"Dover Beach" was published in 1867. Many have considered this poem a reaction to Darwinism and a new mode of thinking. After you have analyzed this poem, write a response. Connect to King Lear if you can. Then respond to at least one classmates' post.
In Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach" the speaker's inner conflict is revealed through the constant shifts between moments of inspiration and surrender. The poem begins with a simple. loose sentence and then progresses through semicolons to give equal attention to the sea, coast, and cliffs. The speaker's invitations to "Come to the window" and "Listen!" are emphasized through exclamation points, which also parallel the speaker's growing emotions. The enjambment in the poem, coupled with the commas, drive the momentum of the poem and reveal how "The Sea of Faith" that was once "full" is now "tremulous." It was once a "girdled furled" or belt that held the Earth together, but the speaker, realizing its absence, describes the people as exposed and living in a "naked world." In a similar way, King Lear's growing consciousness of the surrounding world, specifically, Nature's role in the Great Chain of Being, in the play resemble the speaker's consciousness of a world in which religion offers a haven. In the last line, "where ignorant armies clash by night" connects to the family feud in King Lear. Those that look upon the "land of dreams" are blind to an illusion in the same way that King Lear is blind to the consequences of his actions.
ReplyDeleteI really like that you looked at the last line, "Swept with confused alarms of struggle and fight/ Where ignorant armies clash by night.". I feel like these lines pretty much perfectly sum up the multiple conflicts in King Lear. All the characters stumble around blindly unable to see who their true enemies are and fighting the first person who seems slightly suspicious. Lear throws blind rage onto Cordelia and Kent without realizing that Goneril and Regan are the ones he should worry about. Gloucester does the exact same thing to his honest son Edgar. All the while in the background Cornwall and Edmund (the actual well prepared evil ones in the play) can plot with out disruption and France can easily sneak around and spy because of all the confusion and mayhem.
DeleteI like how you connected the quote "where ignorant armies clash by night" to King Lear's family feud. I think this also shows just how much the soldiers that Lear has are useless. All of his family and even his loyal friends see the ignorance of the King and the uselessness of the soldiers that he has.
DeleteYour connections to King Lear were really interesting! I agree with Tessa, the line about "ignorant armies" sums up the conflicts occurring in King Lear. I also liked your connection between those blind to illusion in the poem and Lear's "blindness."
DeleteI really liked how you included the connection with the speaker's inner conflict. I think that this analysis adds a lot to the overall meaning to the poem. I also really like how you included Natures role and brought in connection from King Lear that go along with this poem, I hadn't thought of it that way before.
DeleteI liked your concluding sentences about the "ignorant armies" and "land of dreams." I didn't think about it being parallel to the feud in King Lear. I'm curious as to what "feuding armies" he's talking about. Possibly those who are for and those who are against Darwinism? As you said, the "land of dreams" mirrors King Lear's world because he is living in an illusion. Slowly, he comes to see what he's been blind to his whole life: not everybody is as fortunate as him and the world doesn't revolve around him.
DeleteIn “Dover Beach”, Mathew Arnold conveys his reaction to Darwinism through the diction he employs. Throughout the entirety of the poem, his diction relate to a passing of time. In the first stanza, he says that the light of the coast “Gleams and is gone”, the waves “begin, and cease, and then again begin”, and finally describes an “eternal note of sadness.” All of these phrases imply a constant circle of life. This pattern continues into the second stanza with the “turbid ebb and flow/of human misery.” Arnold is telling the audience that life is a rollercoaster of sadness, happiness, and every emotion in between.
ReplyDeleteHe also utilizes diction that conveys the longevity of life, such as the “melancholy, long, withdrawing roar” and “vast edges” of the sea. This not only is describing the longevity of a single life, but also that the world moves on despite the loss of a single life. Lear realizes this in his apostrophe to nature in Act III, Scene II when he says “Here I stand, your slave-/ A poor, infirm, weak, and despised old man. / But yet I call you servile ministers”. Although Lear is self-absorbed, as he experiences the power of the storm, he realizes he is a mere small, insignificant part of a whole.
