Real estimate and fallacious estimate in Matthew Arnold's "The Study of Poetry"

In his “The Study of Poetry”, Matthew Arnold emphasized on poetry and said that poem is very much necessary for human society and the importance of literature, especially poetry, will never diminish rather increase in the future. He also said that we should give importance to all poems but those that are of good and high standard. Now the most important question is how we would be able to understand that a poem is good or bad, and the more important question is, how we would be able to remove bad poems. Matthew Arnold, while discussing about these issues, mentioned real estimate and fallacious estimate.

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Real estimate refers to that estimate that would help us to understand and appreciate a good poem. It would help us to understand a poet and his poems. Matthew Arnold also mentioned that not all works of a good poet are of greater value. In this regard, he said that all the works of Shakespeare are not equally good. He has both good writings and bad writings. So, real estimate is a very important matter for it helps us to differentiate good poems from bad poems.

Real estimate is important because if we do not give importance to real estimate or we do not possess real estimate then we would never be able to appreciate good poems. This will do more harm than good to us. For this reason, having real estimate is very important for us.

On the contrary, fallacious estimate refers to that estimate which hampers our understanding and appreciation of good poetry. According to Arnold, fallacious estimate happens for two reasons. The first reason is historical estimate. While reading the history of literature, we would often come across poets who were quite famous in their lifetimes. Everybody liked them and appreciated their work but that poet was not so talented and he did not compose great poems. However, due to his fame, we often read his poems and think that he is a great poet.

Aside from historical estimate, there is another type of fallacious estimate and this is personal estimate. We often become influenced by our personal likes or dislikes, which lead us to like certain poets or playwrights. We read all his works and this also creates a problem. We also get to like literature that has similarities with us. In case of Bangladesh, we can say that one’s emotional attachment with one’s hometown affects his or her choice. A person from Noakhali likes the work of a poet or author who hailed from Noakhali. In the same way, an inhabitant of Barishal would prefer the works of poets or authors who were born and brought up in Barishal. Arnold warned us not to be influenced by such personal estimate. Arnold thinks that fallacious estimate is very dangerous for it deviates us from the true path and if we do not appreciate good literature, we will jeopardize our lives. Arnold wrote “The Study of Poetry” at a time when everyone was saying that poetry is useless and it does not profit us in any way. So, Arnold tried to show that poetry will be highly beneficial to us only if we learn to understand and appreciate good poetry.

However, Arnold’s thoughts and ideas are quite complex. It is natural to be influenced by our personal opinion or emotion while reading a particular literary piece. It is also true that poets who became famous must have produced some good literary piece. Otherwise, people would not like them for no reason.  The most important matter is what we should understand by real estimate. It is a complex process. Arnold talked about touchstone method where he compared poems of a few classic poets with popular poets of different ages. It is a complex process and there is no guarantee how much it would help us to gain real estimate. Many people have doubts about this process.

Arnold wrote “The Study of Poetry” at a time when people were about to forget the importance of literature in human society. So, his effort is praiseworthy.