What
are the salient features of Arnold’s evaluation of poetry based on ‘Touchstone Method’?
/ Examine Arnold’s critical study of the English poets from Chaucer to the
Romantics.
After the preliminary remarks on his
theory of poetry, Arnold proceeds to judge some of the leading poets and to
ascertain whether they are poetical classics or not on his famous touchstone
method which is a comparative method between the lines and passages from the
poet under study with lines and passage from acknowledged classics. To Arnold,
this method forms an estimate of the real excellence and beauty of the work.
Though Arnold tells three methods of judging the excellence of poetry, he
suggest the readers to follow only the touch stone method and to avoid personal
and historical estimates because the former, to him, is coloured by our
personal prejudices, likes and dislikes and later judges the work of a poet on
the basis of its intrinsic merit and therefore, both are false and deceptive.
Arnold applies his famous touch stone
method to form an estimate of the real greatness of Chaucer, Dryden, Pope, Gray
and Burns- from Chaucer to the romantic.
He begins with Chaucer whose
superiority lies in:
(a)
His large, tolerant and gracious view of life.
(b)
His verse melody-easy flow and smoothness of
versification.
(c)
His tradition of melodious verse continued in
Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton, and Keats.
Yet, Chaucer is not a great classic
who, according to Arnold, lacks seriousness, as compared with Homer, Dante and
Shakespeare.
