Theme of Scholar Gipsy by Mathew Arnold | Evaluate The Scholar Gipsy as a Pastoral Poem

  

Mathew Arnold (1822-1888) was one of the most prolific poet, critic and philosopher of Victorian England. ‘The Scholar Gypsy’ is one of the well-known poems of Arnold. It was published in the volume of poems entitled ‘poems’ in 1853. The subject matter of the poem was taken from ‘Joseph Glanville’ book ‘vanity of dogmatizing’. Arnold has completely recreated the story of ‘Glanville’. The Scholar Gypsy becomes a symbol of idealism and truth in the poem. It is a pastoral elegy but poem doesn’t lament the death of an individual, unlike Milton’s ‘Lycidas’, Shelley’s ‘Adonis’ and Tennyson’s ‘Immemorian’. The main subject of the poem is the criticism of the Arnold in which-

‘’People are between two worlds;

One dead and the other powerless to be barren.”

‘The Scholar Gipsy illustrates Arnold’s application of his theory of poetry as a ‘criticism of life’ and paid more attention to the subject than its form. The phrase ‘a criticism of life’ occurs in Arnold’s criticism ‘the study of poetry’ (1888). The poem is about a 17^th century scholar who has to live Oxford for want of money. He then lived among the Gypsies, and become immortal through his faith in the search of knowledge. In the poem Arnold tells us that the Scholar Gypsy was fortunate in that he was not born in modern times, but about 200 years ago when people had a proper sense of spiritual values. Thus Arnold writes-

‘born in days when wits were

Fresh and clear;

And life ran……………………………………………………………

Before this strange disease of

Modern life; with its sick hurry, its divided aims’.

Mathew Arnold is one of the great poets of the Victorian age. He achieved success bath as a poet and a social critic. He also worked inspector of school in England. Arnold is sometimes called the third great Victorian poet, along with Alfred, Tennyson and Browning. Mathew Arnold is unique in that his reputation rests equally upon his poetry and prose. Only a quarter of his productive life was given to writing poetry, but many of the same value, attitudes and feelings that are expressed in his poems achieve a fuller or more balanced formulation in his prose, according to Russel-

“Arnold is a man of the world entirely free from worldliness and a man of utters without the faintest trace of pedantry.”

 

Mathew Arnold looked at the moral and spiritual condition of the men of his age from his intellectual stand point. In the Victorian period the scientist like ‘Darwin and Spencer’ had formulated theories about the ‘origin of man’. Therefore, people began to doubt Christianity. The use of Natural imagery is also very much important in the poem. As a poet of nature Arnold was influenced by the Wordsworth but he differs from him in temper and matter. Nature for Wordsworth was joy whereas for Arnold it was peace. The poet of Scholar Gypsy is written against a pastoral and rural background. In the poem The Scholar Gypsy waits for an inspiration from heaven so that the secret knowledge may be revealed to him but modern people lack faith in anything and their ideals are casually adapted. Hence, Arnold directly compared the Scholar Gypsy with the men of his age. As we have the following lines-

“ Thou wait for the spark from heaven! And we, light half, believes of our casual”

The poem “The Scholar Gypsy” ends with a code which transparent us to the early Greek world. Arnold illustrated his advice to the Scholar Gypsy’ to avoid all content with men make him victim to doubts and mental struggles. Thus the poet fears that the Scholar Gypsy would forget his ideal in life. As the poet describes-

“Then fly our greetings,

   Fly our speech and smiles!

Concluding all, we must say that “The Scholar Gypsy” is one of the poetic master pieces of the century by which Arnold shared Victorian problems with us. The poem critically examines what Arnold calls- “A criticism of life”