Question

Why does Arnold criticize the poetry of Dryden and Pope?

• A. For being overly emotional.
• B. For lacking intellectual depth and high seriousness.
• C. For being difficult to understand.
• D. For ignoring nature as a theme.

Answer 1

Answer:

B. For lacking intellectual depth and high seriousness.

John Dryden and Alexander Pope:

• He admires their technical skill but criticizes their poetry as being too artificial and limited in scope.

• According to the historic estimate Dryden and Pope are no doubt great poets of the eighteenth century.

• Arnold observes that Dryden and Pope were better prose writers than poets.

• The restoration period faced the necessity of a fit prose with proper imaginative quality and this is what Dryden and Pope provided.

• Arnold therefore concludes that they are classics not of poetry but of prose.