Culture and Anarchy

"Matthew Arnold (24 December 1822 - 15 April 1888) was an English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools.... In 1852, Arnold published his second volume of poems, Empedocles on Etna, and Other Poems. In 1853, he published Poems: A New Edition, a selection from the two earlier volumes famously excluding "Empedocles on Etna", but adding new poems, "Sohrab and Rustum" and "The Scholar Gipsy". In 1854, Poems: Second Series appeared; also a selection, it included the new poem, "Balder Dead". Arnold was elected Professor of Poetry at Oxford in 1857. He was the first to deliver his lectures in English rather than Latin. He was re-elected in 1862. On Translating Homer (1861) and the initial thoughts that Arnold would transform into Culture and Anarchy were among the fruits of the Oxford lectures. In 1859, he conducted the first of three trips to the continent at the behest of parliament to study European educational practices. He self-published The Popular Education of France (1861), the introduction to which was later published under the title "Democracy" (1879).