Arthur Hugh Clough

This book presents a selection of the full range of Arthur Hugh Clough's poetry, which explores the tensions of a time of radical changes in the religious, political, and literary landscape. It also includes a detailed introduction and annotations by Shirley Chew. Asked what problems most perplexed 'young men at present' Arthur Hugh Clough (1819-1861) replied 'a growing sense of discrepancy'. His wry and wise poetry explores the tensions of a time of radical changes in the religious, political and literary landscape. He has a sharp eye for absurdity. Clough was a writer of wide interests and liberal sympathies, vividly idiomatic and sensuous, delighting in the detail and variety of everyday life. His technical dexterity is a delight: the poems encompass satire and lyric, dialogue, plot and contemporary reference. His narrative poem he Bothie ofTober-Na-Vuolich and the epistolary Amours de Voyage have the momentum and social precision of novels, capturing a precise image of the Victorian world of the 1840s. This volume includes a generous selection of the full range of Clough's poetry, with a detailed introduction and annotations by Shirley Chew.

Asked what problems most perplexed 'young men at present' Arthur Hugh Clough (1819-1861) replied 'a growing sense of discrepancy'. His wry, wise poetry explores the tensions of a time of radical changes in the religious, political and literary landscape. He has a sharp eye for absurdity. Clough was a writer of wide interests and liberal sympathies, vividly idiomatic and sensuous, delighting in the detail and variety of everyday life. The poems encompass satire, lyric, dialogue, plot and contemporary reference. His narrative poem The Bothie of Tober-Na Vuolich and the epistolary Amours de Voyage have the momentum and social precision of novels, capturing a precise image of the Victorian world of the 1840s. This edition includes a generous selection of the full range of Clough's poetry, with a detailed introduction and annotations by Shirley Chew

This volume represents a selection of some of the best poetry by Arthur Hugh Clough (1810-61). Detailed annotation provides the modern reader with the intellectual, cultural and historical information necessary for a full appreciation of the poet's work. The poems selected span Clough's entire career, with the main focus on his two most important poems, Amours de Voyage and Dipsychus and the Spirit. These poems are discussed at length in the critical introduction and are prefaced by substantial headnotes elucidating their historical background and literary antecedents. Providing a wealth of information about the poet and the context of his work, this volume represents a substantial contribution to the subject in its own right, as well as being essential reading for all students of nineteenth-century literature.

Arthur Hugh Clough is one of the most undervalued Victorian poets. His importance is now being recognized, and the New Oxford Book of Victorian Verse assigns him his rightful position as a major poet. While an undergraduate at Balliol and a Fellow of Oriel, Clough wrote a series of intensely personal diaries, which throw light not only on his own development as a poet, but on the Oxford education of the time and the religious sensibility of the early Victorian era. Having been influenced by Thomas Arnold at Rugby, Clough felt the attraction at Oxford of the charisma of Newman. He was torn between the liberal and the catholic view of Christianity and began to raise the questions which led him eventually to agnosticism. In lighter moments the Diaries show Clough boating on the river and walking with Matthew Arnold through the countryside immortalized by The Scholar Gypsy.