Not everyone in Victorian Britain embraced industrial capitalism and the immense social changes it brought in its wake. Some were critical of the disruption, greed, and social chaos that they claimed were intrinsic elements of this rapidly-developing economic system.

One such critic was the poet Matthew Arnold. In numerous writings, he vilified contemporary society for is commercial values, which he believed encouraged rampant philistinism. People were so obsessed with making money that they no longer had time for spiritual values; they couldn’t take time out to smell the roses, as it were.

Arnold’s critical attitude to the consequences of rapid social and economic change can be seen most strongly in “The Scholar-Gypsy.” Here, a sensitive young student from Arnold’s alma mater, Oxford University, leaves behind the modern world to go off and live with a band of gypsies. It says something about modern society that such a bright young lad no longer feels able to live in it. The only way he can escape this “disease” is by fleeing from it altogether and seeking a richer, more authentic existence elsewhere. Such an existence is provided by the gypsies, as they’re not tied down to any one place. They live beyond the margins of society and so aren’t as deeply affected by the bewildering speed of its change.

To be sure, Arnold isn’t recommending that anyone who can’t handle life in modern society should just drop everything and go off and join a band of traveling gypsies. What he is suggesting, however, is that modern society, being what it is, simply cannot provide any kind of spiritual sustenance for the sensitive soul and that some kind of escape from the enervating, soul-destroying modern world is essential to maintain one’s integrity.

"The Scholar-Gypsy" is a Victorian poem in that it expresses a deep anxiety about the "disease of modern life." Its theme expresses distress at the ways modern life pulls people in too many directions and lacks a central, deep religious faith. In contrast, the speaker looks with longing at the scholar-gypsy, Glanvil, who represents another, more unified way of living.

Arnold uses typical Victorian elements in this poem, such as a steady iambic pentameter rhythm and end rhymes. He also employs popular motifs carried over from the Romantic era, which idealized simple rural people and marginalized groups like gypsies. Arnold's speaker casts a humble reaper in a positive light, describing

His coat, his basket, and his earthen cruse,
And in the sun all morning binds the sheave

The speaker also describes a gypsy camp using pleasant images (we should keep in mind that the dominant attitude toward gypsies in Arnold's time was one of fear and contempt), writing

on the skirts of Bagley Wood—
Where most the gipsies by the turf-edged way
Pitch their smoked tents, and every bush you see
With scarlet patches tagg'd and shreds of grey

The reaper and the gypsies are depicted as living closer to nature than modern people and, therefore, able to experience life more purely, away from the modern "disease" of uncertainty and "sick hurry."

The speaker's longing is to be like the scholar-gypsy. He addresses him, saying,

Thou hadst one aim, one business, one desire;
Else wert thou long since number'd with the dead!
Else hadst thou spent, like other men, thy fire!

Because the scholar-gypsy lived a life of unity, able to keep himself focused on "one" aim, he has achieved a soul integration that has lead to immortality. He has not used up his "fire" or inner soul. He

waitest for the spark from heaven!

In other words, the scholar-gypsy was animated by religious faith.

The poem is most Victorian in its anguished description of modern life as alienating and fragmented, lacking a traditional sense of cohesion, and no longer able to firmly entrench itself in unquestioned faith and values. In contrast to the gyspy-scholar, the speaker and his peers are filled with doubts that make it impossible to achieve:

we,
Light half-believers of our casual creeds,
Who never deeply felt, nor clearly will'd,
Whose insight never has borne fruit in deeds,
Whose vague resolves never have been fulfill'd;
For whom each year we see
Breeds new beginnings, disappointments new;
Who hesitate and falter life away

The poem idealizes an imagined past but reflects the angst of a society dealing with Darwinism and rapid change.

Evaluate "The Scholar Gypsy" as a Victorian poem focusing on its theme and elements.

In the Victorian era, the rapid rate of industrialization and the scientific challenges to a faith-based worldview were matters of concern to many social critics. The harmful effects of these developments were experienced as alienation and a wounded spirit, which severely damaged the human ability to appreciate or even cope with life. In contrast, people in earlier times were more closely involved with the natural world and had a greater capacity for both emotional and intellectual connections. The title character is not merely a person of superior intellect but a man who rejected the artificial confines of society in favor of seeking his own way—a kind of pilgrim. The Victorian formality of the poem includes its regular rhythm and rhyme, using iambic pentameter with an ABAB rhyme scheme.

Arnold’s poem in some respects continues Romantic tendencies to idealize nature, but the author’s attitude is more attuned to the negative consequences of industry and the related, accelerating pace of modern life. The poet includes a variety of images that show positive visions of the past in sharp contrast to negative features of the “diseased” present. Arnold uses a simile comparing the gay life of the past to fresh running water, and numerous metaphors of illness for the present. The scholar was

born in days when wits were fresh and clear,
And life ran gayly as the sparkling Thames;
Before this strange disease of modern life,
With its sick hurry, its divided aims,
Its head o'ertaxed, its palsied hearts, was rife.

How is "The Scholar-Gypsy" a Victorian poem in theme and elements?

Society changed rapidly in Victorian Britain; for some people, too much. The breakneck development of the British economy—at that time the strongest in the world—caused disruption to the lives of millions. Although most people, in their own way, were eventually able to accommodate themselves to these changes, there were some who were never fully reconciled to them, and hankered after a simpler way of life.

Such people are symbolized by the scholar-gipsy. He yearns to escape from what he sees as the soulless superficialities of life in the modern world for a more authentic, satisfying existence, the kind that’s led by the band of traveling gypsies he joins. In especially strong language, Arnold describes modern life as a “disease”, implying that it is a contagion which must be avoided lest one succumb to it as so many have done.

The scholar-gipsy doesn’t want to be yet another faceless victim of Victorian society; he seeks a richer, fuller, more meaningful existence. Steadfastly refusing to conform as millions of others have done, he finds his natural home among those whose lifestyle involves moving around from place to place, following their own long-standing traditions and customs. In doing so, the scholar-gipsy has finally found a way to transcend modern life by escaping it altogether. Though he still remains in the world, he is no longer of it.