Category: Matthew Arnold

Since the birth of our world, we have recorded plentiful amounts of changes to it. We have acknowledged this change through events such as the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs and the ice age and even climate change. This, however, is not the only change we see within the world. We have also seen various alterations in society. It is because of these different changes in humanity that people have lost happiness and faith within multiple aspects of life. In the poem, “Dover Beach,” Matthew Arnold ardently questions faith through evocative imagery, multiple lines of anaphora, and ambivalent diction to bring a perspective that the world is changing and people are losing faith.

Throughout the poem “Dover Beach” the author uses multiple forms of imagery to convey the main theme of faith. The author’s use of the many lines of evocative imagery is what shows readers that losing faith is occurring. “The tide is full, the moon lies fair.” (Line 2) Arnold begins the poem by laying out what his surroundings are like. They are peaceful, serene, a stress-relieving environment. The descriptions he uses to show how faith is still there and that there is nothing that would change it. This sea that he is witnessing is pure and has not been changed or lost. This is short-lived, however, and Arnold beings by describing change is near. “Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling… / With tremulous cadence slow, and bring / The eternal note of sadness in.” (Line 10-14) Arnold expresses his sense that change is near and that it will affect faith drastically. The author recognizes this repeating action occurring with the pebbles along with the waves crashing on the shore and relates it to eternal sadness and relates it to the slow-moving away of religious faith.

Arnold continues to write different phrases of this evocative imagery, which still contributes to the main theme of the loss of faith within the poem. “The Sea of Faith / Was once, too, at the full… / But now I only hear / Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar.” (Lines 21-25) The author compares humanity’s faith and joy and love to the sea. However, he can only hear its slow retreat which is why he compares this action along with the pebbles as faith being lost which allows us to imagine waves along a beach and we can hear this action. This action reminds him of a time where the world used to have faith Arnold believes that there are too many events that occur and people just begin to lose faith which shrinks this so-called “Sea of Faith.” This is also where we see the author convey his message that religious faith has lost its density. “And we are here as on a darkling plain / Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight / Where ignorant armies clash by night.” (Lines 35-37) Arnold’s statement allows us to imagine a dark plain or field which then is filled with conflict and clash. This evocative imagery is where Arnold brings his views on what could affect this loss of faith, which used to be enveloped within the world and its people. He interprets that the new changes within science are what is causing people to lose faith within the world and that it will only cause conflict.

Although the imagery provides a different insight into how the world is changing, the multiple lines of anaphora the author uses throughout the poem further develop the recurring theme of the loss of faith. “So various, so beautiful, so new.” (Line 32) Arnold’s repetition of so in these lines allows us to get the full strength of what the world used to be like a feel like. He is saying that the world used to be so beautiful and new but now it has begun to change and that change is not giving the same feeling. Instead, it is conveying the feeling of loss of faith and conflict. “Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light.” (Line 33) This is where the author has begun to change his tone which shows us that he really feels saddened by this loss of faith. He believes that the world looks like it had all these beautiful qualities to it but in reality, it never did. It had no joy or love. He continues to express these feelings by using anaphora when he says, “Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain.” (Line 34) This last line where Arnold goes so far as to say that if we continue to lose faith that the world will no longer have peace or help us recover from the pain of losing our religious faith. The author’s use of anaphora is what really emphasizes the poem and his stance on how humanity’s loss of faith can not be masked and that it would only cause pain if we continued to stay on this course.

Building upon the message of faith being lost as the world changes, the authors ambivalent diction is able to completely tie his perspective together to the readers along with the imagery and anaphora. Arnold began this poem by instilling an atmosphere of calmness and peacefulness which he related to the time before the change occurred within society. The entire first stanza, except for the last line, where he changes his tone. “The eternal note of sadness in.” (Line 14) This change in his tone from peacefulness to sadness is when the author starts showing his theme of faith being lost. This provides the readers with mixed feelings since he began to talk about the world having all of these beautiful qualities, but really all it brings is darkness. This same ambivalent diction that the author began using continues to the second stanza when he says, “Sophocles long ago / Heard it on the Aegean, and it brought / Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow / Of human misery.” (Line 15-18) Arnold goes deeper into that thought of how the world brings sadness and compares it to the same feeling Sophocles had and how he thought of the same misery and sadness that the author is feeling. This is also where we can see the religious aspect start to develop within the poem along with how the other feels.

