Great Regulars: [Matthew] Arnold was not wholly comfortable

with the idea of himself as a poet. He wrote: ". . . It is not so light a matter, when you have other grave claims on your powers, to submit voluntarily to the exhaustion of the best poetical production in a time like this . . . It is only in the best poetical epochs . . . that you can descend into yourself and produce the best of your thought and feeling naturally, and without an overwhelming and to some degree morbid effort." In Dover Beach, the poet in Arnold has insisted that the descent be made, however painful.

from Carol Rumens: The Guardian: theblogbooks: Poem of the week: Dover Beach

~~~~~~~~~~~