Analysis on the poem Dover Beach

This is a poem written by the famous English poet, Matthew Arnold. I shall relay to you that he did this shortly after returning from a visit to the southern region of England. The betoken Dover city, home to the Dover cliffs. This was written I 1851 so at that time poetry was becoming popular and he chose to write this poem for his wife and for it to be a sign of happiness he felt. To me this poem reflects ones own sadness and boredom just like he describes the sea in these two first stanzas I will speak for. The feeling of sadness is disclosed throughout the poem for example he writes the eternal note of sadness in. The poem has a structure of four stanzas with no noticeable rhyming pattern as such. The first stanza is the longest consisting of fourteen lines which might connote it is the most important and it means more than the others or has more feelings to share than the rest. Considering verse I think Matthew is using first, second and third person view in the poem. In line six he wrote, come and in line nine he wrote, listen! You. This beckons that it is written in second person. In line eighteen he wrote we so this means he has shifted into first person very slow and unnoticeably. In this analysis I will only talk about the first half, which is exactly two stanzas. In the first stanza Matthew begins the verse with a very strong line which gives the reader a good basic view about what the poem will be about, what it will be like and finally the mood of the entire piece. The line was The sea is calm tonight. The line is full of personification because it is giving the sea some character saying it can change moods and based on that I can outline the fact that his mood is changing with the sea so its also pathetic fallacy. The second line joins up with this very well because he says the tide is full and the moon lies fair so that means he is giving the moon more power over the tides. In the lines three to five Matthew gives us the sense that the cliffs of Dover are being reflected in the sea water.. In this stanza Matthew reveals there is a clause in the words Light and Gone. This signifies the blinking motion of the light reflected off the cliffs of Dover. This to me is a idea of religious work for the blinking lights could mean he is thinking about the star Jesus was found with. His main point is that the water has been eroding the cliffs of Dover. This is compared to the light which is slowly disappearing from the French coast but will always be there. This is comprised for the sadness he is feeling. In the second stanza he starts his line by talking about the Greek philosopher who made his own theory conveying that Matthew is comparing himself to the ancient ones and even the gods. A quote, which specifies this point, is Sophocles long ago. This is just a part of the stanza but in the rest he uses techniques such as metaphor and simile to act for personal feeling. He incorporates sadness and remorse because he speaks about trying to be one of the gods even in thought alone. He talks about the sea and says hearing it by this distant north sea. This refers to the sound drifting away just like the religion Christianity. The birth of science is in this age and he speaks out against it and embraces the idea of Christ.

To conclude I will express that I believe Matthew Arnold is trying to convince people that there are more and more explanations and everything cannot be defined with science. Finally I will say that I liked this poem.