"The Scholar Gipsy" As a pastoral elegy
Introduction
An elegy is normally defined as a short poem of lamentation or regret. It is called forth a by the death of a beloved or a revered person. A general sense of pathos of mortality can also inspire a poet to compose an elegy. In relation to poetry a pastoral is a piece evoking the blissful joys of a heavily romanticized rural life, a bucolic idyll populated by nymphs, shepherds, and cavorting wood sprites. A pastoral elegy, then combines elements of both kinds of poem to create a work that movingly laments someone recently deceased, presented in the guise of a shepherd.
In the first category of elegies are Milton's "Lycidas"(on the death of Edward King), Shelly's " Adonais"(on the death of A. H. Clough). The second category deals with general sorrow, loss or pain. Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in the Country Churchyard" and Arnold's "Scholar Gipsy" come in the category.
The elegies of Arnold can be divided in two parts 'Oxford elegies' and 'Personal elegies'. 'The Scholar Gipsy' and 'Thyrisis' are labelled as 'Oxford elegies'. Yet another type of the elegy is 'pastoral elegies'. In such an elegy poet assumes the shape of a shepherd and laments the loss of his friend, also disguised as a shepherd. A pastoral elegy has its origin in Greece. According to the Greek tradition a shepherd sang a song to mourn the loss of his compeer.
Matthew Arnold is a celebrated elegiac poet by virtue of both the quality and the quantity of his poems. According to Garrod, "The whole temper of Arnold's muse a melancholy". W.H. Hudson pointed out that the basis of an elegy is sincerity of emotions along with felicity of expressions. If this be so, Arnold is without doubt the greatest among the elegiac poets.
'The Scholar Gipsy' is marked by stateliness of utterance and a sad undertone. Capable those he was of being joy and light hearted in prose, Arnold seemed to surrender himself in poetry to the melancholic strain. The mournful recesses of his heart. As Huge Walker stated, " Nothing in Arnold's poetry more arresting then its elegiac element."
This Scholar Gipsy is founded on a story in Richard Glanvils "Vanity of Dogmatizing". Poverty force him to leave from Oxford studies and join a band of gipsy and learn their tricks. This poem is a pastoral elegy based on the Greek model. The background is rural. One find such terms as ship and shepherds, flowers and fields and pipes and plants. The poet develops his theme without budging an inch from the rural setting. Following are the features of the scholar Gipsy are as enumerated:
a. Criticism of life
Arnold held that poetry is a criticism of life. According to him, the greatness of poem lies in his powerful application of ideas to life, to the question "How to live? " The tranquility of the Oxford Hills, by contrast, remind Arnold of the feverish life of the modern men. The recollection of the 'signal elem tree', revive the memory of the Scholar Gipsy. In the Victorian era a modern man fluctuated idly without term or scope. The Scholar Gipsy was fed up with the life around him. This ideas and ideals were diametrically opposite to those of his contemporaries. This is because he was born before this storage disease of modern life with its sick hurry and divided aims was rife. Oxford in those days was in turmoil account of the religion controversy. The Oxford Movement tried to restore to religion its a place of prestige. Scholar Gipsy, however, found that religion was on trial. He found himself helpless among "light half believes of his casual creed." Thus Arnold criticized the existing trends in life.
b. Musical language
A pastoral elegy is invariably musical. Infact, music and melody are romantic concepts. Arnold's poetry, however in corporates these romantic traits. He expresses his concern at advent of materialism. He bewails the loss of happy times. But he derives consolation from the assumption that the champion of orthodoxy the scholar Gipsy - is not death. He describes his feeling in a figurative and musical language.
Thou hast not felt the laspe of
Thou hast not lived
Why, shouldst, thou perish?
To make his language musical and memorable. Arnold employed diverse figures of speech. He cited the instances of simile, metaphor, antithesis, etc. For example, he advise the scholar through a simile to avoid the modern people.
Avers, as Dido did
With Custures sturm
Dido the queen of Carthage cheated
Aeneas, a Trojan Prince, when they met in the land of death. This is because he had cheated her.
The following instance of Repetition advices the scholar to make an exist from the scene.
"Fly our pathos
our feverish content fly
fly our greetings
fly our speech and smiles.
All the instances indicate that Arnold was expert in using musical language.
c. Love of Nature
One cannot conceive of a pastoral elegy without the involvement of nature Bickley, an eminent Victorian critic rightly remarked. It is treatment of Nature is Arnold that is dominant. Any extord elegy of Arnold can be considered as a poem of nature.
Arthur Quitter Coach observed "Who can think of Arnold poetry as a whole without feeling that nature is always behind it as a living background? " For Arnold, Nature's secret is not joy but peace. The same critic goes on to say "No English poet, not even Wordsworth had, more passionate love for the country then Arnold."
The Oxford countryside has been minutely described by Arnold. Any description of nature is incomplete and eye without for the colour subtle phrases. Arnold pointed flower and plants, hills, dates, the spotted leaves, the dark blue bells, scarlet poppies, purple orcheses, etc. speak about his keen perception. Birds are inseparable associated with nature. Arnold refers to the black winged swallows who haunt the glittering Thames. There is ample evidence in the Scholar Gipsy to prove that Arnold was keenly conscious of the natural objects and the colour combination.
d. Ageless
The Scholar Gipsy is ageless because he cannot succumb to the "strange disease of modern life". He's left all that behind. Arnold breaks with the tradition of pastoral elegy by treating the scholar gipsy as if he were alive. Although he's been rumoured to wander the countryside for the better part of 200 years, he's still portrayed in the poem as being very much alive in spirit, his rare appearance is down the years glimpsed by shepherds and other country folk. It is the truthfulness of their testimony which gives the poem's speaker the confidence to assert the continued existence of this "traunt boy".
