Criticism of Life Term Analysis

Arnold introduces the term “criticism of life” to describe a poet’s fundamental attitude towards the most significant matters in life: love, death, fate, free will, etc. In Arnold’s critical system, a poet’s criticism of life is significant because it is in the criticism of life that a truly great poet exhibits high seriousness—the main criterion, in Arnold’s view, for a poet’s worth. Arnold’s example of a poet whose criticism of life exemplifies high seriousness is Dante, whose Divine Comedy strikes “the true and grand note.” Chaucer, on the other hand, offers a more earthbound criticism of life that, for all his virtues as a poet, falls short of the high seriousness of a poet like Dante.