With this constant and long circle of life that Arnold describes, comes the final stanza that describes life as a whole. Life, no matter how seemingly cruel or unfair, is “a land of dreams… beautiful… new… neither joy… love… light… certitude… peace… nor help for pain”. Arnold’s last line of "Dover Beach" can also be related to King Lear. He states that the plain is “swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,/ Where ignorant armies clash by night.” What Arnold means by this is that as humans, we fight in wars and sacrifice lives for what we believe are noble causes, when in reality the outcome is insignificant in the long span of the world.
To add to your connection between King Lear's apostrophe to nature and "Dover Beach," I think its also important to note that both the speaker and King Lear appeal to nature as powerful force that binds individuals not only to each other but to their societal roles. I don't think the diction describes the longevity of life as much as it does the speaker's shifting point of view of "The Sea of Faith." Initially praised by its beauty, the speaker acknowledges the ugly side of the sea he failed to see before, when he was disillusioned by the "land of dreams."
DeleteThe speaker of Matthew Arnold's poem "Dover Beach" shows his feelings that religion and faith are raiding from the world with his diction and metaphors in the poem. At the start of the poem Arnold uses positive diction and imagery when describing the coast of England. By saying the sea is "calm", "tranquil", and "Glimmering and vast" he creates a peaceful tone. After the shift in line 7 staring with the world "Only" this peaceful tone is destroyed with imagery like "the grating roar" of pebbles being pelted violently onto the shore. As the poem carries on Arnold's diction continues to become more and more negative. He uses the clashing waves of the ocean as a metaphor for the loss of faith and all human misery. In line 24 the speaker says faith/religion which was a shinning thing to him (a "bright girdle") is now raiding away and all he can hear is the "melancholy" of humanity. In the last stanza he shows that faith is now lost to him and he can see that the "land of dream" is in reality a desolate world with no light so the "ignorant armies" of the world can't even see who they're attacking. If you replace the idea of faith with power, or think of the "faith" as King Lear's faith in the love/duty of his daughter then this is very easy to relate to the play King Lear. While he still has power and belief in his daughters ability to take care of him Lear viewed the world as peaceful and comforting. As he losses his power and sees his daughters for what they really are Lear slowly has the true misery of humanity revealed to him. Lear learns that the life he had been living was fake and that the real world has no peace only people plotting. The only thing that is true in the real world is love (lines 29 and 30); sadly for Lear his two oldest daughters have no real love for him and he banished all the people who actually loved him (Kent and his youngest daughter).
ReplyDeleteMatthew Arnold's "Dover Beach" describes the loss of faith through the controlling image of the ocean. The speaker describes the ocean as a "Sea of Faith" that was once at high tide. This is a metaphor for an old world that had strong ties to religion. Just as the "Sea of Faith" was strong, the old world was in order and was strong also. However, the speaker continues to say that it has a "melancholy, long, withdrawing roar" because the tide is low and it is retreating from the shore. In other words, the world has lost its faith and "Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
ReplyDeleteNor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain." As the world lost its faith, it has lost everything else: compassion, love, joy, etc and has become un-ordered. The sea's fall from power mirrors King Lear's fall. When he was King, everything was "calm" because he was in a position of power and therefore was not subject to the injustices of the world. However, now that he is not King and is forced to live with a daughter of his, everything in his life has become chaotic. Both sides' "ignorant armies clash by night." They are blind to the fact that they are killing their family by petty claims of love.
I did not think about the armies being like the blindness in Lear's situation, but now that I do, it reinforces what I said in my post (the theme of blindness in both). They being ignorant shows the blindness of those believing in science over faith. Also, I did not think about how the fall of the sea mirrors that of Lear's, but now that you mentioned it, it also shows the natural disruption of order. Back before Darwin, the natural order was based on faith, now that this has been disrupted, all things natural are not as they were. This mirrors Lear's disruption of order, and having nature upset due to the imbalance created.
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DeleteI like your interpretation of the "ignorant armies that clash by night" because I think it definitely carries on the theme of blindness that has been present throughout King Lear. It ties to how soldiers are preparing to fight and die for a rather silly family disputes when you look at the situation as a whole. Armies are being put together all because King Lear and his daughters are in a squabble over who loves who most and the amount of Knights a king should be allowed. The level that the fights have elevated to are really ridiculous and it's almost like the armies are just blindly (symbolized by fighting at night when it's dark) following orders and are ignorant to how dumb the real reasons for their fighting are.