Matthew Arnold is a celebrated elegiac poet by virtue of both the quality and the quantity of his poems. According to Garrod, "The whole temper of Arnold's muse a melancholy". W.H. Hudson pointed out that the basis of an elegy is sincerity of emotions along with felicity of expressions. If this be so, Arnold is without doubt the greatest among the elegiac poets.
'The Scholar Gipsy' is marked by stateliness of utterance and a sad undertone. Capable those he was of being joy and light hearted in prose, Arnold seemed to surrender himself in poetry to the melancholic strain. The mournful recesses of his heart. As Huge Walker stated, " Nothing in Arnold's poetry more arresting then its elegiac element."
This Scholar Gipsy is founded on a story in Richard Glanvils "Vanity of Dogmatizing". Poverty force him to leave from Oxford studies and join a band of gipsy and learn their tricks. This poem is a pastoral elegy based on the Greek model. The background is rural. One find such terms as ship and shepherds, flowers and fields and pipes and plants. The poet develops his theme without budging an inch from the rural setting. Following are the features of the scholar Gipsy are as enumerated:
a. Criticism of life
Arnold held that poetry is a criticism of life. According to him, the greatness of poem lies in his powerful application of ideas to life, to the question "How to live? " The tranquility of the Oxford Hills, by contrast, remind Arnold of the feverish life of the modern men. The recollection of the 'signal elem tree', revive the memory of the Scholar Gipsy. In the Victorian era a modern man fluctuated idly without term or scope. The Scholar Gipsy was fed up with the life around him. This ideas and ideals were diametrically opposite to those of his contemporaries. This is because he was born before this storage disease of modern life with its sick hurry and divided aims was rife. Oxford in those days was in turmoil account of the religion controversy. The Oxford Movement tried to restore to religion its a place of prestige. Scholar Gipsy, however, found that religion was on trial. He found himself helpless among "light half believes of his casual creed." Thus Arnold criticized the existing trends in life.
b. Musical language
A pastoral elegy is invariably musical. Infact, music and melody are romantic concepts. Arnold's poetry, however in corporates these romantic traits. He expresses his concern at advent of materialism. He bewails the loss of happy times. But he derives consolation from the assumption that the champion of orthodoxy the scholar Gipsy - is not death. He describes his feeling in a figurative and musical language.
Thou hast not felt the laspe of
Thou hast not lived
Why, shouldst, thou perish?
To make his language musical and memorable. Arnold employed diverse figures of speech. He cited the instances of simile, metaphor, antithesis, etc. For example, he advise the scholar through a simile to avoid the modern people.
Avers, as Dido did
With Custures sturm
Dido the queen of Carthage cheated
Aeneas, a Trojan Prince, when they met in the land of death. This is because he had cheated her.
The following instance of Repetition advices the scholar to make an exist from the scene.
"Fly our pathos
our feverish content fly
fly our greetings
fly our speech and smiles.
All the instances indicate that Arnold was expert in using musical language.
c. Love of Nature
One cannot conceive of a pastoral elegy without the involvement of nature Bickley, an eminent Victorian critic rightly remarked. It is treatment of Nature is Arnold that is dominant. Any extord elegy of Arnold can be considered as a poem of nature.
Arthur Quitter Coach observed "Who can think of Arnold poetry as a whole without feeling that nature is always behind it as a living background? " For Arnold, Nature's secret is not joy but peace. The same critic goes on to say "No English poet, not even Wordsworth had, more passionate love for the country then Arnold."
The Oxford countryside has been minutely described by Arnold. Any description of nature is incomplete and eye without for the colour subtle phrases. Arnold pointed flower and plants, hills, dates, the spotted leaves, the dark blue bells, scarlet poppies, purple orcheses, etc. speak about his keen perception. Birds are inseparable associated with nature. Arnold refers to the black winged swallows who haunt the glittering Thames. There is ample evidence in the Scholar Gipsy to prove that Arnold was keenly conscious of the natural objects and the colour combination.
d. Ageless
The Scholar Gipsy is ageless because he cannot succumb to the "strange disease of modern life". He's left all that behind. Arnold breaks with the tradition of pastoral elegy by treating the scholar gipsy as if he were alive. Although he's been rumoured to wander the countryside for the better part of 200 years, he's still portrayed in the poem as being very much alive in spirit, his rare appearance is down the years glimpsed by shepherds and other country folk. It is the truthfulness of their testimony which gives the poem's speaker the confidence to assert the continued existence of this "traunt boy".
Conclusion
For the English people Arnold professed contempt, for English scenery he had conceived a passionate love, which inspired him to write passages of descriptive verse in a manner peculiarly his own, and with a power, which, in the special and limited field of its exercise, is unrivalled.
Really useful one, compact yet packed with important points.Thank You very much for the effort to make the hard one looks so simple. Further, you can access this site to read "Lord Byron's Attitude Towards Nature"
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