This same ambivalent diction continues throughout the rest of the poem. When the author began talking about the sea of faith and how it used to be once full but had began retreating. This is where we can clearly see the author expressing his deep and strong feelings of how the world has begun to lose its faith. This was contributed by the author stating “But now I only hear / Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, / Retreating, to the breath / Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear.” (24-27) The author says he hears the sea just sadly retreating and describes how it sounds when he says the “long, withdrawing roar…” that it is creating. Arnold believes that the Sea of Faith is beginning to get smaller and smaller as it disappeares into the dark. The author then says, “Ah, love, let us be true / To one another! for the world, which seems / To lie before us like a land of dreams,” (Lines 29-31) Arnold calls to his loved one who is with him and tells them that they need to be true with one another and be honest and try to keep that faith that is being lost elsewhere within the world. The author again uses his ambivalent diction and is happy within these lines since he is with the one he loves. The author continues using that same diction when he closes the poem and says, “Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, / Where ignorant armies clash by night.” (Lines 36-37) When Arnold uses these lines to end the poem he is describing his feeling of how that when the world does loose faith and begins to start to have conflict with one another that there would be numerous struggles due to that science which is causing people to lose faith. Throughout the entire poem the author’s use of different feelings and his ability of using this ambivalent diction is what truly conveys the theme of faith and how the world is losing it.

c is one the entire world could relate too especially with the theme of loss of faith. With viruses such as the Coronavirus breaking out throughout the world and how poverty and conflict has enveloped many areas of the world we can see how faith in some areas of the world have been lost. We can also see how some places of the world are beginning to lose that faith as well. Arnold’s use of evocative imagery, anaphora along with his use of ambivalent diction is what truly ties this entire poem together and shows us how losing faith can have irreparable damages.

Progress is manifest destiny. Progress is civilizing the uncivilized, elevating the inhabitants of the third world and taming the “savages” that live off the land. Though progress may seem superficially as beneficial to society, it is occasionally viewed as the abandonment of many ideals, inevitably leading to many atrocities. Mathew Arnold, in his poem “Dover Beach,” was highly influenced by the rapid advancement during the Victorian era. The poem was written in 1851, a time when England saw massive industrialization as well as momentous shifts toward rational thought that caused dissonance in people’s beliefs. In “Dover Beach,” Arnold creates a melancholic mood by utilizing diction, figurative language, and symbolism. Using these literary elements, he portrays the speaker as afraid of what the world is becoming, thus dissuading the reader from the “progress” apparent during the time.

Arnold’s use of diction to describe the sea and the naturalistic scene conveys the speaker’s uncertainty about nature, implying apprehension of the treasured beauty. Although the poem begins with seemingly optimistic language in the first few lines, the mood quickly changes as Arnold uses cacophony and imagery. Language such as “moon-blanch’d land” describes the desolate, lifeless shore—the beach is completely bare and without human existence (8). The only hint of humanity is “on the French coast,” (3) where “the light / Gleams and is gone” (3-4). Arnold’s failure to mention any existence of humankind on the beach indicates that the speaker is withdrawn from humanity, already portraying his detachment. After first describing the surroundings as “glimmering” and “tranquil,” (5) Arnold starts to utilize adjectives such as “grating” (9) and “tremulous” (12). Arnold’s shift in diction foreshadows the inevitable calamity and the speaker’s awareness of a grim future. Throughout the rest of the poem, he describes the landscape and nature in a disheartening way. Though Arnold exhibits some of nature’s attractive qualities, he indicates that the beauty hardly conceals nature’s darkness and gloom. For example, when he writes, “for the world, which seems / To lie before us like a land of dreams,” he makes use of the word “seems” to imply that the outward appearance of the world covers a bleak reality (30-31). The speaker first looks to nature for comfort and reassurance, but only hears “The eternal note of sadness,” thereby portraying a pensive sadness in regards to nature and the world (14). The rhyming couplet at the end portrays that the speaker is afraid of what will happen to this world “Where ignorant armies clash by night” (37). The speaker believes that we are in the dark—darkness that we brought upon ourselves; not even nature can guide us away from our ignorance.

