DOVER BEACH
In this paper we are going to analyze the poem “
(cf. http://www.victorianweb.org/vn/victor4.html )
According to
(c.f.http://www.victorianweb.org/books/alienvision/arnold/1.html#religion )
We must know that apart from poetry, he was best known as
the author of several volumes of literary, social and religious criticism. His
religious views were unusual for his time. He had rejected orthodox Christianity as a young man, and become an agnostic; although he had great respect for
men who felt they could commit themselves to a religion, he could not share
their view.
(c.f.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Arnold
)
For this reason that I have just mentioned, he wrote “
2.POEM
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
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!
Only, from the long line of spray
Where 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 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.
The
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.
Ah, love, let us be true
To 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 plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.
(cf.http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/arnold/writings/doverbeach.html
)
3. ANALYSIS OF THE POEM.
"
(cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dover_Beach
)
By reading the title, we cannot know what the
poem will deal with. If you read it, you will probably think that it will deal
with nature but it doesn’t. So, I think that he wrote this title because in the
first stanza, when he locates where is that sea, the “
This poem deals with religion and he is concretely taking about the loss of faith. But it is also about the industrialization and the changes in the cities (the progress) that were ocurring in that period of time (the victorian age).
This poem is structured in 4 stanzas which have different amount of lines.
The first stanza consists of 14 lines, the second of 6, the third of 8 and the
last one of 9 lines. The first stanza can be divided into 2 parts. In the first
part (line 1 to 6), the sea is described in a very positive way. This can be
seen because the poet uses adjectives such as “fair”, “tranquil”, “calm” etc.
But, after line 7, that harmonious atmosphere changes into sadness. In the
second stanza, it is said that Sophocles heard the sadness of the sea (long
ago). And this sadness is compared to human misery. In the third stanza the sea
is called the “Sea of faith” to show that once humanity was more religious. The
first three lines of this stanza create a feeling of hope, whereas the last
lines sound sad and hopeless.
The last stanza can be seen as a conclusion of the preceding ones. In this
last one it is illustrated the contrast between hope and reality. Once some
time ago in victorian population existed the hope, now
he is talking about the loss of faith (now everything is confused, there is no
certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain etc (line 33).
The poem is mainly written in third person, for example: “the sea” (line 1, “the tide” (line 2) or “the world” (line 30). We cab also see an apellative sentence in line 9 “listen!”. The first person only appears one time in line 24 “but now I only hear”, and it could be to emphasize that distrust in God that the author of the poem has (the loss of faith). And, eventually we can see the second person in lines 29, 31 and 35 “us and we” and he is using this person to be sad for that loss of faith and the “lies” that people were living.
Dealing with the temporal structure we find that the first stanza can be
seen as a description of a present status, so he uses the verbs in simple
present tense, for example: “is” (line 1), “lies” (line 2) or “begin” (line
12). Whereas the second stanza is a reference to the past, for that reason we
can see verbs in simple past tense like “heard” (line 16) or “brought” (line
16). And, I must also say that when he refers to qhat he thought before his
loss of faith, he uses the past such as “was” (line 22) but when he talks about
what he thinks now, he uses the present like “hear” (line 24) or “are” (line 35).
We can mainly find juxtaposition in this poem, such as “tha tide is full,
the moon lies fair” (line 2) or “ Come to the window,
sweet is the night-air!” (line 4) or “So various, so
beautiful, so new” (line 32). But there is also a lot of coordination, using
“and”, for example in lines 4, 5 and 21. In all the
poem he uses this connector, the word “and”. Furthermore, we can see “but” in
line 24, that is also a case of coordination.
We can say that there are both short and long sentences but those last ones
are not difficult to understand. That long sentences are always linked by the
connector “and”.
We can find an
anaphora in lines 4 and 5 “Gleams and glimmering”, to underline
the harmonious atmosphere of the first six lines.
Throughout the poem,
the sea is used as an image and a metaphor. At first, it is beautiful to look
at in the moonlight (ll.1-8), then it begins to make hostile sounds
("grating roar" (l. 9); "tremulous cadence" (l.13)) that
evoke a general feeling of sadness. In the third stanza, the sea is turned into
a metaphoric "
And finally, we find a simile in the third stanza, in
line 22 “bright girdle furled” which emphasizes that faith was inseparable to
earth.
We can also find repetitions like the word “sea” in lines
1, 20 and 21, or “land and begin” repeated twice in lines 8, 12 and 31.
