‘The Scholar Gypsy’ is often known as one of the best and most popular poems of Arnold. A poor Oxford university student constitutes the central character of ‘The Scholar Gypsy’ who abandoned his studies to learn about the supernatural powers of the gypsy people.
Arnold begins the poem in pastoral mode, invoking an unnamed shepherd and describing the beautiful rural scene, with Oxford in the distance. The very first stanza of the poem suggests that something is amiss because the speaker imagines the sheep at night on a “moon blanched green” and then persuades the shepherd to “again begin the quest.” The moon acts like a symbol for the power of imagination and the word ‘quest’ appears to be a very loaded term for the rustic job of a shepherd.
The pastoralist background of the poem leads immediately to several themes. Most generally it represents, as it does for many poets, an escape from the intolerable world of court or affairs. He then repeats the gist of Glanvill’s story, but extends it with an account of rumours that the scholar gypsy was again seen from time to time by shepherds, country boys, young girls and reapers etc. around Oxford. Arnold thinks of him as a shadowy figure who can even now be seen from time to time in the Berkshire and Oxfordshire countryside, “waiting for the spark from Heaven to fall”, and claims to have once seen him himself.
Arnold romanticizes the Oxford countryside, attributing to it his happiest days. Against this romantic background, then, Arnold places the quest for and of the scholar-gypsy, which gives added significance to the background This major English pastoral elegy has been written in a ten-line stanza pattern, constituting a total of 250 lines. Arnold was not sure whether the scholar gypsy was still alive after two centuries, but then ruled out the thought of his death. He cannot have died like a normal man. Having renounced such a life, he is hence free from the sick fatigue, the languid doubt. The sick hurry and divided aims characterize modern life. The poet implores the scholar gypsy to avoid all who suffer from it, in case he too should be infected and die.
Arnold ends with an extended simile of a Tyrian merchant seaman, who flees from the eruption of Greek competitors to seek a new world in Iberia. For Arnold, Christianity was dead, and nothing seemed to occupy its place that could give meaning to life. This situation resulted in a constant search, loneliness and a void in life. In other words it can be said that it was the confrontation between the wisdom of the heart and the wisdom of the head. The head is aware of the real condition of the modern world, but the heart is invariably drawn to the simpler life represented by the scholar.
As a poet, Arnold, at times, used to give a record of the sick society in his poems. ‘The Scholar Gypsy’ is also one such poem. In this poem the attitude of Arnold towards the gypsy is similar to the attitude of an adult towards a child. Arnold appreciates the innocence of the gypsy and envies it at the same time but finally realises that he could not return to such a stage of innocence. Arnold believed that a child lost its innocence not due to some sin but simply by gaining experience and developing into an adult. The gypsy similarly was the manifestation of a good soul that was lost. When Arnold juxtaposes the gypsy’s composure with the problems of his own age, he is not lampooning the nineteenth century but is rather exploring its spiritual and emotional losses.
Through this poem Arnold explores the monotony of modern life. He works the story on two levels— one about the scholar gypsy and the other is about the narrator himself, who is deeply impressed by the life and ideas of the Scholar gypsy. But the message is clear. The scholar gypsy has transcended life by giving up the pursuits of modern day living.
Arnold was of the belief that modern life was so tiring that it eventually wore down even the strongest of men. He uses the word “disease” for this kind of life to suggest the infectious nature of the malady. According to Arnold, everyone is infected by the disease of the rat race. The scholar gypsy, however, has managed to overcome this malady and had turned his back on modern day living by renouncing society. He has turned his back on Oxford— which is the seat of learning and symbolizes modern life. A number of people want to do this but are unable to actually renounce the pleasures and responsibilities of the world. The scholar gypsy Matthew Arnold-2 has however successfully done it. The contrast that Arnold presents between the pastoral life— represented by the serene, peaceful, rural setting on the one hand— with Oxford in the background representing the seat of learning and thus modern life. Pastoral imagery represents innocence and purity and a oneness with nature. Oxford represents the structured world which the scholar gypsy has renounced. Even though the poet would like to renounce the rat race he feels unable to do so and therefore, is torn within by an inner conflict. His responsibilities do not allow him to give up modern life even though he feels the pressure of having to conform to the rules and dogmas of society.