"Dover Beach" is a poem written by the English poet Matthew Arnold in the 19th century. The poem is set in Dover, a town on the southeastern coast of England, and describes the changing nature of the world and the human experience.
The poem begins with a description of the beach at Dover, which is depicted as a place of beauty and tranquility. The speaker describes how the sea is calm and how the moonlight reflects off the water, creating a peaceful and serene atmosphere.
However, as the poem progresses, the tone shifts and becomes more somber. The speaker begins to reflect on the impermanence of life and the fleeting nature of happiness and joy. He compares the sea to a "melancholy, long, withdrawing roar" and describes how the waves are constantly shifting and changing, just as human emotions and experiences are always in flux.
The speaker also reflects on the role of religion in the modern world, and how it seems to have lost its power and influence. He speaks of the "Sea of Faith" that once "lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled" but has now retreated, leaving the world in a state of uncertainty and despair.
In the final stanzas of the poem, the speaker addresses his lover and urges her to hold on to their love and to find solace in each other in the face of the uncertain and tumultuous world around them. He implores her to "be true to one another" and to "love 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."
Overall, "Dover Beach" is a poignant and thought-provoking poem that explores the complexities of the human experience and the changing nature of the world. It grapples with themes of impermanence, uncertainty, and the search for meaning and understanding in a world that often seems chaotic and unpredictable.
Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold
It shows humanity without love, faith, hope, and peace. What is the best tone of Dover Beach? What is the conclusion of Dover Beach? Suddenly, the speaker calls someone else. Like the beach, full of the sea-flood, life was once full of faith and conviction, rich with impulses and feelings. The sound produced by the waves when they beat against the land is disturbing. The natural setting of the poem, Dover Beach, makes the poet question everything about the existence of humans, a state that was once made certain religious faith.
Dover Beach Poem Summary and Analysis
Which brought civilization based on industry, value and money. On the other way, the beautiful sights are used significantly due to the fear and anxiety which inspires the speaker. Firstly, it represents a calm and serene world. Who is the speaker talking to in Dover Beach? Is Dover Beach an elegy? The first stanza is made of fourteen lines, the second is six, the third is eight and the fourth is made of nine lines. He hypothesized that a shortage of resources along with the overpopulation of poorer class would end up in mass poverty. The editors of this page have opted for the elided spellings on several words "blanch'd," "furl'd" consistent with these texts. In such a world, love is the only consolation that can be found, and therefore, the speaker urges his lover and himself to "be true to one another.
What is the theme of "Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold?
To critics who conclude that ll. It also hints at the idea that when faith is lost, there is no divine delight to protect us. It is evidence of different experimentation done with poetry in the twenty century. ImageCredit: britannica SUMMARY OF DOVER BEACH The poem, Dover Beach, by Matthew Arnold is a poem that laments the loss of the true faith in Christianity in England in the mid-1800s as science captured the minds of the public. 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. Because of the incontrovertible evidence, people were slowly forced to accept that it was the science that explains and describes nature in the best possible way. The timeline of the Dover Beach Summary is of England during the early 19th century.
