As “Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold begins, the speaker is standing upon the shore near the white cliffs of Dover, England, while viewing the English Channel and the French shore on the other side. The calm night as described in the first stanza is misleading as what seems to be a peaceful and tranquil world actually contains violent action, represented by the waves crashing down on the beach. The speaker believes the collapsing waves represent the human misery. Our world has become full of this human misery and the speaker means to warn us against this discreet aspect of nature. The speaker reminisces about the earlier times before the world was corrupted and uses symbolism and intricate diction to explain the world as it is now. He does this by recalling good times of the past, and by warning us of the loss of faith and coming of misery.
An important aspect of “Dover Beach” is the presence and importance of symbolism. In the beginning of the poem, during the description of the calm sea at night, a light across the channel on the French side “gleams and is gone.” In most cases of poetry, it is common for light to represent kindness and hopefulness. The extinguishing of this light symbolizes these good qualities of the world being extinguished. At this point, though, the mood is still quiet and optimistic. The most obvious symbol, however, is the constant reminder of the presence of the sea.
Emily Dickinson’s “A Certain Slant of Light” Analysis Essay
In her poem, There’s a certain Slant of light, Emily Dickinson uses metaphors and imagery to convey the feeling of solemnity and despair at winter’s twilight. The slanted light that she sees, is a metaphor for her battle with depression. Anyone who is familiar with Dickinson’s background will have a better understanding of what she is trying to say in this poem. Dickinson was known as a recluse ...
The sea seems to represent the entire world. This is shown in both the second and third stanzas when the speaker describes the sea as it was long ago. Since the waves symbolize human misery and characterize the sea, and the sea represents the world, the world is characterized by human misery. The diction in “Dover Beach” gives the poem a noticeably peaceful tone. Words, such as “vast,”full,”tranquil,”calm,” and “glimmering,” reassure this tone.
The tone changes when the diction changes to a rougher, wave-crashing feel. At approximately line seven, the land is described as “moon-blanched,” and the waves are illustrated by their “grating roar” and their hostility as they “fling” up onto the beach. In the second stanza, we hear a sound by the “distant northern sea,” signifying the seclusion and coldness of the world. In the third stanza, we see the “Sea of Faith” once wrapping the earth like a “bright girdle furled.” Here, the speaker proposes that at one point the world embodied faith that secured it like a “girdle furled.” The faith almost gone, however, leaves the world with only a “withdrawing” wind-like whisper of faith’s past presence.
The fourth stanza leaves us with a warning in which we are now, faithless, on a “darkling plain.” This plain contrasts with the time when the “Sea of Faith” wrapped the earth “full, and round.” The last two lines consist of language such as “confused,”ignorant,”clash” and “night,” which leave a dark and unsettling impression on the reader. When a man is on a beautiful beach in Dover, England, he looks over the cliffs at the moon and the ocean and the “night-air” is still and passive. It is ironic that he begins to talk about Sophocles on the Aegean Sea. This, a seemingly random allusion, is important as Sophocles shared the speaker’s tragic view of life. The speaker uses visual and auditory images to help the reader understand his fantasy-like setting. He describes the sea as “calm,” the tide as “full” and “of pebbles which the waves draw back,” these images appealing to the visual sense, while “where the sea meets the moon-blanched land” and “with tremulous cadence slow,” appeal to the auditory sense.
The Term Paper on ONE WORLD, THREE SECTS, ONE FAITH?
Parker CyleR. MancastroppaFebruary 8th 2008History of Judaism, Christianity, & IslamResearch EssayONE WORLD, THREE SECTS, ONE FAITH?One can logically conclude that there are three dominate religions spanning across Earth's oceans and many continents in the 21st century. Each of the three religions preaches tolerance towards one another as well as other religions in the sphere of humanity. ...
“Dover Beach” flows through four irregularly rhymed sections. Arnold’s poem consists of a lack of a distinct structure or rhyme scheme. The first stanza has an ABACDBDCE rhyme scheme and no continuing pattern. The entire structure of the poem begins with true beauty and peace and gradually ends with fake beauty and fake peace. It begins with beautiful scenery and ends with the vision of clashing armies. In other words, our world, at some point, contains both examples of beauty.
This poem ends with a warning of the deception of nature in our world. The first six lines of “Dover Beach” are positive. They describe the moonlit English Channel as calm and beautiful, two very common adjectives used in the poem. However the start of the seventh line reveals the stage where waves with noise and violence “fling” themselves upon the beach, carrying with them the “eternal note of sadness.” This contrast to the stillness of the open sea serves as a foreshadow of the warning of the deceiving nature of the world. The speaker tells us that the world, which may appear to be “sweet,”beautiful,” and “new” actually contains sadness, darkness, violence and hate. The speaker sees a world that has lost its faith, and contains human misery.
The last two lines contain the bleak image of chaos and confusion in the world, the actual warning to the reader. We must not be deceived by the beauty and tranquility of nature, while there is hatred and evil present in our world.
