Quiz: Mathew Arnold's The Study of Poetry

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1. Mathew Arnold lived during which of the following years?

1 point

1662 - 1688

1722 - 1788

1822 - 1888

1902 - 1988

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2. Which of the following is/are true about Mathew Arnold?

3 points

He was an English poet and cultural critic

He worked as an inspector of schools

He has been characterised as a sage writer, a type of writer who chastises and instructs the reader on contemporary social issues

He was one of the die-hard supporters of Wordsworthian movement of romanticism in literature

3. Complete the definition of Poetry as enunciated by Mathew Arnold in 'The Study of Poetry'?

Poetry is . . . .

2 points

is spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings

is criticism of life, governed by the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty

is just and lively image of human nature. . . to delight and instruct mankind

is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete and of certain magniture

4. True or False: :Real estimate, the only true one, is liable to be superseded, if we are not watchful, by two other kinds of estimate, the Historic estimate and the Personal estimate, both of which are fallacious."

1 point

5. True or False: A good poetry has “the superior character of truth and seriousness, in the matter and substance of the best poetry, is inseparable from the superiority of diction and movement marking its style and manner."

2 points

6. True or False: The first great principle of criticism enunciated by Arnold is that of disinterestedness or detachment. Disinterestedness on the part of the critic implies freedom from all prejudices, personal or historical.

2 points

7-11. Match with appropriate:

5 points

a. ‘Poetry’ ‘is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge, the impassioned expression that is in the countenance of all science’

b. A poem, therefore, may be defined as, that species of composition, which is opposed to works of science, by proposing for its immediate object pleasure, not truth; and from all other species (having this object in common with it) it is discriminated by proposing to itself such delight from the whole, as is compatible with a distinct gratification from each component part.

e. Poetry is the criticism of life, governed by the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty

c. Poetry is a speaking picture with this end, to teach and delight.

d. Poetry is not an expression of emotion but as escape from emotion.

1. Wordsworth

2. Coleridge

3. Mathew Arnold

4. Sir Philip Sidney

5. T.S. Eliot

a. ‘Poetry’ ‘is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge, the impassioned expression that is in the countenance of all science’

b. A poem, therefore, may be defined as, that species of composition, which is opposed to works of science, by proposing for its immediate object pleasure, not truth; and from all other species (having this object in common with it) it is discriminated by proposing to itself such delight from the whole, as is compatible with a distinct gratification from each component part.

e. Poetry is the criticism of life, governed by the laws of poetic truth and poetic beauty

c. Poetry is a speaking picture with this end, to teach and delight.

d. Poetry is not an expression of emotion but as escape from emotion.

1. Wordsworth

2. Coleridge

3. Mathew Arnold

4. Sir Philip Sidney

5. T.S. Eliot

Clear selection

12-14. Match the speaker with the quote:

3 points

a. ‘Poetry’ ‘is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge, the impassioned expression that is in the countenance of all science’

b. THE FUTURE of poetry is immense, because in poetry, our race, as time goes on, will find an ever surer and surer stay. There is not a creed which is not shaken. But for poetry the idea is everything; the rest is a world of illusion, of divine illusion. Poetry attaches its emotion to the idea; the idea is the fact. The strongest part of our religion to-day is its unconscious poetry

c. The process of poetic creation can best be explained with the help of chemical reaction between oxygen and sulphur dioxide

Wordsworth

Mathew Arnold

T S Eliot

a. ‘Poetry’ ‘is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge, the impassioned expression that is in the countenance of all science’

b. THE FUTURE of poetry is immense, because in poetry, our race, as time goes on, will find an ever surer and surer stay. There is not a creed which is not shaken. But for poetry the idea is everything; the rest is a world of illusion, of divine illusion. Poetry attaches its emotion to the idea; the idea is the fact. The strongest part of our religion to-day is its unconscious poetry

c. The process of poetic creation can best be explained with the help of chemical reaction between oxygen and sulphur dioxide

Wordsworth

Mathew Arnold

T S Eliot

Clear selection

15. Select all those options which are true for what Mathew Arnold has said in The Study of Poetry:

3 points

His general principles was - the" Touchstone Method" – which introduced scientific objectivity to critical evaluation by providing comparison and analysis as the two primary tools for judging individual poets.

His general principles was - the" Touchstone Method" – which introduced scientific objectivity to critical evaluation by providing historical fallacy and personal fallacy as the two primary tools for judging individual poets.

In reading poetry, a sense for the best, the really excellent, and of the strength and joy to be drawn from it, should be present in our minds and should govern our estimate of what we read.

But this real estimate, the only true one, is liable to be superseded, if we are not watchful, by two other kinds of estimate, the historic estimate and the personal estimate, both of which are fallacious

16-20: Match the poets with what Arnold said about them in the essay The Study of Poetry:

5 points

Arnold praises his excellent style and manner, but says that he cannot be called a classic since, unlike Homer, Virgil and Shakespeare, his poetry does not have the high poetic seriousness which Aristotle regards as a mark of its superiority over the other arts.

As for poetry, Arnold considers him to be the only classic of the 18th century. He constantly studied and enjoyed Greek poetry and thus inherited their poetic point of view and their application of poetry to life

He regarded _____ as the glorious founder, and ____ as the splendid high priest, of the age of prose and reason, our indispensable 18th century

He lacks high poetic seriousness, though his poems have poetic truth in diction and movement. Also like Chaucer, he possesses largeness, benignity, freedom and spontaneity.

In England there needs a miracle of genius like his to produce a balance of mind

Chaucer

Thomas Gray

Dryden and Pope

Robert Burns

Shakespeare

Arnold praises his excellent style and manner, but says that he cannot be called a classic since, unlike Homer, Virgil and Shakespeare, his poetry does not have the high poetic seriousness which Aristotle regards as a mark of its superiority over the other arts.

As for poetry, Arnold considers him to be the only classic of the 18th century. He constantly studied and enjoyed Greek poetry and thus inherited their poetic point of view and their application of poetry to life

He regarded _____ as the glorious founder, and ____ as the splendid high priest, of the age of prose and reason, our indispensable 18th century

He lacks high poetic seriousness, though his poems have poetic truth in diction and movement. Also like Chaucer, he possesses largeness, benignity, freedom and spontaneity.

In England there needs a miracle of genius like his to produce a balance of mind

Chaucer

Thomas Gray

Dryden and Pope

Robert Burns

Shakespeare

Clear selection