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On the Origins, Nature and Influence of the Buried Life of Matthew Arnold: The Buried Life in Literature, 1750-1950 Anthony Hunt BA, Dip.Ed., MA This thesis is presented for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Western Australia, School of Social and Cultural Studies, 2010. There is one mind common to all individual men. Every man is an inlet to the same and to all of the same. He that is once admitted to the right of reason is made a freeman of the whole estate. What Plato has thought he may think; what a saint has felt he may feel; what at any time has befallen any man, he can understand. Who hath access to this universal mind is a party to all that is or can be done, for this is the only and sovereign agent. [Emerson, 1889, p.1] ___________________________________________________________ Abstract In this thesis an attempt is made to link together, or find common ground between, a few seemingly disparate things. Firstly, an attempt is made to link some of the critical interests or obsessions of the twentieth-century English poet and critic, Ted Hughes, to those of the twentieth- century American memoirist and critic, Paul Fussell. In particular, an attempt is made to find a link between Hughes’ work on writers such as William Shakespeare, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, T.S. Eliot, Wilfred Owen and Keith Douglas, and Fussell’s work on writers such as T.S. Eliot, Wilfred Owen, Keith Douglas and Robert Byron. Secondly, an attempt is made to link together, or find common ground between, the works of the nineteenth-century English poet and critic, Matthew Arnold, and those of the twentieth-century American poet and critic, T.S. Eliot. In particular, an attempt is made to find common ground between Arnold’s poem, “Empedocles on Etna”, and Eliot’s poem, “The Waste Land”, and to link that to the critical interests of Hughes and Fussell. Arnold’s concept of the buried life, which has its basis in nineteenth-century uniformitarianism, such as that of Ralph Waldo Emerson, provides the link or common ground between these seemingly disparate things; and an understanding of this concept allows for a reading or interpretation of “Empedocles on Etna” that is not possible without that understanding. This thesis explores the concept of the buried life, then, with particular reference to its use in the works of Matthew Arnold. It also explores the concept’s origins in the literature of the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth-centuries, and in ancient Greek literature; its use in the literature of the mid-nineteenth-century by writers other than Arnold; and its influence on the literature of the late-nineteenth and the early to mid- twentieth-centuries. In particular, it looks at its influence on T.S. Eliot. As the concept of the buried life did not develop in isolation, and is similar to a number of other concepts from the period 1750-1950, other related concepts from that period, such as Emerson’s concept of the universal mind, Friedrich Nietzsche’s concept of the primal unity and Carl Jung’s concept of the collective unconscious, are discussed in this thesis, insofar as they can help to explain the origins, nature and influence of the buried life. It is argued that the buried life is a concept that, firstly, helps to explain the nature of poetic inspiration, so that it is like the old idea of the poetic Muse. However, it locates the Muse mainly within the poet’s subconscious mind, but also within what is usually buried in certain landscapes or submerged in certain seascapes. Secondly, it is argued that this concept is like a replacement for, supplement to, or alternative version of Christianity, which locates God mainly within the poet’s subconscious mind, but also within what is buried in landscapes or submerged in seascapes; and it equates God with a type of universal consciousness. In this concept, poetry comes from a fusion of the poet’s conscious mind with their subconscious mind; or from a fusion of the poet’s mind with what is buried in certain landscapes or submerged in certain seascapes; or from a fusion of the poet’s surface life with their buried life; or from a fusion of the poet’s individual consciousness with a universal consciousness; or from a fusion of the poet with God. As the concept of the buried life has never received any extended critical consideration, at least in an Arnoldian context, the original contribution of this thesis is in its exploration of the origins of the concept; in its exploration of the nature of the concept; and in its exploration of the influence of the concept. ___________________________________________________________ Table of Contents Chapter One: Introduction page 