... of the Greeks rather than the Romantics of his century. His classicism comes out more in the execution of his poems than in their conception. The Greeks believed in cultivating the quality of lucidity, clarity , simplicity and directness. They discarded exuberance, richness and decorative expression. They subordinated the parts to the whole. Arnold cultivated these Greek qualities in his poetry. Arnold's poems are distinguished by clarity, simplicity, and the restrained emotion of his classic models. For his ideal of form, Arnold turned usually to the literature of Greece, abjuring romantic willfulness and vagueness in favor of classical lucidity and restraint. When he worked more deliberately in the Greek spirit and manner his style was often cold and dry. Reticence not rapture, economy not exuberance, harmony not hilarity, definiteness not dreaminess, lucidity not lavishness are the Hellenic traits of Arnold's poetry. "Sohrab and Rustum" is the finest specimen of Arnold's Homeric ...

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