophy. ‘The
Scholar-Gypsy’ and ‘Thyrsis’ (the latter written in memory of his friend Arthur
Hugh Clough) are probably the best of his longer poems — their austere but serene
melancholy contrasts strangely with his lively and controversial prose. Mr. Pollard
pointed out how Matthew Arnold has a way of writing on a very tragic subject and
then rounding up the poem with a few lines of serene beauty, and he read from
‘Sohrab and Rustum’ to illustrate this.
Rosamund Wallis read “Stagirius” a very beautiful prayer offered up by a young
monk.
Mr. Pollard then told us of Matthew Arnold’s “Theory of Poetry” as expounded in
his “Essays in Criticism” — this was that great poetry has to be a criticism of Life —
a questionable theory since it rules out all the great lyrical poetry which has been
written. Arnold’s own poetry is for the most part rather rugged in metre, irregular
and unrhymed and for tis reason is said by some to be lacking in music. His
Philosophy is illustrated in the ‘Sonnet to a Friend” which Mr. Pollard read, and
summed up in the line “He saw life steadily, and saw it whole”. Mr Pollard then
read from ‘Tristram & Iseult’ and Mrs. Pollard read ‘The Forsaken Merman’ to
illustrate other rather different verses.
Questioned as to whether he agreed with the critics who place Matthew Arnold
third to Browning and Tennyson among Victorian Poets Mr Pollard said he thought
not — that they are all on one level but each in a different category. He concluded
by reading William Watson’s Poem on Matthew Arnold “In Laleham
Churchyard”.
[Signed as a true record] R. D. L. Moore
May 31. 1941'
Unknown
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Muriel Stevens
'Meeting held at 72 Shinfield Road. 5th May 1941
A. G Joselin in the chair.
[...]
5. F. E. Pollard then undertook to guide us through “the moon-silvered inlets” of
Matthew Arnold’s poetry.
First Muriel Stevens read three sonnets
Shakespeare
The better Part
& The Good Shepherd with the Kid.
illustrating most convincingly that Matthew Arnold ranks among the great sonnet
writers of the English language. Most of his poetry was written in the earlier part
of his life, it is serious and moral in spirit and reveals a stoical philosophy. ‘The
Scholar-Gypsy’ and ‘Thyrsis’ (the latter written in memory of his friend Arthur
Hugh Clough) are probably the best of his longer poems — their austere but serene
melancholy contrasts strangely with his lively and controversial prose. Mr. Pollard
pointed out how Matthew Arnold has a way of writing on a very tragic subject and
then rounding up the poem with a few lines of serene beauty, and he read from
‘Sohrab and Rustum’ to illustrate this.
Rosamund Wallis read “Stagirius” a very beautiful prayer offered up by a young
monk.
Mr. Pollard then told us of Matthew Arnold’s “Theory of Poetry” as expounded in
his “Essays in Criticism” — this was that great poetry has to be a criticism of Life —
a questionable theory since it rules out all the great lyrical poetry which has been
written. Arnold’s own poetry is for the most part rather rugged in metre, irregular
and unrhymed and for tis reason is said by some to be lacking in music. His
Philosophy is illustrated in the ‘Sonnet to a Friend” which Mr. Pollard read, and
summed up in the line “He saw life steadily, and saw it whole”. Mr Pollard then
read from ‘Tristram & Iseult’ and Mrs. Pollard read ‘The Forsaken Merman’ to
illustrate other rather different verses.
Questioned as to whether he agreed with the critics who place Matthew Arnold
third to Browning and Tennyson among Victorian Poets Mr Pollard said he thought
not — that they are all on one level but each in a different category. He concluded
by reading William Watson’s Poem on Matthew Arnold “In Laleham
Churchyard”.
[Signed as a true record] R. D. L. Moore
May 31. 1941'
Unknown
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Muriel Stevens
'Meeting held at 72 Shinfield Road. 5th May 1941
A. G Joselin in the chair.
[...]
5. F. E. Pollard then undertook to guide us through “the moon-silvered inlets” of
Matthew Arnold’s poetry.
