The poet is reminded of it by ebb and flow of the sea at the Dover beach. Matthew Arnold’s “Dover Beach” contains many ideas and symbols which, when one carefully studies, can bring about a better understanding of, and meaning to, the poem. Masters of World Literature Series. The geology of Charles Lyell and others was forcing Europeans and Americans to rethink how life began on the planet. Holy Bible. Modern men, in his eyes, are always trying to prove everything and cannot take fact for fact; they have no faith (Schow 26-27). “Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold is a lyric poem set in the vicinity of a Dover, along the southeast bank of England, where Arnold and his new spouse spent their honeymoon in 1851. 4. There is a calm the speaker refers to as “tranquil.” But as the reader will come to see, many things may seem one way but actually exist as the opposite. Neither excessively musical nor deliberately rugged the expression diction, imagery, rhythm – is marked by a perfect clearness, competence, and precision. The second stanza is much shorter and relates the world in which the two characters are in to the larger picture of history. The comparison that he has been crafting between the drawing away, and coming in of the sea is now made clear as his speaker says there is no longer any return.
The poem successfully expresses the fascination and the need Arnold felt for a positive faith and the reluctance with which he must accept the painful, unavoidable reality. Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled. In this new world that Arnold sees, “salvation […] comes through feeling, not reason” (Bush 40-41). Schow, H. Wayne. 3. “Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold is dramatic monologue lamenting the loss of true Christian faith in England during the mid 1800’s as science captured the minds of the public. 7. for the world, which seems. This “girdle” is appropriate to the classical context of Sophocles, but not to the modern world, where it denotes an article of intimate apparel. Comparative Analysis of the German and American Business Cultures, Biblical Christian Similitude and the effects of Contemporary Victorian Ideals in Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market”, Symbolism and Meaning of “A Poison Tree”. The speaker of the poem is a young man. The login page will open in a new tab. Emma graduated from East Carolina University with a BA in English, minor in Creative Writing, BFA in Fine Art, and BA in Art Histories. Answer: Even the Greek poet Sophocles (classic) sang it.

The idea is expressed in the form of a beautiful metaphor. What will be the effect of the melancholy poetic statement on that listener? Faith used to encompass the whole world, holding the populous tight in its embrace. This “eternal note” draws the persona further from the directly visualized opening scene with its simple but strong language.
His best poetry is reflective, always burdened by thoughts of the predicament of his generation. 5. Answer: The poet recalls the old age of faith and leaves by the ebb and flow of the sea which the modern man does not have.

A careful study of Matthew Arnold’s “Dover Beach” produces a better understanding of the true meaning of the poem, and thus Arnold’s views and predictions about the modern world, through its symbols of the sea and land, idea of love, and its idea of biblical similitude. “Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold is a lyric poem set in the vicinity of a Dover, along the southeast bank of England, where Arnold and his new spouse spent their honeymoon in 1851. 2. Who was Sophocles? Subscribe to our mailing list to get the latest and greatest poetry updates. The beach in question is the one at the bottom of the white cliffs in Dover, England, exalted in the 1940 song "The White Cliffs Of Dover. '” Explicator 57.1 (1998): 26-27. Hope, joy, and happiness are being thrown to the wayside for new clothing and expensive jewellery. About “Dover Beach” First published in 1867, “Dover Beach” is a lyric poem by the English poet Matthew Arnold. The poet has expressed pessimism in this poem. Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand, Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay. Things seem as if they are one thing, but in reality are something quite different. It is receding farther out into the strait.

D.S. Even in the first stanza where he describes the landscape, no colour epithet is used. ‘Dover Beach’ by Matthew Arnold was published in 1867 in the volume entitled New Poems. The lights on the far coast are visibly gleaming, and then they disappear and the “cliffs of England” are standing by themselves “vast” and “glimmering” in the bay. It too brought to his mind the feelings of “human misery” and how these emotions “ebb and flow.” Sophocles, who penned the play Antigone, is one of the best known dramatic writers of Ancient Greece. Shout questions, submit your articles, get study notes and smart learning tips and much more...! He describes, “The Sea of Faith” once covered all of the “round earth’s shore” and held everyone together like a girdle. Lyell’s discoveries of fossils dating back more than one million years were making it increasingly difficult to accept the traditional notion in the book of Genesis that the world is the work of a creator a mere six or seven thousand years ago. Please continue to help us support the fight against dementia. This similitude might also suggest, that the speaker’s love for Christ also adds to his ability to survive the modern existence. Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light. for the world, which seems / To lie before us like a land of dreams, / So various, so beautiful, so new, / Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, / Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain” (lines 29-37). By 1851, when “Dover Beach” was probably written, Charles Darwin, Alfred Russell Wallace, and other scientists had already theorized the essentials of evolution, but it would take Darwin another eight years to publish his findings. Arnold describes the landscape in a way that the reader is easily able to visualize the landscape and its varied colour. Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land. The difference is that the Sea of Faith represents hope and faith, while the new water represents misery. What are the main characteristics of the Victorian Age to Which Matthew Arnold belonged? In a letter written in 1869, Arnold claimed that his poems ‘represent the main movement of the mind of the last quarter of a century’. Answer: No, he is not a worshipper of nature like Wordsworth. Matthew Arnold: A Survey of his Poetry and Prose.

The speaker draws his companion’s attention to the sound that the water makes as it rushes in over the pebbles on the shore. When we analyse the epithets used in the poem, we find that Arnold does not use colour epithets anywhere in this poem. This light represents the diminishing faith of the English people, and those the world round. He speaks now directly to her, and perhaps, to all those true believers in God that are still out there. Answer: The poem was published in 1867. Note: For answers refer to the above notes. The poem concludes with a pessimistic outlook on the state of the planet. It is one of his most characteristic poems too. The world is full of misery.

It is likely that Arnold wrote the poem between 1849 and 1851. Love is an other major poetic theme in Matthew Arnold’s “Dover Beach”. “Arnold’s ‘Dover Beach. The poem has sad music about it sad like the slow, mournful beat of the waves described in it.

842-843. The sound of the waves beating against the shore is also beautifully captured. On the coast of France, they see the lights just twenty miles away, and the ocean is calm and peaceful. Through melancholy diction, the speaker laments this decrease of belief.