The Norton Anthology of English literature. Volume 2

Indeed there can be no more useful help for discovering what poetry belongs to the class of the truly excellent, and can therefore do us most good, than to have always in one's mind lines and expressions of the great masters, and to apply them as a touchstone to other poetry. Of course we are not to require this other poetry to resemble them; it may be very dissimilar. But if we have any tact we shall find them, when we have lodged them well in our minds, an infallible touchstone for detecting the presence or absence of high poetic quality, and also the degree of this quality, in all other poetry which we may place beside them. Short passages, even single lines, will serve our turn quite sufficiently. Take the two lines which I have just quoted from Homer, the poet's comment on Helen's mention of her brothers�or take his

A deilw, T'L ocpojL dofiev flrj?.fji avaxri

OvrjTOj; VFIEIG 6' EOTOV ayripco T ada.va.Ta> TE.

f] Iva 6VOTT]VOIOI FIEL avdpaotv olyz .%r/TOv;2

the address of Zeus to the horses of Peleus�or take finally his

Kal OE, yspov, TO npiv /XEV UKOVO/XEV okfiiov Eivai.3

the words of Achilles to Priam, a suppliant before him. Take that incomparable line and a half of Dante, Ugolino's tremendous words�

Io no piangeva; si dentro impietrai.

Piangevan elli... 4

take the lovely words of Beatrice to Virgil�

Io sonfatta da Dio, sua merce, tale, Che la rostra miseria non mi tange, Ne fiamma d'esto incendio non m'assale ... 5

take the simple, but perfect, single line�

In la sua volontade e nostra pace.6

Take of Shakespeare a line or two of Henry the Fourth's expostulation with sleep�

Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast Seal up the shipboy's eyes, and rock his brains In cradle of the rude imperious surge .. . 7

1. "So said she; they long since in Earth's soft arms return the body of his son Hector, whom the Greek were reposing, /There, in their own dear land, their warrior had killed. fatherland, Lacedaemon." Iliad 3.243-44 (trans-4. "I wailed not, so of stone I grew within; they1 lated by Dr. Hawtrey) [Arnold's note], wailed." Inferno 33.49�50 [Arnold's note], 2. "Ah, unhappy pair, why gave we you to King 5. "Of such sort hath God, thanked be His mercy, Peleus, to a mortal? but ye are without old age, and made me, that your misery toucheth me not, neiimmortal. Was it that with men born to misery ye ther doth the flame of this fire strike me." Inferno might have sorrow?" Iliad 17.443�45 [Arnold's 2.91�93 [Arnold's note]. The Roman poet Virgil is note). Dante's guide. 3. "Nay, and thou too, old man, in former days 6. "In His will is our peace." Paradiso 3.85 wast, as we hear, happy." Iliad 24.543 [Arnold's [Arnold's note]. note). Priam, king of Troy, has begged Achilles to 7. 2 Henry IV 3.1.18-20.

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140 8 / MATTHEW ARNOLD

and take, as well, Hamlet's dying request to Horatio�

If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart, Absent thee from felicity awhile, And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain, To tell my story ... 8

Take of Milton that Miltonic passage�

Darkened so, yet shone Above them all the archangel; but his face Deep scars of thunder had intrenched, and care Sat on his faded cheek .. . 9

add two such lines as�

And courage never to submit or yield

And what is else not to be overcome .. . 1

and finish with the exquisite close to the loss of Proserpine, the loss

. . . which cost Ceres all that pain

To seek her through the world.2

These few lines, if we have tact and can use them, are enough even of themselves to keep clear and sound our judgments about poetry, to save us from fallacious estimates of it, to conduct us to a real estimate.