First Muriel Stevens read three sonnets
Shakespeare
The better Part
& The Good Shepherd with the Kid.
illustrating most convincingly that Matthew Arnold ranks among the great sonnet
writers of the English language. Most of his poetry was written in the earlier part
of his life, it is serious and moral in spirit and reveals a stoical philosophy. ‘The
Scholar-Gypsy’ and ‘Thyrsis’ (the latter written in memory of his friend Arthur
Hugh Clough) are probably the best of his longer poems — their austere but serene
melancholy contrasts strangely with his lively and controversial prose. Mr. Pollard
pointed out how Matthew Arnold has a way of writing on a very tragic subject and
then rounding up the poem with a few lines of serene beauty, and he read from
‘Sohrab and Rustum’ to illustrate this.
Rosamund Wallis read “Stagirius” a very beautiful prayer offered up by a young
monk.
Mr. Pollard then told us of Matthew Arnold’s “Theory of Poetry” as expounded in
his “Essays in Criticism” — this was that great poetry has to be a criticism of Life —
a questionable theory since it rules out all the great lyrical poetry which has been
written. Arnold’s own poetry is for the most part rather rugged in metre, irregular
and unrhymed and for tis reason is said by some to be lacking in music. His
Philosophy is illustrated in the ‘Sonnet to a Friend” which Mr. Pollard read, and
summed up in the line “He saw life steadily, and saw it whole”. Mr Pollard then
read from ‘Tristram & Iseult’ and Mrs. Pollard read ‘The Forsaken Merman’ to
illustrate other rather different verses.
Questioned as to whether he agreed with the critics who place Matthew Arnold
third to Browning and Tennyson among Victorian Poets Mr Pollard said he thought
not — that they are all on one level but each in a different category. He concluded
by reading William Watson’s Poem on Matthew Arnold “In Laleham
Churchyard”.
[Signed as a true record] R. D. L. Moore
May 31. 1941'
Unknown
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Francis E. Pollard
'Meeting held at 72 Shinfield Road. 5th May 1941
A. G Joselin in the chair.
[...]
5. F. E. Pollard then undertook to guide us through “the moon-silvered inlets” of
Matthew Arnold’s poetry.
First Muriel Stevens read three sonnets
Shakespeare
The better Part
& The Good Shepherd with the Kid.
illustrating most convincingly that Matthew Arnold ranks among the great sonnet
writers of the English language. Most of his poetry was written in the earlier part
of his life, it is serious and moral in spirit and reveals a stoical philosophy. ‘The
Scholar-Gypsy’ and ‘Thyrsis’ (the latter written in memory of his friend Arthur
Hugh Clough) are probably the best of his longer poems — their austere but serene
melancholy contrasts strangely with his lively and controversial prose. Mr. Pollard
pointed out how Matthew Arnold has a way of writing on a very tragic subject and
then rounding up the poem with a few lines of serene beauty, and he read from
‘Sohrab and Rustum’ to illustrate this.
Rosamund Wallis read “Stagirius” a very beautiful prayer offered up by a young
monk.
Mr. Pollard then told us of Matthew Arnold’s “Theory of Poetry” as expounded in
his “Essays in Criticism” — this was that great poetry has to be a criticism of Life —
a questionable theory since it rules out all the great lyrical poetry which has been
written. Arnold’s own poetry is for the most part rather rugged in metre, irregular
and unrhymed and for tis reason is said by some to be lacking in music. His
Philosophy is illustrated in the ‘Sonnet to a Friend” which Mr. Pollard read, and
summed up in the line “He saw life steadily, and saw it whole”. Mr Pollard then
read from ‘Tristram & Iseult’ and Mrs. Pollard read ‘The Forsaken Merman’ to
illustrate other rather different verses.
Questioned as to whether he agreed with the critics who place Matthew Arnold
third to Browning and Tennyson among Victorian Poets Mr Pollard said he thought
not — that they are all on one level but each in a different category. He concluded
by reading William Watson’s Poem on Matthew Arnold “In Laleham
Churchyard”.
[Signed as a true record] R. D. L. Moore
May 31. 1941'
Unknown
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Rosamund Wallis
'Meeting held at 72 Shinfield Road. 5th May 1941
A. G Joselin in the chair.
[...]
