San Antonio College Library

"There are several reasons which justify a close study of Arnold's Poetry. Many of the poems are deceptively simple; for when he aimed at the plain severe style the result was sometimes obscure from over-condensation and sometimes difficult from failure to achieve complete clarity. Such poems demand explication in order to reveal either their full meaning or occasionally the faults of his method of composition..." - Book jacket.

Matthew Arnold -- was he a powerful and poetic spokesman, sensitive to the first troubled stirrings of a new society, or was he a weak versifier and a self-contradictory critic with his face turned to the past? David DeLaura provides in this new volume a collection of modern critical commentary which establishes Arnold once and for all as an essential poet. Distinguished contributors to this volume offer the reader evaluations of Arnold's literary...