122 chapter 4
as a reminder that the Edwardian period was fraught with repetitions of lin-
guistic insecurity left over from the late Victorian era. Here, the Arnoldian
ideal is realized by the hundreds of schoolchildren who are unable to explain
the verses, but who have been subtly and metrically disciplined to believe that
they know them naturally.
Following Arnold’s hopes for English poetry, though perhaps unknow-
ingly, legislators and reformers toward the end of the century recoiled from
any study of English poetry that would repel the young student. P. A. Bar-
nett, an invested inspector of training colleges for schoolmasters and a former
En glish professor, was one of many authorities who wrote educational books
and pamphlets around the turn of the century. His Teaching and Organisa-
tion, (first published in 1897 and reprinted four times before 1910) is sub-
titled a “Manual of Practice” for teachers. In it, Barnett discards the “mere
mental g ymnastic” of Latin and Greek and cautions teachers to choose poetic
examples in English that “need not offer irresistible philological temptation”
but rather appeal to the “general interest.” He emphasizes “poetry of the least
degree of difficulty” that is “simplest and most familiar in form.”^40 Barnett
writes,
We expect the study of literature to put our pupils into intimate rela-
tions with high ideals and examples of conduct, to give them a taste
for the most refined and purest intellectual pleasures, and to send
them away with some knowledge of the form and matter of the highest
achievements of thought. . . . [The type of ] literary subject fit for the
young pupil is the epic or heroic poem, a sweeping pageant of wise kings
and brave heroes. (141–42)The study of English poetry could not only promote the national character
but also impart a sense of loyalty, duty, sympathy, and sentiment in the mind
of the English schoolchild. Though this subtle inculcation took place through
the poetic techniques of meter, rhythm, and rhyme, students were encouraged
to avoid anything that would repel them from loving English literature and to
see themselves as part of a long line of military heroes, following the rhythms
of English verse without question.^41 These educational trends paved the way
for the establishment and quick proliferation of the patriotic recitations of
Empire Day, and they also secured the almost overnight success of poet Henry
Newbolt.
Henry Newbolt’s Cultural Metrics
In Newbolt’s autobiography, My World as in My Time (1932), he recalls walk-
ing with his nurse and hearing “a drum and fife at a little distance and saw a
small detachment of troops in scarlet, marching away over a wooden bridge.”^42