Rugby Chapel is an elegy

Matthew Arnold was one of the three great poets of the Victorian age in English literature. His poem “Rugby Chapel” is an elegy, and it has some personal relationship because he wrote about his father, Doctor Thomas Arnold. Doctor Thomas Arnold was the headmaster of the Rugby School, and when he was the headmaster, the school became very famous and successful in England. After his death, the school lost some of its success and reputation. Anyway, this is a very good elegy, and before discussing this poem as an elegy, it is better to talk about the form of an elegy in English literature.

An elegy is a kind of poem where the death of a person or idea is mourned. The poet expresses his sadness at the death of a person very close to him or any idea he believes deeply. Normally, elegies are written about people rather than ideas. However, it is not only about expressing sadness or mourning or it is not only limited to that person only. The goal is to show that the person was a very high person, and there was a tremendous loss of the world or society at his death. Perhaps the most famous elegy in English literature is “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” by Thomas Gray. In that poem, Thomas Gray mourned the death of some village people and the good qualities they possessed.

The reader may ask himself or herself why Arnold wrote this elegy called “Rugby Chapel”. The first and obvious answer should have been that he wanted to mourn over the death of his father. However, it is more than the death of his father because after his father died, a magazine called Edinburgh Review criticized his father as a headmaster. This negative criticism had an impact on Matthew Arnold, and he wanted to prove that his father was not only a good headmaster but also a great person. So, there is a personal motif behind writing the elegy “Rugby Chapel”.

The loss is obviously personal because losing parents is one of the saddest experiences that human beings have to suffer in this world. A father is a guardian who looks after the children, and when we lose our father, most of us have the feeling that we have lost our shelter. Thus, the father is like a shelter, and Arnold has stated that children get shelter like a big oak tree gives shadow to people. His father always guided him, and for this reason, he could overcome most of the obstacles in this world. However, after his father’s death, he started to suffer because there was no one to guide him.

Arnold also stated that his father did not lead a meaningless life. His father was an ideal person and wanted to follow the right path or true way. He was not afraid of anything, and he was never tired of fulfilling his duties. In short, the poet’s father was a different kind of person, and he was always dedicated to his students. He was higher than the average people, and he was a good leader.

Matthew Arnold also said that his father was a person who used to encourage those people who were afraid in life. He did not hesitate to help the people and he did not care for his own comfort. Thus, he was a good person for society. The qualities that the poet speaks are rare in most people, and for this reason, Matthew Arnold’s father was a great person or a great figure.

Arnold did not fight back at the people who criticized his father. Rather, he indirectly praised his father a lot and tried to show that his father was a person who was worthy of only praise and did not lack any quality in his character. Thus, what we can see is that there is a personal intention of Arnold to prove that his father was a great person, but he has done it in a very good way. He has also shown that the qualities that his father used to possess were not only rare but also possessed by very few people alive today.

There is no doubt that “Rugby Chapel” is a great elegy, and it is perhaps one of the best elegies written during the Victorian period. Yes, there is a personal motif, and it is natural for a son to praise his father just as Arnold did. However, Arnold was very balanced when he was praising his father, and he did not show any emotion most of the time in this poem. This has given more or less a neutral point of view about the father, and it is up to the readers to reach their own conclusion about the father. If any person wants to enjoy this poem, he or she should read the background information about the Edinburgh Review’s criticism against Doctor Arnold (the poet’s father). In any case, it was a great elegy.