Matthew Arnold’s Dover Beach, an insightful poem, warns its readers about the dangers of the world in an attempt to make them feel better. The poem compares the harsh reality of its readers’ isolation in the world to various images of oceanic scenes. In his first stanza, Arnold emphasizes the importance of distinguishing the difference between illusion and reality through his constant change from a beautiful to disheartening tone. Arnold’s “Sea of Faith” metaphorically attributes the decline of religion as a priority to new scientific discoveries and the constant revolutions in Europe surrounding him at the time. Dover Beach offers salvation from this dismal world without religion through the only sufficient thing left: truth. The truth, though
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The setting of the poem involves the narrator standing on the coast of England, gazing at the sight of the English Channel, which separates England and France. At the beginning of the second stanza, the author describes how Sophocles, the infamous tragedy playwright, hears the same miserable waves, but instead on the Aegean Sea, separating Greece and Turkey: “Sophocles long ago / Heard it on the Aegean, and it brought” (Arnold ln 15-16). Arnold realized that everyone ignored the “tragic-ness” of life told by Sophocles because they instead believed in the salvation of Christianity, so he attempted to validate the truth in the message of his dismal waves with Sophocles’ reputation as an expert in tragedy. Dr. Earl Ingersoll, a distinguished professor at New York State University, described Arnold’s background, “…for the views of his speaker are diametrically opposed to his own education and upbringing” (Ingersoll par. 3). Matthew Arnold experienced a very religiously strict upbringing, however at the time of Dover Beach’s publication, new ideas of Darwin’s Evolution and Lyell’s New Science, the reasons for the recession of Arnold’s “Sea of Faith, drastically altered the way people thought about faith and religion. In the third stanza, Arnold compares the decline of religion with the sea: “The Sea of Faith / Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore / Lay …show more content…
Arnold begins the final stanza, hopeful stating, “Ah, love, let us be true / To one another! for the world, which seems” (Arnold ln 29-30). The author changes to a more personal tone and uses enjambment to inform his readers of how to truthfully act in general and towards one another. Arnold wants us to rely on love and truth in each other to save us from the chaos of the world, “But literature shows that there is real love and connection in the discovery that others are alone just as we are…” (Flesch par. 8). Arnold believes that in order to be able to endure through the misery and anguish of life, his readers must share in the loss and despair of the waves together. Arnold continues to state that the world, “Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, / Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain” (Arnold ln 33-34), further stressing truth as the only thing left for his readers to cling to. Arnold reveals the true reality of life to his readers in order to make them aware of their surroundings and to bring them closer in their suffering. Richard Keenan describes Arnold’s emphasis on the truth as, “… the one final truth, the last fragile human resource. Yet here, as the world is swallowed by darkness, it promises only momentary solace…” (Keenan par. 3). Despite Arnold’s thoughts on the redeeming power of the truth, this description promotes it as
The setting of the poem involves the narrator standing on the coast of England, gazing at the sight of the English Channel, which separates England and France. At the beginning of the second stanza, the author describes how Sophocles, the infamous tragedy playwright, hears the same miserable waves, but instead on the Aegean Sea, separating Greece and Turkey: “Sophocles long ago / Heard it on the Aegean, and it brought” (Arnold ln 15-16). Arnold realized that everyone ignored the “tragic-ness” of life told by Sophocles because they instead believed in the salvation of Christianity, so he attempted to validate the truth in the message of his dismal waves with Sophocles’ reputation as an expert in tragedy. Dr. Earl Ingersoll, a distinguished professor at New York State University, described Arnold’s background, “…for the views of his speaker are diametrically opposed to his own education and upbringing” (Ingersoll par. 3). Matthew Arnold experienced a very religiously strict upbringing, however at the time of Dover Beach’s publication, new ideas of Darwin’s Evolution and Lyell’s New Science, the reasons for the recession of Arnold’s “Sea of Faith, drastically altered the way people thought about faith and religion. In the third stanza, Arnold compares the decline of religion with the sea: “The Sea of Faith / Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore / Lay …show more content…
Arnold begins the final stanza, hopeful stating, “Ah, love, let us be true / To one another! for the world, which seems” (Arnold ln 29-30). The author changes to a more personal tone and uses enjambment to inform his readers of how to truthfully act in general and towards one another. Arnold wants us to rely on love and truth in each other to save us from the chaos of the world, “But literature shows that there is real love and connection in the discovery that others are alone just as we are…” (Flesch par. 8). Arnold believes that in order to be able to endure through the misery and anguish of life, his readers must share in the loss and despair of the waves together. Arnold continues to state that the world, “Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, / Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain” (Arnold ln 33-34), further stressing truth as the only thing left for his readers to cling to. Arnold reveals the true reality of life to his readers in order to make them aware of their surroundings and to bring them closer in their suffering. Richard Keenan describes Arnold’s emphasis on the truth as, “… the one final truth, the last fragile human resource. Yet here, as the world is swallowed by darkness, it promises only momentary solace…” (Keenan par. 3). Despite Arnold’s thoughts on the redeeming power of the truth, this description promotes it as