Arnold’s description of the sea and his use of similes illustrate the speaker’s apprehension concerning the human condition. The last stanza reinforces the narrator’s pessimistic attitude about society. The speaker describes how love is the only value remaining, though it provides a very tenuous refuge. Arnold utilizes the simile, “the world, which seems / To lie before us like a land of dreams” to show how industrialization and progress seem to create an illusion of a paradise (30-31). The parallel structure “So various, so beautiful, so new” projects the high hopes and promising expectations of this new society (32). However, the reality is otherwise, as shown by the parallel structure “Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light” (33). The two parallel structures create a strong contrast where the narrator calls attention to everything that was promised and then concedes that reality is disappointing. Arnold ends his poem with an extended simile, comparing the situation to a battle occurring on a “darkling plain” (35). Arnold alludes to a horrible occurrence where men are killing their brethren; the speaker expresses his belief that the human condition is failing and that we are becoming blinded to the truth. He fears humans are becoming “ignorant armies,” failing to realize who is a friend and who is a foe (37).

Arnold further shows the narrator’s loss of hope in humanity by using the sea as a symbol. In the third stanza, Arnold uses the “Sea of Faith” to refer to the times when people were pious and felt comforted by God. He juxtaposes how the sea “Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore,” (22) but after the Enlightenment, the sea is now ebbing, exposing the “naked shingles of the world” (28) as people drift toward rational thought and away from religion. The third stanza describes the author’s perception of the effect of industrialization as well as the lack of morality and religious precepts. The sea had nurtured humanity for so long, but now the narrator just hears its sad retreat. As the Sea of Faith becomes smaller, it disappears into the atmosphere and leaves the edges of the world naked. Through the symbol of the sea, Arnold suggests that the major shifts in society occur subtly—the beach’s gradual ebb symbolizes the slow but inevitable loss of faith that the speaker senses in this historical moment. Arnold alludes to Classical Greece to exemplify that the sea has been receding over a long period of time. The speaker imagines Sophocles hearing the same sadness in the sea that he hears now: The “human misery” evokes a feeling of detachment from society in both the speaker and Sophocles (18). The speaker thereby implies that the Sea of Faith was even fuller a long time ago and has been shrinking for millennia.

Throughout his poem “Dover Beach,” Matthew Arnold conveys a fear of failing to find any meaning in the major aspects of life. In the poem, the speaker seeks refuge within nature but quickly realizes that nature has only a few beautiful aspects that fail to cover its gloominess. The speaker then turns to religion and realizes that the ideal of faith is diminishing altogether. Without faith and joy, the narrator, by examining the dire human conditions, feels alienated from the rest of humanity where these core ideals have ceased to exist. The speaker searches for some important meaning in his life, but is fearful that he may come up short. Fahrenheit 451, a book by Ray Bradbury set in a dystopian world, alludes to “Dover Beach” and portrays a similar theme: The book shows the protagonist’s disconnection and separation from nature and society, specifically through the discovery of the unrelenting sadness in the world, the human suffering, the loss of faith, and the realization of the flaws in the world. Both works fundamentally discourage our current notion of “progress” in favor of a simpler world. A world with piety. A world not intent on destroying nature.

During the first session of the seminar How to study culture, I was expecting to do the usual assignments and maybe prepare texts in order to be able to participate actively in the next session, but I was taught better. I quickly realized that the seminar was completely different to my initial prospects and could was much more interesting compared to other seminars which I had already attended during my master program at Giessen University. I still remember quite well the day when Prof. D. Rostek presented the pill scene from one of most amazing movies, namely Matrix. The movie stands for artifacts that we see and create, or actions we do or experience in our everyday life. This specific scene we were seeing can be referred to one of the best and most important scenes in the whole movie. It not about who plays the role, but what matters is the message behind that pill scene. In this scene Neo, the main character, is offered to decide between the blue pill and continuing to live in a synthesized, fictional and computer-generated world or to take the red pill and joining the real world and escape from the matrix. For a while, I was not able to detect the overall coherence between the movie and our topic culture and I was wondering how we will relate the scene back to our seminar topic. Prof. D. Rostek then asked us, which pill we would choose. I chose the red pill, because I wanted to see the real world and experience it. However, there was another story behind the blue pill, which is the ability to know everything and being expert in life and about other cultures, so there would not be any problem in understanding and communicating with various people from different cultures. It was exactly this moment where I started to realize how interesting this seminar will become and how much knowledge I could gain from the seminar. Especially also in terms of reflecting my personal experiences of the German culture as someone who has another cultural background.

Within the reading process of the first chapter of the book, Studying Culture 1999 by Giles and Middleton, I would like to refer the red pill scene and pill’s capabilities to the idea of perfection and the concept of culture which defined by Matthew Arnold.

