Sohrab and Rustum: An Episode is a narrative poem with strong tragic themes by Matthew Arnold, first published in 1853. The poem retells a famous episode from Ferdowsi's Persian epic Shahnameh relating how the great warrior Rustum unknowingly slew his long-lost son Sohrab in single combat. Arnold, who was unable to read the original, relied on summaries of the story in John Malcolm's History of Persia and Sainte-Beuve's review of a French prose translation of Ferdowsi. In Sohrab and Rustum, Arnold attempted to imitate the "grandeur and rapidity" of Homer's style which he was to discuss in his lectures On Translating Homer (1861). The poem consists of 892 lines of blank verse.
Sohrab and Peran-Wisa
Matthew Arnold was an English poet and cultural critic. He was the son of Thomas Arnold, the headmaster of Rugby School, and brother to both Tom Arnold, literary professor, and William Delafield Arnold, novelist and colonial administrator. He has been characterised as a sage writer, a type of writer who chastises and instructs the reader on contemporary social issues. He was also an inspector of schools for thirty-five years, and supported the concept of state-regulated secondary education.
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