Wu Mi And Matthew Arnold

In his poetry criticism and poetry creation for decades,Wu Mi was influenced by Matthew Arnold,an English poet and literary critic.The influence was closely related to the background?personal experience and academic origin of the two.It's worth noticing that Wu Mi has diverged and transcended on the basis of inheriting Arnold's poetry theory and creative practice.This divergence and transcendence is essentially a variation that affecting the sender,and the deep reasons behind the variation are worthy of our careful study.This article attempts to explore Wu Mi's acceptance of Arnold about poetry theory and poetry creation and the reasons,and further analyzes Wu Mi's divergence and transcendence from Arnold about poetry.The paper of mine is divided into two main parts:introduction and main body.The introduction part first introduces the basic situation of the research object;Then combs the research status of this topic,and on the basis,puts forward the researching ideas of this paper.The main body is divided into three chapters.The first chapter introduces the origin between Wu Mi and Matthew Arnold,which were the main reasons why Wu Mi was influenced by Arnold.This reasons can be analyzed from two aspects: academic originand personal experience.Wu Mi learned from Irving Babbitt while studying at Harvard University,and Babbitt was deeply influenced by Arnold,which is an important reason for Wu Mi to contact and accept Arnold's poetry and theory.The similar background and personal experience of the two are the main reasons why Wu Mi is close to Arnold;The second chapter mainly explains Wu Mi's acceptance of Matthew Arnold's poetry theory.In terms of poetry creation principles and judging criteria,both Wu Mi and Arnold believed that the content of poetry creation should combine the classic poetry form with the modern poetry content,and the form of excellent poetry must be an old-style poem with strict rigor and old rules.Regarding the social function of poetry,Wu Mi followed Arnold's conclusion that “Poetry judges the human being”,and thought that good poetry should have “sorrow and mercy in the world,ambition to benefit the world,and care for the people”.So it would have an inspiring and good effect;The third chapter explores Wu Mi's divergence and surpassing of Arnold from the two aspects of poetry creation and poetry theory.First of all,although both Wu Mi and Arnold's poems express loneliness and sorrow,the sentiments and tone of the two are very different;Secondly,regarding the definition and function of poetry,Wu Mi does notagree with Arnold's simple definition of poetry as“ judging life”.Wu Mi believes that poetry must express inner feelings,but also pay full attention to life and society to achieve the perfect unity of sensibility and reason;Finally,regarding the relationship between poetry and religion,Arnold believed that poetry should replace religion,so as to realize the salvation function of poetry.Wu Mi attached great importance to religion and advocates the fusion of traditional Chinese Confucian culture with Western moral traditions represented by Indian Buddhism and Socrates and Christian culture to create a worldwide cultural and literary system.By comparing the different attitudes and viewpoints of the two when facing poems,I will further explore the deep cultural reasons behind this phenomenon.