Free Essays: There is No Certainty in Dover Beach

Each stanza has different tones, but each stanza repeats the idea that faith must remain strong. In stanza one, on the French Coast the light gleams and is gone is a symbol that the light blinks off and on. This also indicates that one’s faith was originally strong, but now waivers. The poet talks about the grating roar of pebbles indicates conflict between the sea and land, which symbolizes the conflicts ... ... middle of paper ... ...f serenity and beauty, but in the end the sounds of the sea shows the meaning of human misery with the crashing noises and the grating of the pebbles. The poet uses many metaphors in this poem.

The mechanics alone do not explain why illusion and reality differ, but they do help to explain how Arnold sets up the poem to support the theme. The most prominent mechanisms include the rhythm and the meter of the lines and the stanzas of the poem. Line 1 is an iambic trimeter: The sea/is calm/to-night. The gentle pulsating rhythm of the iamb mirrors the ebb and flow of the sea. The actual words of the first line manifest this idea to picture a calm sea gently lapping at the beach.

His tone, though touched with sadness and perhaps even anger at man, unlike Arnold's poem, reveals an abiding sense of hope. Basically, each poet is presenting a very different view of Faith, and consequently of man's ultimate condition. Matthew Arnold begins his poem by describing a calm, beautiful scene. Dover Beach is lying "fair" in the moonlight. It is high tide and he sees the coast of France and "the cliffs of England... / Gleaming and vast, out in the tranquil bay."

A Comparison of the Victorian and Modernist Perceptions as Exemplified by Dover Beach and The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock Matthew Arnold and T.S. Eliot, in their respective poems, share a sense of alienation, not only from other people but from nature and God as well. Arnold is writing in an age when the place of man in the universe is coming into question, for the first time since the advent of Christianity. He can no longer take the same solace in nature and the love of God that his Romantic predecessors did. While Arnold comments on isolation, however, he still addresses himself to a lover in Dover Beach, whereas Prufrock is presented as a man who has completely retreated within himself.

Firstly, a mood of solitude is expressed in this picture, through the tall ship, being isolated in the open seas, crossing storms, secluded from all civilisations. Secondly, a mood of deep yearning, hunger and frustration is depicted in this picture with the flung spray and the blown spume, being very important features in this picture. This picture also shows the longing shared between the speaker and the ocean. Thirdly, in this picture, the mood of freedom and independence is reflected through the freedom of a whale and a sea gull. The colours I chose for this picture are very peaceful, with blues and greens and whites, showing the true calmness of the sea.

In "Dover Beach", Matthew Arnold uses detailed adjectives and sensory imagery to describe the setting and portray the beginning mood, which begins with the illusion of natural beauty and ends with tragic human experience. The poem begins two-part stanzas, the first which is promising and hopeful; the second replaces optimism with a reality which is grim. Arnold uses contrast when he appeals to the sense of sight in the first section and to hearing in the second. Arnold starts with the descriptions of the "calm sea", "fair tide" and the "vast" cliffs which create a calming, innocent appearance. This sets the mood of peace and contentment which the speaker feels when he gazes out upon the sea.

An Analysis of Dover Beach Dover Beach intrigued me as soon as I read the title. I have a great love of beaches, so I feel a connection with the speaker as he or she stands on the cliffs of Dover, looking out at the sea and reflecting on life. Arnold successfully captures the mystical beauty of the ocean as it echoes human existence and the struggles of life. The moods of the speaker throughout the poem change dramatically as do the moods of the sea. The irregular, unordered rhyme is representative of these inharmonious moods and struggles.

Matthew Arnold uses diction and imagery to produce the themes of alienation and self discovery in the poems: "Dover Beach" and "The Buried Life." “Dover Beach” talks about a man's attitude toward life. Arnold uses diction to show his feelings and inner most thoughts. In “Dover Beach” he claims “the sea is calm tonight, the tide is full, the moon lies fair upon the straits.” These lines show a sense of clarification until he claims he has lost his faith by saying “and we are here as on a darkling plain swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight.” These lines present the idea of him not knowing why he is on this earth. His negative thoughts affect his being able to be happy for example when he says “Ah, love, let us be true to one another!

She, not understanding what exactly is going on, later realizes that he was getting to the point of having each other and always  being there for one another. The poet uses visual and auditory images to mainly help the romantic, fantasy-like place. “The sea is calm, the tide is full” and “Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,” is an example of images that appeal to the visual sense. While “ Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land” and “With tremulous cadence slow, and bring...” uses an auditory sense. “Come to the window, sweet is the night air,” can apply to both senses.

He states that the sea is “calm” to give the reader a picture of how peaceful and quiet the seaside is at that very moment. He goes ahead to show us that the night is bright and “fair”which means it’s beautiful. The night looks beautiful because of the light that “gleams” and later goes and also because of the moon. The night air is so lovely that the poet doesn’t want to experience it alone and calls the lover to come and join him as he appreciates “the sweet night air”. Arnold describes the night air as “sweet.” He goes ahead to invite the lover to come and smell the fresh air and its sweetness and tranquillity.