DeleteI like how you mentioned that the natural order of the world has been disrupted due to the loss of religion because that mirrors the disruption of the holy cords in King Lear. I also liked your interpretation of the fall of the ocean and faith because it mirrors the fall of King Lear and the disruption caused by it. This also relates to the disruption of natural order.
DeleteDover Beach is discussing the change in which the speaker’s world or society has gone through. It starts out with ocean and waves having “calm” and “tranquil” atmosphere and then quickly shifts them “roaring” and “grating”. The poem is slowly gaining momentum as the poem progresses. The speaker slowly becomes more a more aware of his surroundings and of the idea that the world is not as simple as it once used to be. The speaker eyes are opened, similar to how King Lear’s eyes were opened. Both the speaker and King Lear were blind to the harshness of society and reality and both eventually come to realize this. In the same way that speaker sees the evils of the world he is surrounded by, Lear sees that his kingdom is not as good of a place as he once thought it was. By lowering himself to the level of his people, Lear finally becomes aware of how awful society and culture can be.
ReplyDeleteMatthew Arnold's "Dover Beach" addresses how challenges to long standing beliefs have shaken people's faith, causing a "downfall" of sorts. It reads like an elegy, mourning the dying "light" of faith, symbolized by the light that "gleams and is gone." I thought it kinda connected to King Lear because the power of faith fell from greatness, just like Lear did. With the loss of faith comes a disruption in the "natural order" mirroring that of King Lear.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the similarities in the downfall of the natural order. Also, I saw the mourning tone of the light of civilization but didn't think of it as an elegy. That makes more sense and helps to convey the meaning. This poem, to me, seems to be a criticism of the changing beliefs of the time. Could the downfall be a perceived downfall of civilization due to the challenging of tradition?
DeleteMatthew Arnold's "Dover Beach" shows his thoughts about the world and all of its lost faith. With a wide description of several aspects of the world shows that the speaker is very familiar with it all. He even shows his familiarity with a situation that mirrors it by telling that of Sophocles. Saying that the "Sea of Faith was once, too, at the full" and now the world "hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light" illuminates the thought that the world now has no hope and is filled with some evil darkness. Knowing that this was written right after Darwin shows why Arnold might have thought that humanity lost its faith. Since before Darwin, everything was based off religion, this poem signifies the lost faith after these realizations were made. Now that science seems to overrule religion, the speaker takes it to mean that the world is now in some darkness. This could be connect with King Lear's theme of blindness. Humanity now not having light and have fallen under the darkness that comes without faith, shows they are now simply living a blind life. In this case, believing that that once seemed impossible is one of those blind decisions.
ReplyDeleteI like your take on the loss of faith. The allusion to Sophocles also shows that misery is nothing new. In other words, life has been sad for a really long time because people ignore faith and love. Darwinism is just another wave on the shore, sweeping away the blind stragglers who throw hate at one another. The only thing that gives life meaning to the speaker is holding on to his love. That is his only passion, his only sustenance. You could also connect the blind armies back to the hollow men from HEART OF DARKNESS and "The Hollow Men." Ignorance is man's greatest weakness, so it is a sad day when nature takes away ignorant souls from an empty world. Nothing is left...
DeleteIn the first stanza, the rhyme scheme reminded me of the slow and steady tide on the shore. It was peaceful and tranquil and helped enforce the tone of the poem. The poem is reflective and contemplative, slow and thoughtful. It considers human misery and loss. It reflects on the loss of something and the misery that is brought. This reflects the sentiment of King Lear. He has lost everything: his daughters, his power, and his wealth and is pitiful. He is miserable, as is the speaker in this poem both over loss over something. Another similarity in this is the upsetting of the natural order of the world and the disturbances in nature that such things cause. Winds and misery and dark.
ReplyDeleteKyle, I agree with you that the poem reflects the loss of something and the misery that is brought and it seems as if life was nice and peaceful and he was content before the "loss" came. The poem doesn't have to reflect the loss of religion, although I interpreted it that was. It could be viewed as any kind of loss whether it be an idea, a person or a thing. Lear lost his daughters, his money and his respect as a powerful man, which as you said correlates to the speakers loss of something.
