My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I love Matthew Arnold’s critical writing and his essays on translating Homer are among the best I’ve read on the key needs of translation. But, his poetry isn’t my favorite.

Arnold’s poem “Sohrab and Rustum” reminds me a bit of a young Byron (e.g. The Giaour, The Bride of Abydos, The Corsair and Lara) and definitely invokes Homer, but Arnold lacks Homer and Byron’s finesse and passion. I did like The Strayed Reveller (probably for its Homeric root) and I was taken with “Calais Sands”.