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Criticism of Life
“High seriousness” is Arnold’s term for the most important feature of truly great poetry. A work with high seriousness presents a criticism of life that is capable of reaching the highest aspirations human beings are capable of. While Arnold is somewhat vague about what high seriousness consists of, he is very clear about which poets possess it: Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, and Milton. The work of these poets, Arnold argues, is characterized by a “high and excellent seriousness” that “gives to our spirits what they can rest upon.” Thus, high seriousness is connected to Arnold’s conception of poetry’s “high destiny” as the ultimate source of consolation for human beings.
High Seriousness Quotes in The Study of Poetry
The The Study of Poetry quotes below are all either spoken by High Seriousness or refer to High Seriousness. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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The Study of Poetry
Quotes
Only one thing we may add to the substance and matter of poetry, guiding ourselves by Aristotle’s profound observation that the superiority of poetry over history consists in its possessing a higher truth and a higher seriousness… Let us add, therefore, to what we have said, this: that the substance and matter of the best poetry acquire their special character from possessing, in an eminent degree, truth and seriousness.
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High Seriousness Term Timeline in The Study of Poetry
The timeline below shows where the term High Seriousness appears in The Study of Poetry. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
The Study of Poetry
...added to the definition of the proper subject matter for great poetry: Aristotle’s concept of high seriousness . It is this “high seriousness,” along with high truthfulness, that gives the greatest poetry...
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...such as God and fate. Chaucer—unlike Dante, William Shakespeare, and Homer— does not exhibit this high seriousness , for all the freedom and good humor with which he writes about life. Unfortunately...
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...these examples show Burns falling short of the most important of Arnold’s standards, that of high seriousness . Pointing to Dante once more, Arnold claims that Burns’s verse is not fully sincere...
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There are times, to be sure, when Robert Burns meets the threshold of high seriousness , but these, Matthew Arnold argues, are the exception that proves the rule. The accurate...
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