1 Chapter Two: What is the Buried Life? page 20 Chapter Three: The River of “The Buried Life” page 43 Chapter Four: The Emergence and Development of Arnold’s Poetic Personality page 60 Chapter Five: Arnold, Gray and Wordsworth page 74 Chapter Six: The Surface Life and the Buried Life page 92 Chapter Seven: Arnold, Eliot and the God of the Buried Life page 124 Chapter Eight: Arnold, the Buried Life and Dionysus page 153 Chapter Nine: Arnold, the Buried Life and Empedocles page 172 Chapter Ten: Arnold, Lewis, Byron, Connolly and Stallworthy page 182 Chapter Eleven: “The Strayed Reveller” page 203 Chapter Twelve: “Empedocles on Etna” page 210 ___________________________________________________________ Acknowledgements Many thanks to my supervisor, Kieran Dolin, who was very patient and helpful throughout a long, drawn-out process. Thanks also to Lynne and Lyall Hunt who made many very useful suggestions; and to Meredyth and Kim Crossing. Finally, thanks to Rebecca, Elyssa and Darcy Hunt for their love, support and encouragement. Chapter One ____________________________________________________________ Introduction This thesis explores the concept of the buried life, with particular reference to its use in the works of the mid-nineteenth-century writer, Matthew Arnold. It also explores the concept’s origins in the literature of the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth- centuries, and in ancient Greek literature; its use in the literature of the mid-nineteenth- century by writers other than Arnold; and its influence on the literature of the late- nineteenth and the early to mid-twentieth-centuries. As the concept of the buried life did not develop in isolation, and is similar to a number of other concepts from the same period, other related concepts from the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth-centuries are discussed in this thesis, insofar as they can help to explain the origins, nature and influence of the buried life. It is argued that the buried life is a concept that, firstly, helps to explain the nature of poetic inspiration, so that it is like the old idea of the poetic Muse. However, it locates the Muse mainly within the poet’s subconscious mind, but also within what is usually buried in certain landscapes or submerged in certain seascapes. Secondly, it is argued that this concept is like a version of Christianity which locates God mainly within the poet’s subconscious mind, but also within what is buried in certain landscapes or submerged in certain seascapes; and it equates God with a type of universal consciousness. In this concept, poetry comes from a fusion of the poet’s conscious mind with their subconscious mind; or from a fusion of the poet’s mind with what is buried in certain landscapes or submerged in certain seascapes; or from a fusion of the poet’s surface life with their buried life; or from a fusion of the poet’s individual consciousness with a universal consciousness; or from a fusion of the poet with God. (“Their” is used with “the poet” throughout to be gender-neutral, but also to give a sense of the poet being plural as well as singular.) As the concept of the buried life has never received any extended critical consideration, at least in an Arnoldian context, the original contribution of this thesis is in its exploration of the origins of the concept; in its exploration of the nature of the concept; and in its exploration of the influence of the concept. This thesis thus explores a very large continent of ideas; so that, of necessity, it is like a sketch map of that whole continent, indicating the locations of its most important features, rather than being like a detailed map of one feature in particular. The Topic The concept of the buried life was important in the works of the nineteenth- century poet and critic, Matthew Arnold, yet he mentions it by name only twice in all his writings. Once is in the title of his poem, “The Buried Life”; and a second time is in the text of that poem: 1 But often, in the world’s most crowded streets, But often, in the din of strife, There rises an unspeakable desire For knowledge of our buried life. [“The Buried Life”, lines 45-48] He also refers to the buried life in his poem, “Empedocles on Etna”: To see if we will now at last be true To our only true, deep-buried selves, Being one with which we are one with the whole world. [“Empedocles on Etna”, Act 2, lines 369-371] The concept is not limited to Arnold’s works. Arnold’s friend, the poet Arthur Hugh Clough, refers to the buried life in Ambarvalia: Excitements come, and act and speech Flow freely forth; - but no, Nor they, nor aught beside, can reach The buried world below. [Clough, 1974, pp.30-31] T.S.

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