Matthew Arnold

"Wandering between two worlds, one dead, / The other powerless to be born . . ."
"Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse" (ca.1852; 1855)

Points of Reflection

1. what thematic elements from "Lines Written in Kensington Gardens" (1852) and "Isolation. To Marguerite" (1849; 1857) suggest the influence of Wordsworth on Arnold? In what ways does Arnold veer away from Wordsworth?

2. what similarities (of style and tone, narrator and audience, meter and message, diction and theme) connect Arnold's "Dover Beach" (ca.1851; 1867) with Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey" (1798; 1798)?

3. in what ways is "Stanzas from the Grande Chartreuse" (ca.1852; 1855) an elaboration of the central premise in "Dover Beach" (ca.1851; 1867)?

Kensington Gardens

Paul Marchbanks
marchban@email.unc.edu