Dover Beach By Matthew Arnold

MATTHEW ARNOLD

• Matthew's school prizes.• His joined to oxford

university.• Other jobs.

• Some of his works :The culture and the messArticles in criticism

• Arnold's poetry and religion

The sea is calm to-night.The tide is full, the moon lies fair

Upon the straits; on the French coast the light

Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand;

Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!

Only, from the long line of sprayWhere the sea meets the moon-blanched

land,Listen! you hear the grating roar

Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,

At their return, up the high strand,Begin, and cease, and then again begin,With tremulous cadence slow, and bring

The eternal note of sadness in

Sophocles long agoHeard it on the A gaean, and it broughtInto his mind the turbid ebb and flow

Of human misery; weFind also in the sound a thought,

Hearing it by this distant northern sea

The Sea of FaithWas once, too, at the full, and round earth's

shoreLay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.

But now I only hearIts melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,

Retreating, to the breathOf the night-wind, down the vast edges drear

And naked shingles of the world

Ah, love, let us be trueTo one another! 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;

And we are here as on a darkling plainSwept with confused alarms of struggle and

flight,Where ignorant armies clash by night

• These lines are taken from Matthew Arnold’s poem Dover Beach. It was written in the Victorian era. He was a serious and a melancholic man and you can see that in his works.

 

   • This poem represents the

Victorian age in many different ways. First, it’s has a huge sense of skepticism , for example, “The Sea of Faith / Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore / Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled. / But now I only hear / Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, / Retreating, to the breath / Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear / And naked shingles of the world.” ( 21- 28). The first line of the 3rd stanza is a metaphoric of the time when religion could still be experienced without the doubts brought by progress and science. Second, realism has been employed all over the poem.

• Third, the poem is full of sad emotions, for example, “Brought / Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow / Of human misery;”(16-18). Fourth, just like the Romantics, you can tell how he showed his nostalgia and criticism of the present in the poem, he made it very clear how the science and technology made people miserable! They were better off without this advancement, for example, “Sophocles long ago / Heard it on the A gaean, 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”(15-20).

• In this poem we find many figure of speech. First, assonance, for example, "tide - lies "(2) . Second , alliteration, for example, "tonight - tide, Full - fair, gleams - gone, coast - cliff, which - waves, folds - furled"(1-23). Third, metaphor, for example, "the sea of faith"(21) .

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