What is the theme of "Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold?
One of the interesting ways to unpack the theme of Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach" (1851) is to pay close attention to its last stanza, which is reminiscent of another longer, iconic poem. That would be John Milton's epic Paradise Lost (1667). Paradise Lost describes the fall of Satan and his vengeful temptation of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Paradise. After Satan attempts to revolt against God, he and other rebel angels are cast away into a dreary, bleak space while God creates Paradise for man. Here is an extract of Satan's jealous speech at being cast off and alienated (emphasis mine):
while I to Hell am thrust,
Where neither joy nor love, but fierce desire,
Among our other torments not the least,
Still unfulfilled, with pain of longing pines. (emphasis added)
Compare the extract with the following lines from "Dover Beach":
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,
And we are here as on a darkling plain.
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night. (emphasis added)
Not only does Arnold exactly reproduce Satan's phrase, "neither joy nor love," he also uses the word "darkling," which was first popularized by Milton in Paradise Lost. Furthermore, the space Satan and the rebel angels fell into is described as a "dreary plain" in Paradise Lost, much like Arnold's "darkling plain." The "confused alarms of struggle and flight" and "ignorant armies" clashing by night are both an allusion to the pointless wars human beings periodically start and to Satan's bedraggled, misguided forces of chaos. The chief difference here is that in "Dover Beach," the modern world itself is turned into a hellscape, reminding one of Satan's famous lines from Paradise Lost:
The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.
Like Satan was cast away from God, the modern world has been alienated from faith. Arnold's restlessness is contextual: the poem was written in the latter half of the Victorian era. Science, rationalism, and industrialization had edged out religion as the most dominant force in popular imagination. Never before in history had people been so untethered from faith and community, as we can see in these lines:
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.
Note the contrast of wholesome words like "full," "round," and "bright" used to build the poem's faith-imagery, with the bleak terms describing faith's retreat: "melancholy," "drear," and "naked." Religion and faith, even when blind, offered a structure to define one's place in the world; in the absence of these values, the poet feels an existentialist crisis. Faith gave human life a purpose, an afterlife, and a parent-like God, and now there's nothing but the vast empty knowledge that we are alone, doomed, and orphaned.
However, there is one critical difference between the world of Paradise Lost and "Dover Beach." While Satan is irredeemable, the speaker of "Dover beach" still has the redemptive power of love, as he tells his beloved:
Ah, love, let us be true
To one another!
It is human love and human compassion that must see them through this new altered world, and in his avowal of love, Arnold paradoxically creates a poem of faith even while lamenting the loss of religion. Therefore, I would argue the poem's themes are not just uncertainty and alienation (as is often inferred) but also faith and redemption. Just like the world can be a hellscape, love can create the paradise within.
This interpretation is particularly befitting, as Arnold intended "Dover Beach" as a honeymoon poem dedicated to his new bride. The push-pull between faith and hopelessness is evident in the poem's imagery, which cycles between romantic and despondent moods. While "the sea is calm tonight, / The tide is full, the moon lies fair / Upon the straits", the tide also retreats to reveal naked shingles. For now, the promise of love offers a glimmer of hope—Arnold seems to be saying—but just about.
What is the theme of "Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold?
To come up with a thematic statement, quite obviously you need to be aware of the theme of this excellent poem. If we look at this poem, we can see that it is about the way in which the author feels the "tides of faith" are going out from England and how that leaves him in a very vulnerable and precarious position. The very grim, unyielding and unrelenting vision of the world that the poem ends with is only partly tempered by the hope that true love between two people can somehow serve to provide us with a form of meaning, however tenuous, in a world that is otherwise characterised by "ignorant armies clashing by night," or conflict and confusion.
Therefore, in terms of moving towards a thematic statement for this incredible poem, you might like to think of the way in which this poem presents us with a rather disturbing image of the world today and our place in it. A thematic statement could therefore be something like: "Dover Beach" is a comment on the decline of religion and faith in today's world and the kind of world we are left with as a result." This would allow you to exlore this central theme in an essay or a project. Hope this helps!
What do the opening lines of "Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold signify?
