Analysis Of A Wish By Matthew Arnold

Romanticism is understood as the time period where art, literature, and music transformed into an influential movement. Authors such as Lord Byron, John Keats, and William Wordsworth are seen as the faces of the period and throughout the course, were primarily the focal within this period. Bargained as a late Romantic and early Victorian, Matthew Arnold still had qualities of Romanticism as he expressed his self and his feelings within his dee dark prose. These authors not only exemplified what it meant to be romantic authors, but also were romantics in their own ideals, thoughts, and feelings. This intellectual and artistic movement evoked passion into this vibrant literary movement. The subtleness of nature along with experience was the …show more content…
To most critics, Arnold was the bridge between modern and romantic poetry. In A Wish, Arnold analyzes the modern way of living, as the poem is focused on death. Though this poem is on a gloomy subject, it still majorly contributes to our understanding of Romanticism. In the poem, Arnold wishes that his last days in regards to living be focused on his achieving his good life. His good soul and life is all Arnold wishes for, while other focus on death. He shows no sorrow about death, rather he embraces this as the next step of life. He understands no one can save you from death nor stop the process; this is why his wish is about a prominent life. Arnold emphasizes the ideas of immortality, helping us to understand that death can only be deferred, not stopped. For him to emphasize the light of death, as death is such a dark condition contributes to our understanding of Romanticism. For Arnold, death is merely the next step from life, as he makes light of the situation. In understanding Romanticism, Arnold’s A Wish coveys’ ideas of death, with true will to live. As the Romantic Movement emphasized the use of aesthetic experience, Arnold emphasized death as an life stage, not a source of depression. Death is indefinite, as it can’t be skipped or evaded. Yet, Matthew Arnold is able to see the fragrant side of death. As death is seen as something most think of on a daily basis and create a worrisome though process, Arnold does not get into the depressive side of death. He focuses on the bright side and believes that death can be a pleasant subject. Showing death from this perspective not only shows Arnold as a romantic author, but one of the reasons why he should have been read during the