Literary Criticism: Evaluation of English poetry from Chaucer to Burns

In his famous essay “The Study of Poetry”, Matthew Arnold said that good time is coming for literature and poem and they will exercise greater influence on human beings. According to him, literature is very important in human life and a time will come when literature will take over philosophy and religion. However, it is not applicable to literature as a whole. Good literary pieces will have great influence on human beings. In this regard, Arnold discussed about major poets starting from Chaucer to Burns.

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First comes Chaucer who is considered to be the father of English literature. There were few literary works before Chaucer but Chaucer was the first major poet in English literature. Arnold spoke highly of Chaucer and said that his writing was better compared to his contemporary French poets and one cannot deny Chaucer’s contribution in English literature. At the same time, Arnold criticized Chaucer. He said that Chaucer’s works cannot be considered as classics. Compared to poets like Homer or Sophocles, Chaucer is not that great. We can say that Homer and Sophocles were far better poets than Chaucer. Arnold said that Chaucer’s poem lacked high seriousness.

Arnold also spoke highly of Shakespeare for he is one of the most popular and celebrated poet and dramatist in English literature. It is not possible to neglect or entirely forget Shakespeare. Arnold talked highly of Shakespeare. Shakespeare’s writing is very good and he provided some examples. His only criticism against Shakespeare was that not all his writings are of high quality. Some writings were poor quality.

Arnold praised John Milton, another major poet of English literature. His “Paradise Lost” is the best epic poem in English literature. Milton was an immensely talented writer. He wrote poems and prose.

Arnold said many things about Dryden and Pope. However, they were more successful in prose than composing high class literary pieces. Arnold praised Dryden and said that English prose started with Dryden. There was also no doubt that Pope was a scholar and he wrote great prose. The problem with Dryden and Pope was that they could not produce great sentence like those of Shakespeare and Milton.

Arnold said that Thomas Gray was the best poet of the 19th century. Though Dryden composed few poems but Arnold thought that they were of high quality. We can consider Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” as one of his great works. It is a very good poem and without a doubt can be considered to be a classic of English literature.

Burns is another poet whom Arnold analyzed very closely. He believes that Burns was talented but his poems were not such high quality. His Scottish poems were better. Arnold believes that one should study the Scottish poems of Burns to better understand his talent as a poet.

Arnold analyzed works of poets starting from Chaucer to Burns. His analysis was also influenced by his thoughts and ideals to certain extent. The interesting thing is that he did not say much about major Romantic poets like Coleridge, Shelley and Byron. The Romantic age is considered to be the best age for English poetry and Arnold came after the Romantic age. So it is a bit frustrating.