Enotes is a great resource when you are trying to understand poetry, and I included some links below that give a detailed, line-by-line summary and explanation of the poem. That should really help.
To get you started on this poem, the lines above are the opening lines of Matthew Arnold's famous poem, "Dover Beach." In these lines, Arnold is simply using imagery (using the 5 sense to describe a scene) to paint the picture of the scene that he can see outside of his window while he writes this poem. He describes a sea that is calm and not super loud, and not having huge, crashing waves. The sea is quiet and calm that night. Then, he describes how the tide, or the ocean water, is all the way up on the beach (the tide is "full" means that the ocean water has crept up onto the beach pretty far--that's called the tide). Then, he mentions the moon that is shining upon the beach and the land that leads up to the beach, and the water. All of this helps the reader to imagine a calm, beautiful, tranquil evening where the moon is shining on a serene and full ocean below. This scene of tranquility is a set up, because as Arnold continues his poem, he is going to discuss the tumultuous events of human creation--war, greed, despair and misery. Starting the poem with such a calm scene is a perfect contrast to the chaos and misery that Arnold discusses. Nature is beautiful and perfect, as he describes in this scene, but mankind is chaotic, cruel and unnatural in their brutality towards one another. Using a peaceful nature scene at the begining of the poem makes that contrast more stark later on.
I hope that those thoughts help; good luck!
Describe the scene of Dover in "Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold and its poetic significance.
Matthew Arnold himself describes the scene at Dover, and you can find that description in the very first stanza of the poem itself. It seems that Arnold is probably looking out his window, at night, viewing the moonlight that is falling on the beach near his dwelling. The moon is out, the air smells sweet, and the ocean waves are lapping at the stones on the beach.
As for the poetic meaning behind this scene, he uses poetic techniques to more descriptively convey his message, and ties the scene to the underlying current of melancholic emotion that he is feeling as he ponders the scene. He uses imagery, or the 5 senses, to relay the scene in a descriptive manner; he describes the "grating roar" of the waves on the pebbles, the sound of the waves as a "cadence", the ocean and cliffs as a "gleam" and "glimmering", the land as "moon-blanched." All of these paint a picture that helps the reader to feel they are right there with him. He uses personification (giving inanimate objects human-like traits); the cliffs "stand", the moon "lies", the sea "meets", and the waves "roar". All of this makes the ocean, moon and scene as a whole seem like a living entity, making it more real and imaginable.
Another aspect of the poetic meaning of the scene is how Arnold tinges his description of the scene with his own personal viewpoint, his own melancholy and depressed mood at the time. Here is a beautiful beach scene in front of him, but he sees it only as a token of sadness. He feels that the ocean brings "the eternal note of sadness" in, instead of a calming and soothing note. He feels the scene rings perfectly of the "turbid ebb and flow of human misery." Taking a scene, and infusing it with the emotion and meaning of the moment is a poetic technique that makes an ordinary scene more symbolic and profound. Arnold, disillusioned about his world because of the war and suffering he has seen in it, takes the scene before him and ties it all back to his hopelessness. A poet is able to take ordinary images and experiences and give them a symbolic undertone that adds more depth to them, and that is what Arnold has done here.
I hope that those thoughts help a bit; good luck!
Describe the scene of Dover in "Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold and its poetic significance.
Like most poetry, a multitude of meanings can be pulled from the lines of
Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach." However, one of the most intriguing
perspectives has to do with the meanings that can be connected to the
geographical locale that Arnold uses for his extended metaphor.
In the poem, the narrator looks out from a window of a house on the cliffs of
Dover, toward the European continent. The narrator mentions that "Upon
the straits; on the French coast the light/ Gleams and is gone" (3-4).
Here Arnold references some sort of light, which can easily be taken as a
metaphor for the light of knowledge or truth. In this way the narrator is
referencing the idea that there are no new ideas coming from Europe; the light
has "gone out," leaving
Ideas have run out; there is only sadness at the loss of possibility and lack of ingenuity. The middle two stanzas develop this lament, first referencing the same feelings felt by Sophocles, and then moving to a focus on the connection between the loss of light and the loss of Faith. Words like "melancholy" and "retreating" show up in the third stanza, as it appears that Faith, too, is absent from this newly barren world.
