Poetry Analysis PowerPoint
KAVARSHIA L. WEEKS
MRS. JOHNSON
3RD
MAY 1, 2013
DOVER BEACHMATTHEW ARNOLDS
The speaker of the poem is Matthew
Arnold- a British poet and critic who
published Dover Beach in the
collection of “New Poems” in 1867,
though he worked on it before. He
was born December 24, 1822 in
Laleham, England and died at the age
of 65 on April 15, 1888 in Liverpool,
England. He was the son of Thomas
Arnold and a brother to Tom Arnold
and William Delafield Arnold. His
brothers also were engaged in literary
careers . Matthew Arnold focused his
poems and literary work on genres
such as social and religious criticism.
He was considered one of the most
significant writers of the late
Victorian period in England; his
reputation was established as a poet of
elegiac verse. He was married to
Frances Lucy and had 6 children. The
name of his children were Thomas,
Trevenen, Richard, Lucy, Eleanore,
and Basil. He also attended Rugby
School.
BREIF SUMMARY OF THE PLOT
Dover Beach is a poem signifying a beautiful beach and sea , yet,
what is seen, is deeper than what the eye meets; human misery.
Matthew is speaking to a loved one, who is known to be his
wife, Frances Lucy. He explains to her the beauty of nature and
how it gives one hope, faith. Throughout time at the beach he
noticed that when the shore “draw back” and leave coldness
and emptiness, that view caused a reflection of feeling inside of
him. He noticed that people’s faith is within nature and when
nature is destroyed so is ones’ faith. He used comparisons
between the fight of nature and human misery.
THESIS STATEMENT
Throughout Matthew Arnolds’ poem he uses the literary devices
of irony, appeal to the authority and visual sense, illusion , and
mood to create a vision of a lost, hopeless, troubling, and , and
sad soul . However, he objects with opposite mood. He uses the
image of the beach, seashore, light, darkness, ignorant armies,
and the shoreline to create a visual sense. In the last Stanza
Matthew uses the verb “seems” to create an illusion that
shows that it is only a dream of the lyrical “which can never
become reality.” There is no specific pattern though there are
rhyming words throughout the lines of the 4 Stanzas. . The
poem doesn’t fully rhyme- there’s o rhyming scheme..
However, there are words that gives of a rhyming scheme such
as the rhyming of words,; to-night, light; fair, night-air; stand,
land; bay, spray; fling, bring; begin, in . He uses alliteration
with words such as tonight, tide; full, fair; gleams, gone; coast, cliff .
THEME
The overall theme of the poem are challenges to the validity of long standing theological and
moral precepts have shaken the faith of people in God and Religion. He’s basically saying
that the faith that people have once put into nature and themselves have now suddenly
ceased due to the changes of nature….the changes of themselves…and the changes of society.
Nature provides a land of dreams…beauty…texture…quality..and diversity..people are only
to provide the love, certainty, faith, joy, light, and so on for such. But losing faith for nature
caused them to lose faith for themselves and be stuck in darkness….confusion.
Matthew Arnold uses language in a very unusual
way. It’s easy to understand what he’s saying
excluding words such as darkling, cadence, and
ebb. With carefully chose words, Matthew
show cases the uncertainty of the future of
humans. He uses a phrase such as “so various,
so beautiful, so new” to infer a new
industrialized world which destroyed nature
causing it to only become a mere appearance.
Losing faith due to that, he states the reality that
mechanics can’t provide “neither joy, nor love,
nor, nor light”. Only humans can do that.
However, how could they, if nature is being
bombarded by technology which is imprisoning
their faith..
Ex: include:
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.
To enhance the meaning of the poem Arnold
uses uses parallel structure such as: The
tide is full…the moon lies fair…and So
various..So beautiful..So new (which is
also repetition) and Nor love, nor light,
nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for
pain…(being repetition, also) Matthew
uses assonance: The t[ide] is full, the
moon l[ies] fair. Which the waves draw
back, and fling….turbid ebb and flow of
human misery…breathe of the nightwind. Lastly, he uses simile: The world,
which seems to lie before us like a land of
dreams.
Specific Example
He shifted the focus from the first stanza
when Matthew starts from the “sweet is
the night-air” to “eternal note of sadness.”