DeleteKyle, I agree that the poem's rhyme in the first stanza reflects the flows of the tide, but I linked it to Lear's mindset of ignorance when he first gives away his land and yet still expects to be treated like a king at Goneril and Albany's castle. But the line "human misery" does make me think of what Lear has lost, which is everything. With this loss, I saw that Lear is forced to face reality and realizes his ignorance from earlier.
DeleteIn "Dover Beach" the poem begins with a calm tone using diction such as "tranquil" and "calm" to describe the ocean. As the poem progresses, it creates a hopeless and sad tone. "The eternal note of sadness" suggests some sort of event has caused a sadness throughout that lasts forever. "The Sea of Faith" suggests that the sadness is religion related, but the sea has a "melancholy" roar now in contrast to its previous "folds of a bright gurdle furled." The faith of people went from very high to very low. "To lie before us like a land of dreams, So various, so beautiful, so new, Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light" suggests that once there was a world full of hope and religion, but now, if relating the poem to the discovery of darwinism, there is no hope of goodness left without everything based on religion. This could represent the calm (relgion) before the storm (darwinism), literally. In King Lear, Lear ran out into the storm and he came to realization that maybe humans are only glorified animals. He has basically thrown off the natural order by suggesting this, and back in Lear's time period it was not acceptable to go off the path of the set order. Humans were always above animals, but now Lear suggests that maybe they're not so different from one another. This would be a slap in the face to what religion says and actually go along with darwinism. The entire poem correlates to Lear's realization.
ReplyDeleteHailey, I completely agree that the poem "correlates to Lear's realization".. I noticed how religion is prevalent within the poem and relates to King Lear, but I didn't even begin to make the connection to Darwinism, at least to the extent that you did. I liked how you discussed the natural order of things, and provided evidence by highlighting humans and animals and applying it to King Lear.
DeleteI can definitely see the argument that it is a reaction to Darwinism because the speaker is saying that the "Sea of Faith" is slowly, sadly retreating which brings to mind the concept that Darwinism is pushing back Christianity and making it "retreat". I thought the last stanza was really beautiful and sad at the same time. The simile comparing the world to a "land of dreams" that didn't have joy, love, light, certitude, peace, or help for pain was haunting and brought to my mind how King Lear has lived in his own lovely world of being in charge, but it never really had the substance to make it a real life. His daughters were willing to turn on him to get his land and cast him out into a storm which has no "joy, light...". It appeared to be a pretty life on the outside like the "land of dreams" but it has made him blind to his own wrongdoings. His dream world made him unable to see how unfair it was of him to live such a lavish lifestyle whole the poor were dying in the cold and now that his world is crashing down, he is realizing the things he should have done differently. In the same way, that Christian fundamentalism is crashing down because of Darwinism, Lear's royal, lavish lifestyle is being taken down by his own daughters and the people he thought he could trust which is making him see all the bad things he'd previously been blind to.
ReplyDeleteYour connection between the "land of dreams" and Lear's mindset makes a lot of sense. He is blind to what is on the inside of people because he has always been concerned with the outside of himself. I also saw the relationship between the crash of the sea and the crashing of Lear's life. I also think its relevant that Lear's life seems to fall apart during the storm, where water is coming down, just as it would if you were to picture a sea crashing.
Delete"Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold starts out with a very simple, straight to the point line that states "The sea is calm tonight." This first line creates a very calm and soothing tone for the poem through the image produced by the calm sea at night. No matter where the poem goes or what thoughts might come from this work, the image of the calm and still ocean will always be in the reader's mind. The first sort of shift in the poem is in lines 7-8 when it says "Only, from the long line of spray / Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land." The "long line of spray" in the poem is referring to the edge of the water where the sea meets the land. The writer is trying to focus the readers attention on that single meeting point rather than the ocean as a whole now. As the poem continues, Arnold turns the entire view of the ocean and its landscape into a metaphor for the gradual loss of faith that has occurred in human history. In the end, the couple that was once looking out upon the calm and steady ocean is now clinging to their love in a world where they are surrounded by darkness and fear. This poem, like King Lear, draws the readers attention to the dark things in this world and how quickly it may turn on you. It can serve as a life lesson or a realization to what is going on when we are not paying attention.
