Dover Beach A Poem By: Matthew Arnold

Dover BeachA Poem By: Matthew ArnoldPowerPoint By:Nicholas Giurleo Poet Biography: Matthew Arnold Date and Place of Birth: December 24, 1822 in Laleham, England Eldest son of Thomas Arnold and Mary (Penrose) Arnold; his father was a historian and the Headmaster of Rugby School located in Rugby, EnglandReceived an education at Winchester College , Rugby School, Balliol College and Oxford University 1828: his family moved from Laleham to Rugby when Thomas Arnold received a job as headmaster at Rugby1831: he was sent back to Laleham to be under the care of his uncle John Buckland at his preparatory school; he returned home and was tutored along with his younger brother Tom

1838-1842:Matthew and his brother produced a magazine twice yearly called the Fox How Magazine; poetry from Mathew was featured frequentlyAlso at this time Matthew received his secondary education at Winchester, Rugby, and Balliol College; he received many awards for poems he wrote such as Alaric at Rome and Cromwell1842: his father unexpectedly died1843:graduated from Oxford with 2nd Class Honors in Greats (a completion of the classics course) The years after his graduation he spent much of his time teaching at Rugby and traveling through Europe (i.e. Wales, Ireland, and France) after he received a fellowship (a funding for additional educational endeavors) by Oriel College Poet Biography: Matthew Arnold (Cont.)

Poet Biography: Matthew Arnold (Cont.)1847: granted the position of secretary by a lord named Lansdowne who personally knew Arnolds father; Lansdowne was a very generous employer to Arnold and gave him many holidays which Arnold spent traveling the European continent1849: anonymously published his first poetry book, The Strayed Reveller and Other Poems1851: with the recommendation of Lansdowne, he was promoted to inspector of the schools of London by the crown (Queen Victoria); he remained in this position for 35 yearsShortly after securing this financially beneficial position he married Fanny Lucy (Flu) Wightman; she was the daughter of a judge; she bore Arnold six children; three died in early childhood

Poet Biography: Matthew Arnold (Cont.)During the later part of his life Arnold began to devote more attention to social and theological subjects; such works included his Last Essays on Church and Religion and the Church of England; Arnold was a devout Christian who concluded in his writings that Christianity would survive because the teachings of Christ addressed issues central to the moral existence of mankind1883: receives a substantial pension from Prime Minister Gladstone After receiving this pension he took two lecture tours through the United States; these lectures were published later as his Discourses in America1888: he died suddenly while walking with his wife to catch a tram (a trolley) in Liverpool to meet his daughter who was arriving by boat from the United States

Inspiration for Writing Dover BeachSome events Arnold lived through (roughly 1822-88):1819Queen Victoria is born1829Catholic Emancipation, ends most restrictions on Catholic civil rights, property ownership, & public service.1834Slavery banned in British colonies.1844Irish potato famine begins.1848Marx and Engels,Communist Manifesto.1851First telegraph cable laid across the English Channel185356Crimean War1858Government of India transferred to the Crown.1859DarwinsOrigin of the Species.1868Disraeli becomes Prime Minister1879Edison invents the electric light bulb1901Death of Queen Victoria at age 82 Following his honeymoon with his wife, Arnold and his wife visited Dover, Kent, England, and he had the inspiration to write this poem after spending time on the coastal beach with his wife through the admiring of the view of the Strait of Dover

SpeakerA male individual on a beach near Dover, England (almost certainly Matthew Arnold)

Audience A female individual on the beach listening to the speaker; the speaker loves this individual (almost certainly Arnolds wife Fanny)

PurposeTo emphasize the message that challenges to the validity of long-standing theological and moral beliefs has harmed societys faith in religion

Poem TypeThis poem is free verse because it has no defined structure (i.e. no consistent rhyme scheme) and the ideas of the poem are broken up into sentences.

Literal MeaningFirst Sentence: (lines 1)The sea is calm to-night.

Second Sentence: (lines 2-5)The tide is full, the moon lies fairUpon the straits; -on the French coast the lightGleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.

Third Sentence: (line 6)Come to the window, sweet is the night-air!

Fourth Sentence: (lines 7-14)Only, from the long line of sprayWhere the sea meets the moon-blanchd land,Listen! you hear the grating roarOf pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,At their return, up the high strand,Begin, and cease, and then again begin,With tremulous cadence slow, and bringThe eternal note of sadness in.1. Tonight the sea is calm.

2. It is full tide, and the water reflects the image of the moon. The enormous cliffs of England, like the French coast glimmer brightly.

