BA-III, Semester VI, (Paper XII)

Matthew Arnold’s Touchstone Method

Dr. D. D. Khaladkar
 Matthew Arnold’s Touchstone Method

 Introduction:
• Matthew Arnold (1822-1888> was the critic and poet of the
Victorian Period.
• He is considered to be the father of Modern Criticism. The method
which is advocated by Arnold is known as the touch-stone
method.
• According to Arnold the term ‘touchstone. must be applicable for
the purpose of judging and evaluating the standard of poets'
literary works, whether they are classic or not.
• This method is recognized as the masterpiece of the critical essay
"The Study of Poetry" (1880).
 Matthew Arnold’s Touchstone Method

• Matthew Arnold as a bridge between Romanticism and Modernism:

• (I) His use of symbolic landscapes is typical to
• Romantic era.
• (II) His skeptical and pessimistic perspective was
• typical to Modern era.

• He is the father of modern literary criticism.

• For him poetry is the best educator.

• Best medium to communicate.

• His notable books include:
• (i) Dover beach (ii) The Scholar Gypsy (iii) Thyrsis
• (iv) Culture and Anarchy (v) Literature and Dogma
 Matthew Arnold’s Touchstone Method
• The Study of Poetry- 1880:

• Arnold says that,

 "for poetry the idea is everything;

 the rest is a world of illusion, of divine illusion.

• Poetry attaches its emotion to idea;

• the idea is fact. ie, idea is Supreme and in poetry it is the idea that matters.

• The function of the poetry:

 is to interpret life for us, to console us, to sustain us and to give us stay in life.

• He says that if science is appearance then the poetry is expression and there is

no appearance without expression

 Matthew Arnold’s Touchstone Method
What is Touchstone Method?

• Touchstone:
 is a hard stone used to determine whether the metal is pure gold
and if not the degree to which it contains an alloy.

• Touchstone Method:
 It is a short quotation from a recognized poetic masterpiece 'The
Study of Poetry' (1880).
 It employed as a standard of instant comparison for judging the
value of other works.
 These denote short but distinctive passages, selected from writing of
the greatest poets, which he used to determine the relative value of
passages or poems which are compared to them.
 Matthew Arnold’s Touchstone Method
What is Touchstone Method?

• In short, Arnold’s touchstone method is a comparative method

of criticism.

• According to this method, in order to judge a poet's work

properly, a critic should compare it to passages taken from
works of great masters of poetry, and that these passages
should be applied as touchstones to other poetry.

• Even a single line or selected quotation will serve the purpose.

• If the other work moves us in the same way as these lines and
expressions do, then it is really a great work, otherwise not.
 Matthew Arnold’s Touchstone Method
The Scientific Process of Evaluation:

 The" Touchstone Method" - introduced scientific objectivity to critical

evaluation by providing comparison and analysis as the two primary
tools for judging individual poets.
 Excellent and High Seriousness//...the grand virtues of poetry.
• Arnold has cited some lines of:-
– Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, and 'Milton as touchstones for testing the high
poetic quality.

 Lack 'high seriousness'.

As the “Touchstone Method” introduces a scientific process for critical
evaluation and judgment of individual poets:
Chaucer
Dryden
Pope and Shelley
fail to be the best poet or classic because, they have Lack 'high seriousness’.
 Matthew Arnold’s Touchstone Method
The Scientific Process of Evaluation:

 Excellent and High Seriousness//...the grand virtues of poetry.

• Even Shakespeare thinks-
– too much for expression and little conception that is a slight flaw of
Shakespeare but he is classic in accordance with Arnold.

Actually, Arnold means to say that Chaucer, Dryden, Pope, and

Shelley are geniuses but not classic.
 Matthew Arnold’s Touchstone Method
The Yardstick of Finding Ideal Poets

 As a result of the application of this method in his essay, the

critic finds his ideal poets too.
 Ancient times ideal poets :-
 Homer and Sophocles, and Vigil, Dante
 Dante and Milton have also been classics and he finds Goethe and
Wordsworth as an ideal among the modernists.
 Arnold gives Wordsworth high rank not for his poetry but tor his
'Criticism of Lite"
 Matthew Arnold’s Touchstone Method
The Method of Evaluation, Not the Rejection

 Arnold asserts that in order to judge a poet's work properly a

critic should compare it, poet's literary work, to the passages of

the classics.

 If the work has high seriousness or criticism of life,

 it will be recognized as a classical piece of writing and the poet must be

included in the line of the classics.

 Matthew Arnold’s Touchstone Method
The Yardstick of Finding Ideal Poets

 To prove Arnold's touchstone method, few lines can be cited:

 From Milton's "Paradise Lost Book-I".
"And courage never to submit or yield
And what is else not to be ...."

 According to Arnold if we tact these few lines, they are enough

even to save us from a fallacious estimate of poetry and to
conduct us to real estimate.
 Matthew Arnold’s Touchstone Method
Real Classic and the Dubious Classic:

 Matthew Arnold offered his touchstone method to distinguish a

real classic from a dubious classic and to form a real estimate of
poetry.
 He says “a dubious classic, let us shift him;
 if he is a false classic, let us explode him.

 But he is a real classic, if his works belong to the class of the

very best,
 then the great thing for us to feel and enjoy his work as deeply as ever we
can.”

 A best classic is recognized by placing it beside the known

classics of the world.
 Matthew Arnold’s Touchstone Method
Superiority over the Personal and Historical Methods of
Poetry:

 This method was recommended by Arnold to overcome the

shortcomings of the personal and historical estimates of a poem
 because both historical and personal estimate goes in vain.
 Arnold says that the personal estimate should be avoided
because it will lead to wrong judgments.
 The historic estimate or judging a poet from the point of view of
his importance in the course of literary history is also not a true
judgment of a poet.
 Its historical importance may make us rate the work as higher
than it really deserves.
 Matthew Arnold’s Touchstone Method
Superiority over the Personal and Historical Methods of
Poetry:

 In order to form a real estimate, one should have the ability to

distinguish real classic.
 At this point, Arnold offers his theory of touchstone method.
 Arnold gives a concrete example of the fallacies of the historical
approach.
 Caedmon’s position is important in the historical sense, but it
would be wrong to hold him in the same level as Milton
poetically, because of this historical position.
 So, in order to find the truly excellent poetry, one should form a real
estimate of poetry as opposed to historical estimate and personal
estimate.
 Matthew Arnold’s Touchstone Method
Criticism or Demerits:

 The ‘touchstone method’ introduced and proved by Matthew

Arnold is neither very safe nor very sane.
 There are a number of disagreements as to the method.
 The personal and historical estimates are neglected:
 According to the critics. this comparative method is not perfect to determine
the proper estimate of poetry because the personal and historical estimates
are neglected in the method.
 contemporary presentation of poetic writing is also neglected.
According to Van Doren. most of the touch-stone of Arnold deals with pain and
sad memories.
 Matthew Arnold’s Touchstone Method
Conclusion:

 Despite the limitations, the touchstone method is one of the

greatest contributions of Matthew Arnold.

 It provides a concrete form of comparing great poets, and has

proved to be an invaluable aid to appreciation of any kind of art.

 The touchstone method is helpful not merely to compare the

masterpiece and the lesser work,
 but the good with the not so good, the sincere with the not quite sincere, it
distinguishes them all from each other.
The End

Thank you!
Krantiagrani G. D. Bapu Lad
Mahavidyalaya, Kundal

Dr. D. D. Khaladkar