ReplyDeleteI also noticed and thought that it was effective that Arnold begin his poem with an image that we frequently relate positive emotions to and have a serene image of in our minds, allowing this scene to stay with us through the poem as a whole. As I too identified the shift with "long line of spray" I began to wonder if the long line could be a symbol of Lear's historical ties that have surmounted to present conflict due to the image it gave me in my mind, I thought of a type of family tree. In including images of night and causing the whole poem to occur at night, Arnold really achieved a significance of the darkness of humanities no matter how hard we try to avoid them at times.
DeleteI saw many connections throughout "Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold to King Lear himself. A lot of diction in this poem reminded me a lot of him and things he has been through and done. Like many others have pointed out, "ignorant clash by night" related to blindness that Lear has towards his wrongful actions and views. Starting the poem out with "The sea is calm tonight" and then later, in the same stanza, stating the "grating roar" begins a sort of pattern. Diction then starts to go back and forth between "sadness" and "misery" to "bright," "love," and "beautiful." Line 12 also mentions a pattern with the waves, "Begin, and cease, and then again begin." This reminds of the pattern Lear goes through: philosophy, patience, anger, revenge, defiance, and finally madness. Although these two patterns don't exactly match up, they do somewhat relate. The back and forth between negative and positive diction also reminded me of the argument between Lear, Goneril, and Regan, as they both threw at him their terms and conditions for living with each, making it hard for him to choose.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading "Dover Beach", I began to notice several acknowledgements to King Lear, but the connection between nature in a feuding sense stood out to me as it nearly parallel the situation between Lear and his daughters. "Human misery" in stanza two seemed to exemplify the feelings created in elements of nature that we connect so deeply to ourselves, especially in King Lear. I thought of this in a seasonal sense with the atmosphere's that weather is able to create around us and the influence it has. Winter can bring about sadness and gloom while storms fuel anger and disrupt a natural sense of order. Currently in King Lear, a storm is only worsening standing situations and adding to the belief that Lear himself has gone mad, paralleling the poem in the way that a "cadence" of the sea has allowed an eternal sadness to set in. I also noticed that onomatopoeia's were frequently used in "Dover Beach" to create literal feelings of a storm through their sounds. "Grating roar" was significant to me because of its distinct contrast to typical feelings of the sounds an ocean would make related to peace and serenity. Although, King Lear shares this concept in the way that a typically perceived natural order and commrodorige of a family is disrupted and abstract from expectations as well.
ReplyDeleteI like how you related the sea of "Dover Beach" and the storm in King Lear. Both the ocean and storms could be viewed as two different things. The ocean can be viewed as peaceful, as you said, or crashing and thunderous. Storms can be viewed as revitalizing for the earth, or as something sent from hell. The change in atmosphere in both the poem and King Lear from peaceful to violent is an interesting parallel.
DeleteThe "Sea of Faith" that once held the world together has now retreated, leaving the world without hope, love, purpose, and order. This disturbance of natural order is parallel to the broken holy cords in King Lear. Also, the "human misery" mentioned in the poem is similar to the misery Lear faces. The retirement of the sea exposes the naked pebble beds below, just as the loss of faith exposes the world to nothingness. The "land of dreams" is simply an illusion that humans lived in when they clung to faith; however, now that it is gone, they are exposed to the true nothingness of life that is "human misery." This is parallel to King Lear because he is slowly being exposed to how other people, especially the poor, live, and his eyes are being opened to how fortunate he is. The "ignorant armies" are likely symbols of those who are for Darwinism and those who are against it, but it is also similar to the feuding that is going on in King Lear.
ReplyDeleteTaylor, I like what you said about King Lear being exposed to the way of life of other people and their "human misery." The imagery at the end of the first stanza describes the pebbles as being in a continuous cycle of being pulled out by the waves and then being thrown back onto the beach. I think this is what shows the "misery" of the life cycle that humans are in because the sound of these pebbles crashing on the shore is "The eternal note of sadness." The speakers says that "Sophocles long ago/ Heard" this same sound of crashing pebbles, which is why he wrote tragedies. Sophocles must have understood the darkness of the human condition. The mention of the "ignorant armies" is so saddening to me. The whole stanza describes the emptiness of life, yet some still fight for what they believe in, while in reality, their beliefs are false.
