In 1857, Matthew Arnold took up the position of Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford, a role that placed one of Victorian England's most versatile literary figures at the centre of academic life.

Arnold was born on 24 December 1822 in Laleham, a citizen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. He was the son of Thomas Arnold and the brother of Tom Arnold and William Delafield Arnold. He received his education at Rugby School and went on to Balliol College, where he won the Newdigate Prize. He later held a fellowship at Oriel College, Oxford. His working life spanned several overlapping occupations: he worked as a poet, writer, essayist, literary critic, philologist, and university teacher. Among the works he produced were the poem "The Scholar-Gypsy," the poem "Dover Beach," and the prose work "Culture and Anarchy." For much of his career he also served as a school inspector, a practical administrative role that ran alongside his literary and academic pursuits.

His professorship at Oxford gave institutional weight to his critical writing, while his service as a school inspector kept him engaged with educational practice on a day-to-day basis. Writing in English throughout his career, Arnold moved across poetic and critical forms, producing verse as well as sustained prose argument in works such as "Culture and Anarchy." His essays and criticism earned him recognition beyond Britain, and he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Arnold died on 15 April 1888 in Liverpool. His fellowship in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences stands as a concrete marker of the transatlantic attention his writing attracted during his lifetime, reflecting the reach of his work as a poet, essayist, and literary critic beyond the institutions where he had studied and taught.