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tags: Type/Concept proto
from: "[[Matthew Arnold]]"
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dateCreated: 2023-12-04, 11:52
dateModified: 2023-12-04, 12:02
version: 1.0
publish: true
Sweetness and light is an English idiom that can be used in common speech, either as statement of personal happy consciousness, or as literal report on another person. Depending upon sense-of-humour, some may use the phrase with mild irony. For example: The two had been fighting for a month, but around others it was all sweetness and light. Esteemed humorous writer P. G. Wodehouse employed the phrase often, sometimes with a slight nod to the phrase's dual-edge. Originally, however, "sweetness and light" had a special use in literary and cultural criticism meaning "pleasing and instructive", which in classical theory was considered to be the aim and justification of poetry. | |
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wikipedia:: Sweetness and light |
Today, often used with Irony and sarcasm
Coined by Jonathan Swift.
Popularized by Matthew Arnold in Culture and Anarchy