The Scholar-Gypsy (Masterplots II: Poetry, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Matthew Arnold
- First Published: 1853
- Type of Work: Pastoral
- Genres: Poetry, Pastoral
- Subjects: Immortality, Rural or country life, England or English people, Legends, Greece or Greek people, Gypsies, Shepherds
The Poem
“The Scholar-Gypsy” is a pastoral poem, in twenty-five ten-line stanzas, based on a legend recounted by Joseph Glanvill in The Vanity of Dogmatizing (1661). Matthew Arnold supplies the essential elements of the legend in lines 31 through 56 of the poem.
The poem opens on a pleasant August afternoon, with the poet-shepherd dismissing his companion shepherd to take care of his usual pastoral chores, bidding him to return at evening when the two will renew their quest. Meanwhile, the poet waits in a pleasant corner of a field filled with colorful...
[The entire page is 1678 words long]
