HELP! What is the main point of this POEM-----> "Dover Beach"?
The sea is calm to-night. 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. Come to the window, sweet is the night-air! 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 strand, Begin, and cease, and then again begin, With tremulous cadence slow, and bring The eternal note of sadness in. Sophocles long ago Heard it on the A gaean, and it brought Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow Of human misery; we Find also in the sound a thought, Hearing it by this distant northern sea. The Sea of Faith Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled. But now I only hear Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, Retreating, to the breath Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear And naked shingles of the world. Ah, love, let us be true To one another! for the world, which seems To 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 plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night.
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1 :
well, here d poet is addressing his beloved and referring to the nature to denote their togetherness! am also studying and analysing english literature :)
2 :
There's a pretty authoritative analysis at the Victorian Web http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/arnold/touche4.html The vastness of the sea makes him depressed. It reflects how human fortunes rise and fall like the tide. He feels that the certainty of life (through religious faith) has gone, like the tide receding. Feeling isolated and lost in such a stark world, he wants to cling to his wife/lover. (My personal view is that she ought to smack him in the gob - no-one in their right mind wants to be loved just because they're a comfort blanket for someone's existential angst).
Title : HELP! What is the main point of this POEM-----> "Dover Beach"
Description : HELP! What is the main point of this POEM-----> "Dover Beach"? The sea is calm to-night. The tide is full, the moon lies fair U...