LEXIS AND SEMANTICS
There are no archaic words although there are some words
which nowadays they are not written in the way that appears in the poem, suc as
“to-night” (line 1) which now goes together “tonight”.
Dealing with lexical fields we can find words related
with the “sea” such as “cliffs”(line 4), “bay” (line 5), “spray” (line 7),
“shore” (line 22), “edge” (line 27), “strand” (line 11), “land” (line 8 and
31), “coast” (line 3), “tide” (line 2), “waves” (line 10), or adjectives which
expresses positive aspects like “calm” (line 1), “gleam” (line 4), and thse
which expresses negative aspects suchas “nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for
pain” (line 34) “darkling plain” (line 5) or “sadness” (line 14).
Eventually, we can find synonims such as “gleams”(line 4) and “bright” (line 22). Or “shore” (line 22) and
“edges” (line 27) and “pebbles” (line 10) and “shingles” (line 28).
RHYTHM AND RHYME
As for the metrical scheme, there is no apparent rhyme scheme, but
rather a free handling of the basic iambic pattern. In stanza 3 there is a
series of open vowels ("Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar" (l.
25). A generally falling syntactical rhythm can be detected and continues into
stanza 4. In this last stanza one can find seven lines of iambic pentameter
(l.31-37), with the rhyme scheme of abbacddcc.
According to Ruth Pitman, this poem can be seen as
"a series of incomplete sonnets".
The first two sections each consist of 14 lines that suggest but do not
achieve strict sonnet form, and except for a short (three foot) opening line,
the last section emulates the octave of a sonnet, but closes with a single,
climactic line instead of a sestet — as though the final five lines had been
eroded.
(c.f.http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/arnold/touche4.html)
4.PERSONAL INTERPRETATION
From my own point of view, the
main topic of this poem is religion, and concretely the loss of faith in the victorian age. I think the main reason why he wrote this
poem is because he questioned himself whether the religion was true or not. We
must know that he was a christian but as soon as he
grew up, he became agnostic, that means, he lost his trust in God, so, in a
way, we can say that he lost his faith. Dealing with the structure of the poem,
we can say that in the first stanza, from line 1 to 6, the sea is described
with very positive connotations whereas from line 7 to 14, this seaa is turned
into negative ones.
Then, the second stanza makes a
reference to the ancient greek. In this stanza the sea
continues having bad connotations and it is said that, at those times,
Sophocles also heard that sadnees on the A gaean. In the third one, the sea is
called as the “sea of faith” and he makes a comparison between the good aspects
that the sea once had and that now it has turned into bad ones. And finally,
the last one, we could say that it entires all the other stanzas. And here he
could be saying that he has realised that people are alone in the world, he did
not know if he must have faith or not, so the only way to survive is being
supportive with each other. But he could also be talking about the industrialization.
We can see in the last stanza,where we can suppose
that he could be saying that the city was changing due to the industrialization
but there are people who are discontent with this progress.
But, as a whole, I think that
the main theme is the loss of faith.
5.CONCLUSION
In order to sum up, I would
like to say that we have seen why this poem reflects so good
what he felt about religion. We must also say that apart from reflecting quite
well Matthew’s own feelings, it also expresses the epoque of doubt and of
questioning religion (whether it was true or not) in the victorian age. We
should remember that, as I have said before, this age is characterized by the
distrust in God, and the loss of faith (which this poem reflects very good).
We must know too, that he was a
christian but, while he grew up into adulthood, he became agnostic, I think
that’s the reason why he wrote this poem, to express what he thought in that
moment about religion.
So, to conclude, we can say
that although this is one of the most important poems that Matthew Arnold has
wrote, it is also interesting and I have chosen this poem to do my paper
because it helps us to understand better the view that victorians had towards
religion and faith. And Matthew, uses simple
sentences, not difficult to understand, to explain this topic that has a very
important role in victorian age. That is why I have chosen this poem.
6.BIBLIOGRAPHY
http://www.victorianweb.org/vn/victor4.html
Home: <www.victorianweb.org>08-02-07)
http://www.victorianweb.org/books/alienvision/arnold/1.html#religi on
Home: <www.victorianweb.org>08-02-07)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Arnold
Home: <www.wikipedia.org>08-02-07)
http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/arnold/writings/doverbeach.html
Home: <www.victorianweb.org>08-02-07)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dover_Beach
Home: <www.wikipedia.org>08-02-07)
http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/arnold/touche4.html
Home: <www.victorianweb.org>08-02-07)