3. Come to the window. The night air is sweet.

4. Where the ocean meets the land whitened by the light of the moon you can hear the roar of pebbles which the waves take into sea and throw back to the land. Again and again this happens in almost a rhythmic way. It is quite saddening.

Literal Meaning (cont.)Fifth Sentence: (lines 15-20)Sophocles long agoHeard it on the Aegean, and it broughtInto his mind the turbid ebb and flowOf human misery; weFind also in the sound a thought,Hearing it by this distant northern sea.

Sixth Sentence: (lines 20-22)The Sea of FaithWas once, too, at the full, and round earth's shoreLay like the folds of a bright girdle furld.

5. I hear now the sound of sadness that the ancient Greek dramatist Sophocles once heard on the Aegean Sea. Like Sophocles I too hear a thought from the sea that greatly disturbs me.

6. Religion (Christianity) was once wrapped around the world much like how a girdle surrounds a persons waste.

Literal Meaning (cont.)Seventh Sentence: (lines 23-27)But now I only hearIts melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,Retreating, to the breathOf the night-wind, down the vast edges drearAnd naked shingles of the world.

Eighth Sentence: (lines 27-34)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.7. Now I only hear the sad withdrawing roar of the night wind that blows down the vast and dull gloomy edges of the world

8. But love, let us be honest to each other. The world appears to be a land of beautiful and new dreams, however in reality it is not. There is no love, no peace, no joy, no light, and no compassion. Here we are on a dark beach confused and lost because around us the battle between the ignorant forces of religion and science fights on. Figurative LanguageSimileExample: (lines 20-22)The Sea of FaithWas once, too, at the full, and round earth's shoreLay like the folds of a bright girdle furld.

Sea of Faith (symbolic for religion) girdle = surrounds/encircles

Emphasis on symbolizing religion

MetaphorExample: (line 20)The Sea of Faith

Faith Sea = flood/inundate

Emphasis on symbolizing religion

SymbolExample: (line 1)The Sea = religion (Christianity)

Example: (line 8)Land = science

The poem is an allegory for the battle at the time between religious conformity of the past and scientific and rationalist thought promoted by industrialization and the Victorian Era

HyperboleExample: (line 14)The eternal note of sadness

Calling sadness an eternal note is an extreme exaggeration

Emphasizes the speakers sadness for observing what he believes is a symbolic representation of the battle between science and religion

Allusion Example: (lines 15-18)Sophocles long agoHeard it on the Aegean, and it broughtInto his mind the turbid ebb and flowOf human misery

These lines allude to a passage in the ancient Greek play Antigone, by Sophocles. The eternal note of sadness also is a reference to a line from this play.

Arnold is possibly referencing that Sophocles also experienced a sensation of revelation similar to the one Arnold experienced on the beach of Dover

Metonymy Example: (line 15)Sophocles = tragedy

Sophocles was essentially the inventor of the play type of tragedy because he was one of the first documented humans to ever write a piece in this type

PersonificationExample: (lines 8-9)[the] roar Of pebbles

Pebbles cannot roar; roaring is a human trait

Sensory detail that can also be interpreted as metaphoric for science making increasing noise and becoming more apparent to religious conformists throughout the changing world

Synecdoche, Euphemism, and ApostropheNot present in this poem Sound DevicesAssonanceExample: (line 2)The tide is full, the moon lies fair

Sensory detail that metaphorically represents the security of religion prior to the emergence of new scientific and rational thought

ConsonanceExample: (line 33)Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight

Adds to the sudden change in intensity at the end of the poem which metaphorically represents the panic organized religion was facing by the suddenly emergence of developing scientific thought

DissonanceExamples: (line 34)Ignorant clash(hard g sound) (hard k sound)

Adds to the sudden change in intensity at the end of the poem which metaphorically represents the panic organized religion was facing by the suddenly emergence of new scientific developments

AlliterationExample: (lines 1-2)The sea is calm to-night.The tide is full, the moon lies fair

Sensory detail that adds to the metaphorical representation of the security of religion before the emergence of new rational scientific thought

RepetitionExample: (lines 1-2, 4)The sea is calm to-night.The tide is full, the moon lies fairUpon the straits; -on the French coast the lightGleams and is gone

The use of this repeated verb helps to illustrate the scenery; more sensory detail to add to the metaphorical representation of the security of religion before the emergence of new rational scientific thought

Internal RhymeExample: (line 12)Begin, and cease, and then again begin,

Begin, again, and begin rhyme and are all located in one single line of the poem

Emphasizes metaphorically the back and forth struggle between religion and science

Onomatopoeia Example: (line 9)roar

The word roar sounds like what it actually represents

Personifies the pebbles from line 10

Rhyme SchemeNot present in this poemFin.Thanks for Watching!

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