Cultural Anxiety In Matthew Arnold's Poems

Cultural anxiety prevails in Arnoldian poems through his choice of subject matter and forms of delivery. Arnold was a serious thinker and a responsible intellectual who wanted to guide the mass out of the mess of the newly-risen industrial and imperial country. He was aware of the loss of faith, mechanization and enslavement of human beings, the distance and isolation among people. However pessimistic and unhappy he was, he tried to enlighten and ennoble his audience for better culture, though sometimes confused himself because of his historical localization. His poetry may not be always aesthetically appealing, but the philosophical charm is always there and serves to justify his structure and words which are sometimes clumsy.