Finally, Matthew Arnold allows for the return of hope in the final stanza, via an impassioned plea for a new light, a new truth, a new faith. Shifting from a lament for the loss of the light once drawn from other places, the narrator issues a call for action:
In a world that has gone dark, Matthew Arnold suggests that light can still be found through a true connection to those we love. We simply need to focus on love, and one another, and work together to continue to light our way through a darkening world.Ah, love, let us be trueTo one another! for the world, which seemsTo 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. (29-37)
Describe the scene of Dover in "Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold and its poetic significance.
Matthew Arnold's poem, "Dover Beach", is a four stanza poem written as a dramatic monologue. The speaker is looking out of a window over the English Channel towards the shores of France. The addressee is a woman with whom the speaker is in love.
The speaker discusses the beauty of the scenery, mentioning the way the white cliffs look in the moonlight and the sweet scent of the sea air. Rather than the tone being joyful though, it is melancholic, mourning the fading of faith and certainty from the modern world. He attributes the notion of the melancholy of the sea receding after high tide to his favorite poet, Sophocles.
The final stanza suggest that the beauty of the scenery covers up the powerful and destructive forces of nature. He suggests that individual love of one another is the only possible response to this awareness of the nature of the world once faith has receded.
How does Matthew Arnold's 'Dover Beach' portray the real world?
The use of the first person plural here is somewhat puzzling. Matthew Arnold does not portray the world in which "we" live, as both of us, your instructor, and all possible readers of this response were born long after the poem was written. None of us live in the world of the mid-nineteenth century.
The setting of "Dover Beach" is realistic, in the sense that rather than being set in an imaginary world, such as the fantastic quasi-medieval setting of Keats' "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" or the hallucinatory environment of Rossetti's "Goblin Market", "Dover Beach" portrays a situation that could have happened to an average middle class person of the period and geographical location.
In the poem, a man is looking out over the English Channel, seeing the lights of the French coast glimmering in the distance. He describes in some detail the appearance of the cliffs and the sea, descriptions that are quite accurate in such details as the color of the cliffs and the sound of the waves. From Dover, on a clear night, it is possible to see lights on the French coast as the strait is only slightly over two miles wide at this point.
The basic dramatic situation of a man talking to a woman he loves before a voyage is also one within the realm of ordinary experience. In the nineteenth century, British journeys to the Continent would normally start at Dover, as opposed to the twenty-first century in which we are just as likely to start journeys from airports.
Finally, the metaphor of a place where "ignorant armies clash by night" reflects not only the confusion of actual warfare but also a recollection of the previous wars between France and England.
What is the theme of Matthew Arnold's poem "Dover Beach"?
In "Dover Beach," a dramatic monologue, the speaker describes a peaceful seascape in the first fourteen lines. The only thing interrupting the serenity is the sound of the pebbles being flung around by the waves:
Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand, (9-11)
This sound marks an "eternal note of sadness" upon the scene. The speaker then suggests that Sophocles considered the grate of the waves on the pebbles as representing human suffering which he (the speaker) contemplates now (as he narrates the poem). The Sea of Faith, perhaps spiritual assurance of his individual and greater social world, has receded and therefore he is seeking some greater meaning of life to replace the loss of faith. (Arnold believed that Christianity was dead and supposed what culturally unifying theology or ideology might replace that.)
Considering the empty void of a world the speaker sees while contemplating these natural metaphors, he turns to his lover thinking they can find meaning and stability of purpose in each other. One of the themes here is the individual's search for a sense of purpose and meaning in life. The speaker is confused by the dichotomy of the world as potentially serene and potentially like a battlefield. Thus, meaning in life might not be found in nature or in culture ("Where ignorant armies clash by night.") Instead, meaning could be found between two people. Love is certainly a theme here but it is the tool used to suggest the larger theme which is a search for meaning when spiritual or philosophical doctrines are no longer applicable.
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