Victorians – Interesting Literature

Six of the Best Matthew Arnold Poems

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Matthew Arnold (1822-88) is largely remembered for one great Victorian poem: ‘Dover Beach’. But he wrote a number of other classic poems beside this. What are the best half-dozen of Matthew Arnold’s poems? We offer our recommendations below. ‘Dover Beach’ is there, as are a few other more famous titles, but we also include a couple which, although not as celebrated as the others, are, we believe, among Arnold’s best poetry.

‘Below the surface-stream, shallow and light’.

This poem is almost like a fragment of blank verse, its five unrhymed iambic pentameter lines appearing to offer a brief insight into the speaker’s mind, though this thought isn’t taken anywhere or developed into some grand psychodrama or narrative. In a curious way, the poem reads like a Victorian precursor to the Imagist poetry of the early twentieth century. If you want a nice short introduction to Arnold’s poetry, this is the perfect place to start.

A Very Short Biography of Matthew Arnold

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Matthew Arnold (1822-88) is best-remembered as a poet, although very few of his poems remain widely known. ‘Dover Beach’ is the most famous of these. But he led a curious life and has left us with some lasting legacies, so in this post we intend to offer a very short biography of Matthew Arnold, taking in the highlights of his life and work.

Matthew Arnold was born in Surrey, England on Christmas Eve 1822, the son of Thomas Arnold, influential and celebrated schoolteacher and Headmaster of Rugby School, where young Matthew studied. Thomas Arnold would later be immortalised in the Thomas Hughes classic Tom Brown’s Schooldays (1857). Arnold – Matthew, that is – had to wear leg braces for two years during his childhood to correct crooked legs.

Interesting Facts about War Poets

By Ana McLaughlin

As the hundred year anniversary of the Battle of the Somme approaches (1^st July 2016), here’s a look at the most interesting biographies of our greatest war poets, and some surprising facts you might not know about them.

Lawrence Binyon (1869-1943) wrote ‘For The Fallen’, with its immortal fourth verse:

‘They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.’

Life as the Secret Victorianist

In this special guest post, the Secret Victorianist tells us about her secret life blogging about Victorian literature

In my wallet I keep two business cards, but only one has my real name on it. On the other I masquerade as the Secret Victorianist – the pseudonymous blogger I created to keep my interest in nineteenth-century literature alive, after I left academia to work a nine to five job.

At first being the Secret Victorianist didn’t really impact my day-to-day life. Sure, I had to set some time aside to write and publish blog posts and had a few more social media accounts to juggle, but the novels I was writing about I’d written about many times before, as an undergrad and graduate student, and I had a wealth of notes, lecture hand-outs, and essays to draw upon for material.

In those early days I shared general thoughts and tips – for example, on the misconceptions people often expressed to me when I told them I liked Victorian writers, or the shorter texts people could dip into if they didn’t know where to start.

The Lives of Victorian Writers Told in Limericks

The literary lives of twelve famous Victorians, told in the poetic form they knew so well Nobody knows for sure why limericks are named limericks. They’re obviously named in honour of Limerick, the city in Ireland, but beyond that nothing is known for certain about why a five-line comic poem should be so named. But … Read more