5. F. E. Pollard then undertook to guide us through “the moon-silvered inlets” of
Matthew Arnold’s poetry.
First Muriel Stevens read three sonnets
Shakespeare
The better Part
& The Good Shepherd with the Kid.
illustrating most convincingly that Matthew Arnold ranks among the great sonnet
writers of the English language. Most of his poetry was written in the earlier part
of his life, it is serious and moral in spirit and reveals a stoical philosophy. ‘The
Scholar-Gypsy’ and ‘Thyrsis’ (the latter written in memory of his friend Arthur
Hugh Clough) are probably the best of his longer poems — their austere but serene
melancholy contrasts strangely with his lively and controversial prose. Mr. Pollard
pointed out how Matthew Arnold has a way of writing on a very tragic subject and
then rounding up the poem with a few lines of serene beauty, and he read from
‘Sohrab and Rustum’ to illustrate this.
Rosamund Wallis read “Stagirius” a very beautiful prayer offered up by a young
monk.
Mr. Pollard then told us of Matthew Arnold’s “Theory of Poetry” as expounded in
his “Essays in Criticism” — this was that great poetry has to be a criticism of Life —
a questionable theory since it rules out all the great lyrical poetry which has been
written. Arnold’s own poetry is for the most part rather rugged in metre, irregular
and unrhymed and for tis reason is said by some to be lacking in music. His
Philosophy is illustrated in the ‘Sonnet to a Friend” which Mr. Pollard read, and
summed up in the line “He saw life steadily, and saw it whole”. Mr Pollard then
read from ‘Tristram & Iseult’ and Mrs. Pollard read ‘The Forsaken Merman’ to
illustrate other rather different verses.
Questioned as to whether he agreed with the critics who place Matthew Arnold
third to Browning and Tennyson among Victorian Poets Mr Pollard said he thought
not — that they are all on one level but each in a different category. He concluded
by reading William Watson’s Poem on Matthew Arnold “In Laleham
Churchyard”.
[Signed as a true record] R. D. L. Moore
May 31. 1941'
Unknown
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Francis E. Pollard
'Meeting held at 72 Shinfield Road. 5th May 1941
A. G Joselin in the chair.
[...]
5. F. E. Pollard then undertook to guide us through “the moon-silvered inlets” of
Matthew Arnold’s poetry.
First Muriel Stevens read three sonnets
Shakespeare
The better Part
& The Good Shepherd with the Kid.
illustrating most convincingly that Matthew Arnold ranks among the great sonnet
writers of the English language. Most of his poetry was written in the earlier part
of his life, it is serious and moral in spirit and reveals a stoical philosophy. ‘The
Scholar-Gypsy’ and ‘Thyrsis’ (the latter written in memory of his friend Arthur
Hugh Clough) are probably the best of his longer poems — their austere but serene
melancholy contrasts strangely with his lively and controversial prose. Mr. Pollard
pointed out how Matthew Arnold has a way of writing on a very tragic subject and
then rounding up the poem with a few lines of serene beauty, and he read from
‘Sohrab and Rustum’ to illustrate this.
Rosamund Wallis read “Stagirius” a very beautiful prayer offered up by a young
monk.
Mr. Pollard then told us of Matthew Arnold’s “Theory of Poetry” as expounded in
his “Essays in Criticism” — this was that great poetry has to be a criticism of Life —
a questionable theory since it rules out all the great lyrical poetry which has been
written. Arnold’s own poetry is for the most part rather rugged in metre, irregular
and unrhymed and for tis reason is said by some to be lacking in music. His
Philosophy is illustrated in the ‘Sonnet to a Friend” which Mr. Pollard read, and
summed up in the line “He saw life steadily, and saw it whole”. Mr Pollard then
read from ‘Tristram & Iseult’ and Mrs. Pollard read ‘The Forsaken Merman’ to
illustrate other rather different verses.
Questioned as to whether he agreed with the critics who place Matthew Arnold
third to Browning and Tennyson among Victorian Poets Mr Pollard said he thought
not — that they are all on one level but each in a different category. He concluded
by reading William Watson’s Poem on Matthew Arnold “In Laleham
Churchyard”.
