Matthew Arnold
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Matthew Arnold was an English poet and cultural critic. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the headmaster of Rugby School, and brother of both Tom Arnold, literary professor, and William Delafield Arnol
Portrait, c. 1883
Caricature by James Tissot published in Vanity Fair in 1871
Matthew Arnold's grave at All Saints' Church, Laleham, Surrey.
A London County Council blue plaque for Arnold at 2 Chester Square, Belgravia
Thyrsis (poem)
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"Thyrsis" is a poem written by Matthew Arnold in December 1865 to commemorate his friend, the poet Arthur Hugh Clough, who had died in November 1861 aged only 42.
Matthew Arnold
…in Criticism: First Series. Essays in Criticism: Second Series would not appear until November 1888, shortly after his death. In 1866, he published Thyrsis, his elegy to Clough who had died in 1861. Culture and Anarchy, Arnold's major work in social criticism (and one of the few pieces of his prose work…
Thyrsis refers to Oxford's dreaming spires such as those on the left and right in this picture taken from the University Church of St Mary the Virgin