As a poet, Matthew Arnold had no wish to write in conformity with the fashion of his time. Appealing to the authority of the ancients, he asserted that 19th century poets needed to learn three important things: "the all importance of the choice of a subject, the necessity of accurate construction; the subordinate character of expression".
Dover Beach is entirely free from poetically. It is a short poem, but it embraces a great range and depth of significance. As elsewhere, Matthew Arnold discloses hi melancholy preoccupation with the thought of the inevitable decline of religious faith; he expresses the belief that in a successful love-relationship he may realize values to which "the world" s hostile. But he does not merely ruminate upon these ideas. He conveys t
hem to us more by his direct statement of them.
Moving with a steady and weighty "rallentando" the opening lines record a series of particular items suggestive of the serenity, poisoned stability which Arnold desires for himself.
The sea is calm tonight
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.
The first line presents the image of the sea, which is calm in that night, the poet speaks about. The poet, standing on Dover Beach has in front of his eyes the two countries: France and England. The moon helps him to better see the lights on the French coast which gleam but also the cliffs on the English shore.
There follows a contrasting tender appeal to the poet’s companion:
Come to the window, sweet is the night air!
The noise and movement of the sea are rendered with a wonderful richness and fullness in the lines which conclude the first paragraph:
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 stand,
Begin and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.
On this group of lines, the poet brings into discussion the image of the shore "where the sea meets the moon-blanched land". The epithet "grating roar" admirably defines the sounds made by waves breaking on shingle. A combination of metrical and syntactical means makes the ebbing and flowing of the waves vividly present to us.
In his last paragraph, the poet again appeals to his companion. Since the loss of religious faith makes it impossible to believe that the universe is in some degree adjusted to human needs, that is "peopled" by Gods, he must seek in human love for those values which are undiscovered elsewhere. Moreover, the lovers must support each other if they are to live in the modern world without disaster.
In the last line of the poem does Arnold reveal the full strangeness and horror of his concluding analogy. Emphasized in this way, the image becomes his most memorable poetic comment on the modern world.
Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold written by Herminne Tonita for FamousWhy.com
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by Herminne Tonita -