Abstract This paper examines and analyzes the style, form, and thematic vision of Matthew Arnold's poem ?Dover Beach.? as it relates to the struggles between the old order and the modern spirit in nineteenth century life.
From the Paper "The themes of "Dover Beach" are several. Above all, the poem laments the collapse of spirituality, religion, and long-standing traditions in the face of an uncertain and threatening modernity. Change of an unstoppable and uncontrollable form is approaching, and Arnold is longingly looking back at the faith-based world that is disappearing. ?
Tags: arnold, beach, dover, matthew, poetry, Victorian, poem, modern
Abstract This paper compares the way the poems, "Dover Beach", by Matthew Arnold, and "Dover Bitch", by Anthony Hech, treat the subject of love. The paper explains that, while both poems are about love, the type of love each poem is describing is quite different. The paper goes on to discuss the different tones in the poems, which render the poems' descriptions of love very differently. Also discussed is how Hecht makes his poem, "Dover Bitch", a commentary about the confusing desire for love by satirizing Arnold's poem, "Dover Beach".
From the Paper ""Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold and "Dover Bitch" by Anthony Hecht are poems that on the surface are based on the same subject--love. Though both poems are about love, the poems are not alike. The love that Matthew Arnold describes is a serious one, while the love that Hecht describes is, arguably, not love at all, but simply desire. "Dover Bitch" uses the "Dover Beach" as a platform to speak of love in a tone that is crass and hollow feeling?a feeling that has more to do with satisfying a physical desire than with satisfying an emotional desire. Both poets achieve their goals through the use of different tones."
An analysis of how Arnold, in "Dover Beach," illustrates not only his loss of personal faith, but also offers a vicarious vision of spiritual helplessness with which a great number of people during the 1800's could identify.
921 words (approx. 3.7 pages), 0 sources, 2000, $ 32.95
From the Paper "When looking into the poem ?Dover Beach,? by Matthew Arnold, one can choose not to see the great, white cliffs standing eerily silent in the moonlight, the ancient, icy waves approaching and retreating on the pebbled shore, and even the two figures gazing out the window at the boundless beauty of the scene. However, it is difficult to ignore the human theme of being swept about in the undertow of social change."
"Matthew Arnold, in "Dover Beach" (1848?), and Gerard Manley Hopkins, in "God's Grandeur" (1877), are both concerned with the question of the presence of God or religious faith in the world.
2,250 words (approx. 9 pages), 4 sources, 1999, $ 79.95
Abstract "Matthew Arnold, in "Dover Beach" (1848?), and Gerard Manley Hopkins, in "God's Grandeur" (1877), are both concerned with the question of the presence of God or religious faith in the world.
From the Paper "Matthew Arnold, in "Dover Beach" (1848?), and Gerard Manley Hopkins, in "God's Grandeur" (1877), are both concerned with the question of the presence of God or religious faith in the world. Neither poet actually asks a question, however, as Arnold sees the "Sea of Faith" withdrawing from the world, while Hopkins enthusiastically perceives God's presence in everything around him. Both poets, however, see human failure to appreciate God as part of the problem of their own times. But where Arnold sees the only option as withdrawal from a world with neither "certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain", Hopkins regrets the blindness of human beings who have come to dissociate themselves from God, even though He is always there in the world. A comparison of the two poems demonstrates not only the difference in their views of religion but the manner in which these ..."
Abstract This essay provides an analysis of Matthew Arnold's haunting poem "Dover Beach." It examines the way in which the internal structure and rhythm of the poem, literary devices such as anaphora, alliteration, and assonance, and the symbolic images of the land and sea interrelate. The overall result is a profoundly melancholy tone that mirrors Arnold's theme that darker currents of despair flow beneath even the most placid of facades.
From the Paper "Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach" (1851) centers on the image of the moonlit waters of the English Channel, an image that transcends its immediate physical setting to reflect broader themes of human struggle and private grief. In the mind of the poem's speaker, the ebb and flow of the tides come to symbolize much more than simply the pull of Diana's orb on Neptune's waters. The rhythm of the tides reflects the oscillation of the speaker's emotions, which range from peace and tranquility to passion and joy and finally to the overarching sentiments of melancholy and despair. The structure of the poem itself mirrors this ebb and flow of emotional currents, and its symbolic imagery builds throughout to culminate in the theme that for the speaker, all things bright and beautiful in this world merely belie darker currents of destruction, violence, chaos, and sorrow."
Abstract This paper addresses the poem "Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold. In this poem, the writer addresses how the Christian faith allows the believer nothing but sorrow and self- delusion, and that the individual should put their trust in love.
Abstract This paper presents a discussion and an explanative look at the poem Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold. The author of this paper takes us first on a tour of the poem itself and then analyzes it as a whole including some insight as to its meaning and depth.
Abstract In this article, the writer analyses themes, symbols and images in Matthew Arnold's most famous poem, "Dover Beach." The writer discusses Arnold's sense of isolation, sadness and loneliness. The writer also looks at Arnold's pessimism and his belief that a loss of faith caused the hopelessness of his time.
