Arnold's resignation seeks freedom from frustrated desire
the "resignation" of Matthew Arnold
Arnold's poem Resignation: To Fausta (first published in 1849) provides a more specific target than a generally subdued Victorian temperament. Its speaker recommends surrendering passionate hopes for quiet and fearlessness, and finding a wider life beyond individual struggle. That supports Chesterton's contrast with passions retained at full force. But Arnold presents resignation as liberation and conquest of dependence on chance, rather than a weak average of optimism and pessimism. Calling it dilution is Chesterton's judgment of the remedy, not Arnold's description of its aim. The poem's distinction between the poet's wider vision and ordinary endurance also complicates treating its several voices as one flat attitude. Inspected text: Macmillan's 1891 Poetical Works, pp. 52–62, especially pp. 59–62.
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