Culture carries with it the idea of perfection or according to the British poet Matthew Arnold “The pursuit of perfection” (Arnold 1965). Arnold seeks to point out that, culture is a study of perfection, in making things much better than they are. Hence, for Arnold is like a journey to achieve perfection, which is not merely restricted to elite minority, but has to be available to the “raw and unkindled masses of humanity” (ibid).

After analyzing the opening quotation by Tyler1870, I would argue that, culture can be described as the way we live in a particular society. Culture can be the clothes we dress, the food we eat, the language we speak, and the variety of social celebrations. Culture is the gate into our roots, beliefs, identities, values, and imaginations that are based on art, music, and other social artifacts. My purpose within this diary is to focus on two chapters that we have discussed in the seminar. In the first chapter Defining Culture, I would like to take into consideration the following two main questions. First of all, how would cultural critics such as Raymond Williams, Matthew Arnold and James Clifford define the concept of culture, and how may I define culture according to my personal attitude towards culture. In the second chapter, the paper will shed the light on the topic consumption and how culture influences our consumption behaviors. Afterwards, in the third chapter, the paper discusses the workshop on “Studying Climate Change” which was held within the seminar. Finally, the fourth chapter illustrates my personal reflection on the seminar Studying Culture, and on the activities that took place inside the seminar room.

Matthew Arnold said: ‘More and more mankind will discover that we have to turn to poetry to interpret life for us, to console us, to sustain us.’ Discuss in relation to at least two Victorian Poems.!!

Matthew Arnold believed that ‘all art is dedicated to joy’, this concept originated from the Greek’s and is known as catharsis. The idea that Greek poetry could bring composure to the soul. The Victorian Period saw a drastic change in industry compared to the Romantic era. People were losing faith in God and the advancements in technology, science and evolution left society in a state of confusion as they questioned what they once believed to be true. Arnold believed this ‘truth’ could be found in poetry. Despite Victorian poetry being inspired by the romantics it is deeply routed with questions that concern the relationship between self and society. The main themes of Victorian poetry are its focus on sensory elements, the conflict between religion and science and its interest in medieval fables and legends. Poetry reflected political issues of the Victorian period.

The literature of this era was preceded by romanticism and was followed by modernism. Thus it being referred to as a a fusion of romantic and realist style of writing. In Alfred Lord Tennyson’s ‘Lady of Shallot’, Tennyson recognises that we cannot be content with looking at life through a mirror. Similarly Arnold conveys the message that we must look past the idyllic landscape of ‘Dover Beach’ and use it to look within. It is only when we cease to be alluded we can interpret life from a realistic point of view. We can be consoled and we can be sustained. We can see beyond the ‘shadows of the world’ and the ‘land of dreams’, and we can break the real curse which is to fail to see the world for what it really is. !!

In both Arnold’s ‘Dover Beach’ and Tennyson’s ‘lady of Shallot’ we see nostalgia for the past and hope for the future. Poetry can allow the world to become a ‘land of dreams’. To Arnold it is evident that ‘the land of dreams’ exists only in poetry and the past. The great expanse of sea is now only retreating and taking with it joy, love, light, help for pain and peace. This is representative of the ever growing uncertainty within Victorian society. Recognised by Arnold as ‘The confusion of the present time is great, the multitude of different voices counselling different things bewildering’. ‘Dover Beach’ written in 1851 inspired by two visits he and his wife made to the South Coast of England where the cliffs of Dover stand. Only twenty two miles from the South Coast of France looking onto the continent evokes the question of belonging and where Britain belong’s in the continent. The poem experiments with sonnet form, which was on the rise in the Victorian era and was inspired by the romantics. The first stanza consists of fourteen lines classic to that of a sonnet however as the poem progresses the structure becomes more irregular until it leaves us uncertain as to whether it has any structure at all. This is done to break from convention with an irregular rhyme scheme of ABACEBECDJCGFG symbolic of the way society was braking from tradition and conventions. During this period England changed from a rural, agricultural country to an urban, industrialised one. It took many years for both government and people to adjust to the new conditions. The Period saw more social freedom with many women working in factories for their own wage which threatened the hierarchal social structure in the same way the rise of the middle classes did. There was much more social and geographical mobility. Self-made entrepreneurs used their new wealth to rise in society, building large houses, educating their children and employing domestic servants. Poetry reflected this engaging with questions of national identity and gender identity. !!

