SOURCE: An introduction to The English Poets: Chaucer to Donne, Vol. I, edited by Thomas Humphry Ward, 1880. Reprint by Macmillan Company, 1920, pp. xviixlvii.
Although Arnold was a poet and a commentator on the social and moral life in England, he was essentially an apologist for literary criticism. In the following summary, recognized as the quintessential nineteenth-century view of Pope, he discusses the poet and his literary predecessor, John Dryden, as writers of classic English prose, not poetry.
This is a free excerpt of 78 words. There are 1,049 words (approx.
3 pages at 300 words per page) in the full critical essay.
Read the rest of this Criticism with our Alexander Pope 1688–1744: Critical Essay by Matthew Arnold Access Pass.