[Signed as a true record] R. D. L. Moore
May 31. 1941'
Unknown
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Francis E. Pollard
'Meeting held at 72 Shinfield Road. 5th May 1941
A. G Joselin in the chair.
[...]
5. F. E. Pollard then undertook to guide us through “the moon-silvered inlets” of
Matthew Arnold’s poetry.
First Muriel Stevens read three sonnets
Shakespeare
The better Part
& The Good Shepherd with the Kid.
illustrating most convincingly that Matthew Arnold ranks among the great sonnet
writers of the English language. Most of his poetry was written in the earlier part
of his life, it is serious and moral in spirit and reveals a stoical philosophy. ‘The
Scholar-Gypsy’ and ‘Thyrsis’ (the latter written in memory of his friend Arthur
Hugh Clough) are probably the best of his longer poems — their austere but serene
melancholy contrasts strangely with his lively and controversial prose. Mr. Pollard
pointed out how Matthew Arnold has a way of writing on a very tragic subject and
then rounding up the poem with a few lines of serene beauty, and he read from
‘Sohrab and Rustum’ to illustrate this.
Rosamund Wallis read “Stagirius” a very beautiful prayer offered up by a young
monk.
Mr. Pollard then told us of Matthew Arnold’s “Theory of Poetry” as expounded in
his “Essays in Criticism” — this was that great poetry has to be a criticism of Life —
a questionable theory since it rules out all the great lyrical poetry which has been
written. Arnold’s own poetry is for the most part rather rugged in metre, irregular
and unrhymed and for tis reason is said by some to be lacking in music. His
Philosophy is illustrated in the ‘Sonnet to a Friend” which Mr. Pollard read, and
summed up in the line “He saw life steadily, and saw it whole”. Mr Pollard then
read from ‘Tristram & Iseult’ and Mrs. Pollard read ‘The Forsaken Merman’ to
illustrate other rather different verses.
Questioned as to whether he agreed with the critics who place Matthew Arnold
third to Browning and Tennyson among Victorian Poets Mr Pollard said he thought
not — that they are all on one level but each in a different category. He concluded
by reading William Watson’s Poem on Matthew Arnold “In Laleham
Churchyard”.
[Signed as a true record] R. D. L. Moore
May 31. 1941'
Unknown
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Pollard
'Meeting held at 72 Shinfield Road. 5th May 1941
A. G Joselin in the chair.
[...]
5. F. E. Pollard then undertook to guide us through “the moon-silvered inlets” of
Matthew Arnold’s poetry.
First Muriel Stevens read three sonnets
Shakespeare
The better Part
& The Good Shepherd with the Kid.
illustrating most convincingly that Matthew Arnold ranks among the great sonnet
writers of the English language. Most of his poetry was written in the earlier part
of his life, it is serious and moral in spirit and reveals a stoical philosophy. ‘The
Scholar-Gypsy’ and ‘Thyrsis’ (the latter written in memory of his friend Arthur
Hugh Clough) are probably the best of his longer poems – their austere but serene
melancholy contrasts strangely with his lively and controversial prose. Mr. Pollard
pointed out how Matthew Arnold has a way of writing on a very tragic subject and
then rounding up the poem with a few lines of serene beauty, and he read from
‘Sohrab and Rustum’ to illustrate this.
Rosamund Wallis read “Stagirius” a very beautiful prayer offered up by a young
monk.
Mr. Pollard then told us of Matthew Arnold’s “Theory of Poetry” as expounded in
his “Essays in Criticism” – this was that great poetry has to be a criticism of Life –
a questionable theory since it rules out all the great lyrical poetry which has been
written. Arnold’s own poetry is for the most part rather rugged in metre, irregular
and unrhymed and for tis reason is said by some to be lacking in music. His
Philosophy is illustrated in the ‘Sonnet to a Friend” which Mr. Pollard read, and
summed up in the line “He saw life steadily, and saw it whole”. Mr Pollard then
read from ‘Tristram & Iseult’ and Mrs. Pollard read ‘The Forsaken Merman’ to
illustrate other rather different verses.
