Matthew Arnold wrote The Scholar-Gipsy in 1853 and published it in Poems. He intertwined two themes - the contrast between the traditional romantic life of gypsies and the monotony of the modern life on one and the homages to the rural environment of pastures around Oxford.
The poem is relatively long. It consists of 250 lines altogether based on the 10-line stanza. It's inspired by the story The Vanity of Dogmatizing written by Joseph Glanvill in the 17th century. The poem is often mentioned with another Arnold's poem Thyrsis, an unofficial sequel to The Scholar Gipsy. Both Arnold's popular pieces were used in Ralph Vaughan Williams' coral titled An Oxford Elegy.
We managed to find a beautiful set of illustrations signed by Frank Adams and obviously made for The Scholar-Gipsy. Unfortunately, we didn't know anything about the book (probably more like a booklet) where the poem and the pictures were used, so we presented the graphic material in random order. We are pretty sure you'll still enjoy them.
The poem is told by a narrator who tells a story about an impoverished Oxford student who left his studies to join gypsies. The introduction part is essentially an extract from Joseph Glenvill's text.
The poem pretty much follows Glenvill's text with typical scenes like the one where two former fellow students meet the major character who tells them how life with the gypsies enriched him. He praised their traditional way of learning, their free spirits, and their incredible imagination.
He told the ex-colleagues that he wanted to learn everything possible from the gypsies so he could pass their secret knowledge to the rest of the world. He lived so long with gypsies and was so well-accepted, that he believed he would discover everything worth learning from them.
There are several theories about the background of the original story, including one by Marjorie Hope Nicholson who believed that the student was modeled on the Flemish alchemist Francis Mercury van Helmont from the 17th century.
This poem was republished several times after 1853, sometimes alone, sometimes accompanied by Thyrsis, and sometimes as a part of different anthologies, where it was almost always the longest piece in the collection.
The Scholar-Gipsy by Matthew Arnold is today considered a fine example of Victorian poetry, charming due to its melancholic and relaxed feel reminding us about different times and different places, including different ways of living. It's a praise to free minds, the way of living where everything is possible.
Something similar, yet way more simplified, we can find in children's literature in a well-known fairy tale by Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm Town Musicians of Bremen. Here are some characteristics shared by both stories:
rejecting the generally accepted way of life,
making friends on the go,
living on the road,
not being afraid of cutting connections with the established patterns in society,
rejecting the past to stay focused on the present and being optimistic about the future.