Making a comparison from the beach
about the world, society, he talks about
calmness, certainty, and light of the
beach..Sea….to the dullness, darkness and
uncertainty of society.
The most obvious poetic device he was an
onomatopoeia. He used the term to
create detail, have his reader to picture
and feel connected to what he was
saying…how he felt at the time of the
uncertainty of life…nature….and peoples’
faith.
Specific Example
Grating roar of pebbles
eternal note of sadness
The poem states faith is being challenged by the people of earth in that time
of society. Matthew Arnold relates nature (the beauty of it) to faith. Nature
creates calmness, happiness, peace, joy but without it…when all cease/is
destroyed..so does calmness, happiness, peace, and joy that society forces of it.
Before time, when the Sea of Faith
(nature) was once appreciated,
cherished, and noticed: love, joy,
light, certitude, peace, and help for
pain was felt. All which are symbols
of a “dove.” However, overtime,
when society became blind to the
beauty of nature and appealed to
technology, all those thing ceased.
Society became miserable, limited,
and dull. Because of the blindness of
nature, the people of society were
confused because nature is in us and
we are of nature.
The attitude the poet have towards the
poem is hope, faith, and love…but
throughout at the same time, is lost of
faith, confusion, darkness, and bitterness.
Meaning that faith and appreciation was once
put in themselves and nature, but
overtime, all was lost and replaced with a
dreary and bare feeling due to humans
placing less importance on nature and
emotions and more on technology.
Examples:
“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 it’s melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear and naked
shingles of the world.”
…you hear the grating roar of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling, ….
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.
But now (I) only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night wind,
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.
CONCLUSION
Throughout Matthew Arnolds’ poem he uses the literary devices of irony, appeal to the authority and visual
sense, illusion , and mood to create a vision of a lost, hopeless, troubling, and , and sad soul . However, he
objects with opposite mood. He uses the image of the beach, seashore, light, darkness, ignorant armies, and the
shoreline to create a visual sense. In the last Stanza Matthew uses the verb “seems” to create an illusion that
shows that it is only a dream of the lyrical “which can never become reality.” There is no specific pattern
though there are rhyming words throughout the lines of the 4 Stanzas. . The poem doesn’t fully rhyme- there’s
o rhyming scheme.. However, there are words that gives of a rhyming scheme such as the rhyming of words,;
to-night, light; fair, night-air; stand, land; bay, spray; fling, bring; begin, in . He uses alliteration with words
such as to-night, tide; full, fair; gleams, gone; coast, cliff .
The mood, theme, figurative language, and poetic devices contribute d to the meaning and readability of
the poem by allowing the reader to fully understand what the poet, Matthew Arnold, was referring to and
why he referred to it. Usually poets would leave out many details but since Matthew Arnold detailed
fluently with imagery, many metaphors, onomatopoeia, alliteration, illusions, and many more poetic
devices, I was able to understand abruptly. I was able to connect and feel the emotions he carried within
his poem. He seemed to have lost his faith in the beginning but he quickly pulled back together his faith.
In life, he seemed to realized that where there is happiness, there is sadness. Where there is light, there is
darkness, where there is love, there is hate and where there is war, there is peace. He realized that no
matter how smoothly things go like the shore of Dover Beach, he knows certainty doesn’t exist.
Something will ruin the moment erhaps.
Work Cited
Matthew Arnold
(1822-1888)
A Study Guide
“Dover Beach”
cummings@cummingsstudyguides.net
Kaitlyn
"Dover Beach" Poem Analysis
Rated: E | Other | Philosophy | #1342661
http://www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1342661-Dover-Beach-Poem-Analysis
Katherine de Vere
Poetry Summary and Analysis: Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold
http://voices.yahoo.com/poetry-summary-analysis-dover-beach-matthew-4841054.html
Summary and Analysis, Forms and Devices, Themes
St. Rosemary Educational Institution. "Matthew Arnold’s Dover Beach: Summary & Analysis."
http://schoolworkhelper.net/matthew-arnold%E2%80%99s-dover-beach-summary-analysis/
St. Rosemary Educational Institution, Last Update: 2013. Web. Retrieved on:Thursday 2nd May 2013