Questioned as to whether he agreed with the critics who place Matthew Arnold
third to Browning and Tennyson among Victorian Poets Mr Pollard said he thought
not – that they are all on one level but each in a different category. He concluded
by reading William Watson’s Poem on Matthew Arnold “In Laleham
Churchyard”.
[Signed as a true record] R. D. L. Moore
May 31. 1941'
Unknown
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Francis E. Pollard
'Meeting held at 72 Shinfield Road. 5th May 1941
A. G Joselin in the chair.
[...]
5. F. E. Pollard then undertook to guide us through “the moon-silvered inlets” of
Matthew Arnold’s poetry.
First Muriel Stevens read three sonnets
Shakespeare
The better Part
& The Good Shepherd with the Kid.
illustrating most convincingly that Matthew Arnold ranks among the great sonnet
writers of the English language. Most of his poetry was written in the earlier part
of his life, it is serious and moral in spirit and reveals a stoical philosophy. ‘The
Scholar-Gypsy’ and ‘Thyrsis’ (the latter written in memory of his friend Arthur
Hugh Clough) are probably the best of his longer poems – their austere but serene
melancholy contrasts strangely with his lively and controversial prose. Mr. Pollard
pointed out how Matthew Arnold has a way of writing on a very tragic subject and
then rounding up the poem with a few lines of serene beauty, and he read from
‘Sohrab and Rustum’ to illustrate this.
Rosamund Wallis read “Stagirius” a very beautiful prayer offered up by a young
monk.
Mr. Pollard then told us of Matthew Arnold’s “Theory of Poetry” as expounded in
his “Essays in Criticism” – this was that great poetry has to be a criticism of Life –
a questionable theory since it rules out all the great lyrical poetry which has been
written. Arnold’s own poetry is for the most part rather rugged in metre, irregular
and unrhymed and for tis reason is said by some to be lacking in music. His
Philosophy is illustrated in the ‘Sonnet to a Friend” which Mr. Pollard read, and
summed up in the line “He saw life steadily, and saw it whole”. Mr Pollard then
read from ‘Tristram & Iseult’ and Mrs. Pollard read ‘The Forsaken Merman’ to
illustrate other rather different verses.
Questioned as to whether he agreed with the critics who place Matthew Arnold
third to Browning and Tennyson among Victorian Poets Mr Pollard said he thought
not – that they are all on one level but each in a different category. He concluded
by reading William Watson’s Poem on Matthew Arnold “In Laleham
Churchyard”.
[Signed as a true record] R. D. L. Moore
May 31. 1941'
Unknown
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Francis E. Pollard
'Meeting held at 72 Shinfield Road. 5th May 1941
A. G Joselin in the chair.
[...]
5. F. E. Pollard then undertook to guide us through “the moon-silvered inlets” of
Matthew Arnold’s poetry.
First Muriel Stevens read three sonnets
Shakespeare
The better Part
& The Good Shepherd with the Kid.
illustrating most convincingly that Matthew Arnold ranks among the great sonnet
writers of the English language. Most of his poetry was written in the earlier part
of his life, it is serious and moral in spirit and reveals a stoical philosophy. ‘The
Scholar-Gypsy’ and ‘Thyrsis’ (the latter written in memory of his friend Arthur
Hugh Clough) are probably the best of his longer poems – their austere but serene
melancholy contrasts strangely with his lively and controversial prose. Mr. Pollard
pointed out how Matthew Arnold has a way of writing on a very tragic subject and
then rounding up the poem with a few lines of serene beauty, and he read from
‘Sohrab and Rustum’ to illustrate this.
Rosamund Wallis read “Stagirius” a very beautiful prayer offered up by a young
monk.
Mr. Pollard then told us of Matthew Arnold’s “Theory of Poetry” as expounded in
his “Essays in Criticism” – this was that great poetry has to be a criticism of Life –
a questionable theory since it rules out all the great lyrical poetry which has been
written. Arnold’s own poetry is for the most part rather rugged in metre, irregular
and unrhymed and for tis reason is said by some to be lacking in music. His
Philosophy is illustrated in the ‘Sonnet to a Friend” which Mr. Pollard read, and
summed up in the line “He saw life steadily, and saw it whole”. Mr Pollard then
read from ‘Tristram & Iseult’ and Mrs. Pollard read ‘The Forsaken Merman’ to
illustrate other rather different verses.
