Dover beach line by line explanation. Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold: Summary and Analysis 2019-01-13
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Poem Analysis: Matthew Arnold's Dover Beach
The dominating and loud roar of religious faith was now retreating. It's as if the speaker is looking into the future, with regard for the past, declaring love for a special companion or love for all humanity? In the poem, it refers to the Straits of Dover, i. The dreamy modern world which seems so beautiful with its varieties, is not really a source of joy, love, light, certainty, peace or help for pain for the speaker. It also creates a connection between the great poetic mind of Sophocles and our speaker. A contrast is formed to the scenery of the previous stanza. This imagery will appear again and again in the poem.
The effect is to give the poem a faster pace: the information hits us in rapid succession, forming a clear picture in our minds little by little. The Dover Beach is undoubtedly an immensely enjoyable elegy, despite its mournful undertones. When everything is going perfectly, something unfortunate may happen at any given time, with no forewarning. Feedback Dover Beach Summary by Matthew Arnold - Beaming Notes Jan 17, 2018 - Here we are looking at a detailed stanza-wise summary of Matthew Arnold's Dover Beach. Staying true to each other can bring meaning to an otherwise confused and confusing world.
Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold: Summary and Analysis
Around the middle of the nineteenth century, when this poem was written, England was not a roaring colonial power. The waves are drawing the stones backward to the sea and then again throwing fling them back onto high shore strand on their return journey. Thus, the allusion to Socrates, a Greek playwright celebrated for his tragedies, is particularly apt. Clearly the poet is observing that the age of faith which had sustained England had receded, leaving his people on a drear and darkling beach with no certainty and little to hold onto except one another. The images are centered around the ocean, this is to show the analogy that life can be both turbulent as well as placid. He describes the world as a dark plain which is becoming even darker as the time passes.
Matthew Arnold: Poems “Dover Beach” (1867) Summary and Analysis
It is this latter tumult that frightens the speaker, that has him beg his lover to stay true to him. On the French, coast the light blinks on and off, the cliffs glimmer and the whole beach is brightened by the light of moon. Yes, but not for this alone. Arnold illustrates this by using an image of clothes. Ironically, the tumult of nature - out on the ocean - is nothing compared to the tumult of this new way of life. If none of these basic human values exist, it raises the question of what remains at all.
Most sea beaches produce sounds caused by incessant churning of water. Then in lines 6 and 9 there is an invitation - to come and fill your senses - for the reader or for the speaker's companion? He felt that conjugal happiness, and rectitude in married life could work as buffers against the overwhelming odds that world was bringing in. Many claim it to be a honeymoon poem and that is understandable because romantic love, albeit of a Victorian nature, features strongly. The sea is quiet, tides are full, and the light from the French port city Calais is just gone off after shining for long. Our speaker has also found a feeling of sadness hearing similar sound beside the northern sea The is between the English Channel and the North Sea. There is perhaps not very clear connection between the earlier and the latter part.
The passing of faith causes the minds to be isolated in the border between belief and disbelief. He's on the coast of England, looking out at the English Channel, which separates England from France. Sophocles long ago Heard it on the Ægean, and it brought Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow Of human misery; we Find also in the sound a thought, Hearing it by this distant northern sea. Ah, love, let us be true To one another! Let's keep an eye out for more shifts in the future. Only, from the long line of spray Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land, Listen! So, the poet wants to aware all the human being from this disaster created by the sufferings, sorrows and melancholy. The poem begins with a straightforward description of nature and the speaker calling his beloved to see the beautiful sea and to hear the sound of the waves. The reality is contrasted to the appearance and illusion we trust life to be.
For the philosopher-writer, the humans have to endure constant hardship, punctuated by short spells of happiness, as they live their lives in the world. In the final stanza, the speaker directly addresses his beloved who sits next to him, asking that they always be true to one another and to the world that is laid out before them. In the second stanza the poet effectively uses a metaphor where the ebb and flow of human misery is compared to the tides of the sea. What's the matter with this scene? Therefore he compares men struggling in the world with armies struggling on a plain at night. There is a sound of confused alarms and struggles, but the soldiers are ignorant as to what they are fighting for and why. Dover is a town you might have heard of its famous white cliffs right at the narrowest point in the channel. They see the lights on the coast of France just twenty miles away, and the sea is quiet and calm.
Great poetry explained: Dover Beach, by Matthew Arnold
Is it to lose the glory of the form, The lustre of the eye? The concept of eroding furthers the theme of the weakening of faith of beings. Like the ocean at high tide, which surrounds the land, faith used to control people's lifes. In the second section, the speaker presumably grounded in the classics as Matthew Arnold was is reminded that the Greek tragic dramatist Sophocles had heard the same sound in the Aegean and it had suggested to him the turbid ebb and flow of human suffering, which had been the dominant subject of his plays. Then he turns the sound of the. In a word, this line is calm, just like the ocean.
Summary and Analysis of the Poem by Matthew Arnold
Through his poem, he illustrates his strong religious beliefs. Dover Beach: Matthew Arnold - Summary and Critical Analysis In Dover Beach Matthew Arnold is describing the slow and solemn rumbling sound made by the sea waves as they swing backward and forward on the pebbly shore. But now, it brings the eternal note of sadness — the monotonous rhythm of the waves makes the speaker depressed. A man without his faith is no better than a beach that lies exposed, naked and vulnerable after the tide has retreated, or as insignificant as pebbles or gravel left on the shore once the sea has withdrawn,. In the next stanza, the speaker laments the lack of faith in the modern society. To accomplish that end, the poem uses a lot of imagery and sensory information. For a person with a scientific bent of mind, the deafening roar can be easily attributed to the gushing waves and the pebbles that accentuated the decibel level.
The first image mixes sight and sound and occupies the entire first section of the poem. There's no activity, just stillness and simplicity. It offers nothing to ease our journey through life. Whatever else may be going wrong with the world, in which the dream and the reality are very different from each other, the poet and his wife still have each other. The beach in the Dover Strait is a quiet retreat for lovers, thinkers and those with a contemplative mind.
