Writer’s Intro
Matthew Arnold, (1822-1888) a major Victorian Poet. He was an English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools. The Scholar Gipsy was one of his greatest poems of him. So, it’s important to read the summary of The Scholar Gipsy to learn the main ideas easily.
Theme:
The Scholar Gipsy deals with the bad impact of modern life which makes people bored and numb. The speaker of the poem makes it clear that he or she finds modern life boring and uninspiring.
The Scholar Gipsy Summary
The first part of The Scholar Gipsy Summary
The narrator of “The Scholar-Gipsy” describes a picturesque countryside setting in the pastures from which one can see the city of Oxford in the distance. While observing the shepherd and reapers at work, he tells the shepherd that he plans to stay out in the field until sunset to take in the view and study the Oxford university buildings. He intends to carry his read with him at all times.
In his book, he recounts the well-known anecdote of an Oxford student who, out of financial necessity, leaves to live with a band of gypsies. The story was written by Joseph Glanvill. After he became one of them, he saw how they operated and figured out how they managed to achieve their goals.
After some time, the Scholar-Oxford Gipsy was located by two of his friends, and he expounded upon the traditional Gipsy method of education, which places a premium on creative thinking. His objective was to live among the gypsies for as long as possible, learn all of their secrets, and then expose them.
The second part of the summary of The Scholar Gipsy
Someone who frequently exclaims “Wow!” while telling the tale of the scholar-gipsy. Reports of sightings of him in the Berkshire moors were not uncommon. To the speaker, he is an enigmatic character, one who, like the rest of humanity, is waiting for the “spark from heaven.” He claims to have seen the scholar-gypsy in person, although it has been almost two centuries since his narrative was originally told in Oxford.
The speaker doubts the scholar-gipsy is dead. Despite the passage of so much time, because he abandoned his status as a mortal man. Thus the things that kill mortal men, such as “repeated shocks, again and again, wear down the vigor of the strongest souls.” The scholar-gipsy avoids these “shocks” by actively opting out of mainstream society. Instead, they no longer suffer from “the ill tiredness, the unenergetic doubt.” He has escaped the perils of contemporary life, which kill men like a “weird sickness.”
Finally, the speaker implores the scholar-gipsy to avoid coming into contact with anyone who is afflicted with this “sickness,”. Otherwise, it should catch him. Finally, the speaker implores the scholar-gipsyto avoid coming into contact with anyone who is afflicted with this “sickness,” lest it should catch him.
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