Questioned as to whether he agreed with the critics who place Matthew Arnold
third to Browning and Tennyson among Victorian Poets Mr Pollard said he thought
not – that they are all on one level but each in a different category. He concluded
by reading William Watson’s Poem on Matthew Arnold “In Laleham
Churchyard”.
[Signed as a true record] R. D. L. Moore
May 31. 1941'
Unknown
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Francis E. Pollard
'Meeting held at Gower Cottage, 20.II.’39
R. D. L. Moore, & subsequently H. Stevens in the Chair.
1. Minutes of last read & approved.
[...]
5. R. H. Robson told of The Stately Homes of Thames, + we heard of Bisham
Abbey, Mapledurham, Ufton Court, of Jesuits hunted by Walsingham, of the
incident of The Rape of the Lock, of Lovelace, Lady Place, Hurley, and Soames
Forsyte.
6. H. R. Smith, dealing with the Story of the River, + passing lightly over the
Danish incursions upstream, spoke of the thousand years in which the Thames had
been in bounds. Weirs had been made by millers, navigation had been slow and
perilous, the modern lock was a matter of the last hundred + fifty years. Twenty-
six mills were named in Domesday Book[.] The Thames Conservancy had brought
order out of chaos.
[...]
8. S. A. Reynolds read from Mortimer Menpes of warehouses + houseboats, the
boat race + Henley Regatta, Kingfishers + quick backwaters, fishing + the
vagaries of the towpath.
9. R. D. L. Moore gave us Literary Gleanings, touching on Spenser and Shelley,
quoting from The Scholar Gypsy + Thyrsis, + reading Soames Forsyte’s thoughts
in the early morning on the river, Kipling’s The River’s Tale, + Virginia Woolf’s
astonishing account in Orlando of the great frost, when a girl dissolved into
powder + fish were frozen twenty fathoms deep!
[...]
11. Muriel Stevens read a friend’s notes on Deptford + its river scenes.
12. A. B. Dilkes from Three Men in a Boat.
[Signed] S A Reynolds
27/3/93 [i.e. 27/3/39]'
Unknown
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Roger Moore
'Meeting held at Gower Cottage, 20.II.’39
R. D. L. Moore, & subsequently H. Stevens in the Chair.
1. Minutes of last read & approved.
[...]
5. R. H. Robson told of The Stately Homes of Thames, + we heard of Bisham
Abbey, Mapledurham, Ufton Court, of Jesuits hunted by Walsingham, of the
incident of The Rape of the Lock, of Lovelace, Lady Place, Hurley, and Soames
Forsyte.
6. H. R. Smith, dealing with the Story of the River, + passing lightly over the
Danish incursions upstream, spoke of the thousand years in which the Thames had
been in bounds. Weirs had been made by millers, navigation had been slow and
perilous, the modern lock was a matter of the last hundred + fifty years. Twenty-
six mills were named in Domesday Book[.] The Thames Conservancy had brought
order out of chaos.
[...]
8. S. A. Reynolds read from Mortimer Menpes of warehouses + houseboats, the
boat race + Henley Regatta, Kingfishers + quick backwaters, fishing + the
vagaries of the towpath.
9. R. D. L. Moore gave us Literary Gleanings, touching on Spenser and Shelley,
quoting from The Scholar Gypsy + Thyrsis, + reading Soames Forsyte’s thoughts
in the early morning on the river, Kipling’s The River’s Tale, + Virginia Woolf’s
astonishing account in Orlando of the great frost, when a girl dissolved into
powder + fish were frozen twenty fathoms deep!
[...]
11. Muriel Stevens read a friend’s notes on Deptford + its river scenes.
12. A. B. Dilkes from Three Men in a Boat.
[Signed] S A Reynolds
27/3/93 [i.e. 27/3/39]'
Unknown
Century: 1900-1945 Reader/Listener/Group: Roger Moore
