Matthew Arnold's poetry was written largely during his early manhood, most of his prose after he was forty years old. His life as a man of letters is consequently divided into two nearly distinct parts. Arnold's prose was devoted to specific criticism and to definite ideas, the results of a carefully considered view of life. His poetry came earlier, before he had reached fixed conclusions, and presents not settled theories and principles but rather his struggle toward belief and his effort to find right principles of living. Consequently, it reflects varying and unsettled moods, and is in part a record of unrest and questioning. Like other poets of the Victorian era, he was facing a new age.Sohrab and Rustum was written and published in 1853. Rustum, who is supposed to have lived some time before Cyrus the Great, is a famous Persian hero, and the story of his encounter with his son is the best known episode in the Shah-Namah, or Book of Kings, the national epic of Persia, written by the poet Firdusi about 1000 A.D. In choosing the story for his poem, Arnold's first care was to separate this particular episode from the other events of the national epic. The interest of the story is thus entirely centered in the emotions of father and son. The story thus condensed and integrated, is a simple though a moving one. It offers a chance for good characterization and dramatic dialogue.

Reproduction of the original: Matthew Arnold ́s Sohrab and Rustum and Other Poems by Matthew Arnold