DeleteThe structure of the first stanza within "Dover Beach" seems to mimic and parallel the calmness that is described within the beginning lines. Then, in the last line of the first stanza, the "eternal sadness" is introduced and the tone of the poem shifts altogether. Following this shift, the next stanza begins with an allusion to the playwright, Sophocles, whose works were ebbed "with human misery" that seems to be focused on throughout the poem. The "Sea of Faith", that's characterized by its "roar", relates to the storm within King Lear. Just as the sea stands for faith, so could the storm within Act II and III. Additionally, just as the sea roared, the storm did as well. This could be the result of the disruption of the natural order of things, not just within King Lear, but within this poem, as seen through the "ignorant armies" clashing. Within the poem, the "Sea" is said to have once been "round" and "full" but is now "retreating". This parallels to the situation of King Lear. Although he was once at his "full", and at his peak as King, he has now retreated in his social ranks and is now not the man he once was.
ReplyDeleteIn this poem, I saw a tone that reminded me of the flowing of a tide pushing in and out, which ties in the title for me, but then shifts in the next stanza. This reminds me of the instability of the human mind, specifically Lear's. This ties in the motif of madness from the play and uses it to shift the tone of the poem. The line "human misery" connects the poem to King Lear for me because I link it to the misery that Lear has brought upon himself, and now he is being exposed to the suffering of the poor, which he sees through the storm and when he sees Edgar disguised as the mad beggar. This misery is brought on by his own faults and his ignorance, but he is exposed to more and is forced to face reality. In the second stanza, I related it to the storm in the end of Act II and the beginning of Act III, showing the chaos of the elements, both on land and at sea.
ReplyDelete"Dover Beach" by Matthew Arnold shows the speaker's pessimism towards the world around him. I see why this poem can be interpreted as a response to Darwinism because at the time because Darwinism it was widely viewed as opposing religion. The speaker expresses a sense of finality through this poem because of the location. If you ever look at pictures of the cliffs of Dover, you will see that they are hundreds of feet high and look as if the green farmland above comes to an abrupt stop at the steep white cliffs. Looking off from the beaches at Dover, one sees nothing but the great expanse of ocean. This area looks as if it is the end of the world. The optimism of the once religious world no longer exists, so the speaker believes that life comes to an abrupt end, like the Cliffs of Dover, with nothing coming after. Towards the end of the poem, the speaker reflects on his pessimism, seeing horrible things in the world, such as war. Like King Lear, he is distraught by the fact that things are not the way they should be.
ReplyDeleteThere is definitely a lost hope for humanity in the poem. Life goes by the shore, swept away time and time again by the beating waves. The best word I can think of for the tone is just sad. His sad tone describes a sad world where we strive for things that don't matter, because nature sweeps them away in the end. The allusion to Sophocles illuminates the eternalness of sadness in humanity. I also think he implies that the sadness gets worse as time goes on. I saw an image of a sand castle sucked away by a wave. Humanity would keep building bigger castles, but each succumbed to nature. I could see how this is a response to Darwinism. Nature takes over, no matter what us insignificant specimens do with our lives while we are here. The world keeps turning and we keep dying. As for King Lear, the theme of nothingness and blindness seep through the poem. It's obvious the speaker thinks life is pretty pointless now, but at the end when he talks of "ignorant armies," we see the blindness to the sadness. The two lovers understand as they grasp each other to brace the storm in love, but the majority of people fight each other to succeed in the world, whatever that means.
ReplyDeleteMatthew Arnold's "Dover Beach" addresses the changes that have come with the new idea of not only Darwinism but even the theories presented by those such as Sophocles. To further convey the disruption of the natural order and loss of faith Arnold uses a metaphor with the sound of the sea to represent the retreating "Sea of Faith". This connects to King Lear because in the poem as well as the play there is a natural order that has been set in place for many years that has been disrupted causing a loss in hope.
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