From the Paper "In 'Dover Beach' Matthew Arnold introduces the dominant image in the first line of the poem 'the sea is calm tonight'. The sea is both a symbol and a metaphor referencing the eternal note of sadness as well as the Sea of Faith. The poem in essence reflects the religious philosophy and the loneliness and isolation that Arnold is said by critics including John S. Reist, to have experienced Arnold's belief that the human condition in his own era ... "
Abstract An analysis of Matthew Arnold's poem " Dover Beach". The author discusses the writer's use of symbolism and the effectiveness of the writer's style of alluding to other works.
From the paper:
"Matthew Arnold's ?Dover Beach? (Arnold 397) is a thirty-seven line, five-stanza poem first published in 1867. In ?Dover Beach? the speaker looks out over the cliffs of Dover and laments about the sadness of humanity and humanity's loss of faith. I believe ?Dover Beach? is a poem that uses allusion extensively and heavily draws on other works to fully explain the loss of faith that the speaker sees in the world."
Abstract The paper provides a comparison and contrast of the attitude and tone of the speakers in Matthew Arnold's poem "Dover Beach" and Anthony Hecht's poem "The Dover Bitch." The paper describes the poets' use of elements of poetry.
From the Paper "Hecht's "The Dover Bitch" and Arnold's "Dover Beach" employ a variety of elements of poetry to illustrate the tone of the respective speakers. From alliteration to allusion both poets use elements of poetry to add impact and meaning to their respective speaker's attitude toward their subject."
Tags: poem, allusion, alliteration, mood, love, absolutes, human existence, nature
Abstract A look at the revolutionary changes during the Victorian period. The author examines changes in religion, poetry and views of love and faith. The author discusses the change of love to a form of faith in Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach" and Dante Gabriel Rossetti's "The Blessed Damozel".
From the Paper "In a time when Darwinian ideas and new technological breakthroughs were reinventing the concepts of reality, faith itself was sometimes hard to find in the Victorian Period. Poets of the time rejected the previous era of peace in nature and unquestioning praise of God, and the Victorian poetry gave images and concepts that were more troubling than the idealized ballads of the Romantic Period. As Tennyson wrote, ?Byron is dead,? and so, too, was the romanticized view of life that accompanied the poet. The age was saturated in questions of religion and the whereabouts of God, and many poets used this religious skepticism as a springboard for numerous celebrated poems. The Victorian Period was a time of creating poetry as means of redefining the human soul, and many efforts were made to redefine one's faith as well. To many poets of the Victorian Period, religious faith was all but dead, and love had emerged as the new faith."
Tags: arnold, beach, blessed, damozel, dover, romantic, rosetti
Abstract This paper demonstrates how poems present themes and how each work achieves the theme of power, love, or war by the use of imagination, which is effectively used to illustrate the importance of each theme. The paper uses the examples of three poems to depict its theory: "Siren Song" by Margaret Atwood, ?Dover Beach? by Matthew Arnold and "Three Ravens" by an anonymous author.
From the Paper "The poems ?Siren Song,? ?Dover Beach,? and "Three Ravens" are literary works that depict the theme of power, love, and war (respectively). This paper will discuss in detail how each poem tackles the themes that were presented, and how each work achieves the theme of power, love, or war by the use of imagination, which is effectively used to illustrate the importance of each theme."
Abstract The author states the late Victorian period in England was a unique time in that country's literary history. Both literature and the political culture supported one another by different notions of England's future. Matthew Arnold addressed directly issues of the purpose of English culture and the English nation.
From the Paper "Matthew Arnold was a conservative writer in the sense that he was not egalitarian. He feared an intrusion of "vulgarity" into the culture and of ?Philistine populism.? (Wilson xvii; xvii) But his ideas were more complex than that. Arnold did believe that the essential thrust of English development should not be so much to expand its physical boundaries, but to create a culture of, as he termed it, ?Sweetness and Light.? "
Abstract This paper reviews William Shakespeare's play "King Lear" with an emphasis on the storm which is featured primarily in Act III. It examines how the storm operates on several levels both integral to the plot and purely metaphorical or aesthetic. It looks at how it serves as an icon of the treachery and ruthlessness of Lear's disloyal daughters and how the pounding rain and thunder is clearly representative of his confusion, anger and increasing madness. It evaluates how it could be a sign of divine disapproval for Lear's abdication of a God-assigned position as earthly ruler since without the storm, Lear would never have met Edgar, nor would Kent run into the gentleman whom he sends to Dover to inform Cordelia of the alliance between Albany and Cornwall.
From the Paper "After giving up his land to them, Lear is at the mercy of Goneril and Regan, who, despite their professed love of the king, conspire to take all of his power away. Goneril perpetually finds faults in the king, uttering ridicules like: ?Here do you keep a hundred knights and squires, men so disordered, so debauched and bold, that this our court, infected with their manners, shows like a riotous inn,? (Lr. 1.4.248-51). After this, Lear makes a plethora of particularly damning statements, including: ?Into her womb convey sterility. Dry up in her the organs of increase, and from her derogate body never spring a babe to honor her. "
Abstract Discusses approaches of three prominent critics in their analyses of the drama, its plot, and the characterization used by Shakespeare to develop his themes. Examines John Dover Wilson's link of Hamlet to the Earl of Essex.
From the Paper "Hamlet has been characterized by John Masefield (1964, p. 94) as "one of the most baffling of the great plays, because it is about baffling: that is the theme: Hamlet is baffled because, being wise, he finds the wise..."
