IS POETEY AT BOTTOM A CEITICISM 

 OF LIFE? 



A REVIEW OF MATTHEW ARNOLD'S SELECTION 

 FROM WORDSWORTH. 1 



IT is both interesting and instructive to hear what masters 

 of a craft may choose to say upon the subject of their art. 

 The interest is rather increased than diminished by the 

 limitation or the imperfection of their view, inseparable from 

 personal inclination, idiosyncrasy of genius, or absorbing 

 previous course of study. When Herrick exclaims, ' There's 

 no lust like to poetry ; ' when Goethe asserts, * Die Kunst 

 ist nur Gestaltung ; ' when Shelley writes, ' Poetry is the 

 record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and 

 best minds,' we feel in each of these utterances too partial 

 to express a universal truth, too profound to be regarded as 

 a merely casual remark the dominating bias and instinctive 

 leanings of a lifetime. If, then, we remember that Mr. 

 Matthew Arnold is equally eminent as a critic and a poet, 

 we shall not be too much surprised to read the following 

 account of poetry given in the preface to his selection from 

 Wordsworth : 



It is important, therefore, to hold fast to this : that poetry is at bottom 

 a criticism of life ; that the greatness of a poet lies in his powerful and 

 beautiful application of ideas to life to the question : How to live. 



At first sight this definition will strike most people as a 

 paradox. It would be scarcely less startling to hear, as 



1 Poems of Wordsworth. Chosen and Edited by Matthew Arnold. 

 Golden Treasury Series. Macmillan, 1879. 