The poem is open ended, beginning with explicit imagery of the sea and the tide which becomes a metaphor for ‘human misery’. The sea was once Britain’s gateway to it’s Empire with its powerful navy in the nineteenth century however the sea could also be viewed as isolating the Island and alienating Britain and oneself from the rest of the world. It is evident Arnold wants to present a clear message to the reader using first, second and third person. To Arnold poetry can interpret, console and sustain us when daily life cannot. The poem asks ‘What gives life meaning?’ and ‘How can we have hope without faith’. Similarly Tennyson’s ‘Lady of Shallot’ evokes many questions in which we have to look to the past to answer. The unexpected outcome and radical conclusion of the poem can be viewed as inverting tradition. Deliberately Tennyson resonates with the reader by manipulating common folk tales into powerful political messages. Tennyson does this by including intertextual references such as the legend of King Arthur, Rapunzel and Rumpelstiltskin. Many believe the poem to be based on Arthurian legend of Elaine of Astalot, who died of her unrequited love for the famous knight. A feminist reading of the poem however takes into consideration the reversal of gender roles. The Lady of Shallot does not wait for Sir Lancelot to save her. The Lady of Shallot takes control of her own destiny and follows her own desires. She is therefore far more than a ‘damsel in distress’ but us a emblem of the modern day woman. Each stanza has nine lines with a rhyme scheme of AAAABCCCB following a rhythm of iambic tetrameter. The syntax is line- bound, the lines do not carry on from each other. The poem takes ballad form with a lyric quality, capturing a moment. This is done to create the illusion of a ‘fairy tale’ which often end happily as they are fantasy rather than tragedy. !!

Greek tragedy inspired many poets in the Victorian Period as a foundation to address moral and social issues. ‘Tragedy,’ says Aristotle ‘is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of 1 a certain magnitude…through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation of these emotions’. Aristotle’s believed the aim of a tragedy should be to evoke pity and fear in the audience. The audience should therefore be able to recognise their own human fault. Tennyson’s poem does this and allows the audience to look at ones self. Arnold also was clearly inspired by the Greek mythology and included reference to Sophocles one of classical Athens three greatest playwrights. This reference brings with it a certain melancholy, Arnold ponders on the idea that ‘human misery’ has existed and will go on existing until the end of time if we do not look to a art and poetry as a form of salvation. In Arnold’s ‘Dialogue with the Mind Itself’ the quote ‘What those who are familiar 2 only with the great monuments of early Greek genius suppose to be its exclusive characteristics, have disappeared: the calm, the cheerfulness, the disinterested objectivity have disappeared; the dialogue of the mind with itself has commenced; modern problems have presented themselves; we hear already the doubts, we witness the discouragement, of Hamlet and of Faust’ portrays the idea that negative thoughts invade our mind breeding evil and the purity of Greek mythology is dying out. This nostalgia is prominent in ‘Dover Beach’ as Arnold looks critically at his own age as Christianity can no longer wash away the sins of humanity. This was recognised by John P. Farrell 3 as ‘Matthew Arnold’s Tragic Vision’ seeing a local disorder in relation to cosmic scheme.!!

Tennyson’s Lady of Shallot had two publication dates as it received criticism first published in his second book of poetry in 1833, his work received heavy criticism resulting in a silence of ten years. Published at a later date of 1842 it is thought the poem could deeper resonate with the political issues of the time. The poem could be read as a warning to ambitious and rebellious women, in order to ensure they recognised the social hierarchy in place. However the poem could be viewed as proto feminist in which it highlights the inner power women have now they no longer have to rely on men to financially ‘save’ them. The deliberate archaism used to relay modern day issues in a traditional and recognised folktale similar to the work of Keats. Poetry in the Victorian period is no longer just a form of expressionism but rather a platform for the reader to actively make changes in their own life or to view the world around them differently. To Tennyson Art should reflect on our own sense of being !!

In a letter Arnold wrote to his mother in 1869 he put his own poems into perspective ‘It might be fairly urged that I have less poetical sentiment than Tennyson, and less intellectual vigour and abundance than Browning; yet, because I have perhaps more of a fusion of the two than either of them, and have more regularly applied that fusion to the main line of modern development, I am likely enough to have my turn, as they have had theirs.’ This assessment of his own poetry puts into perspective and signifies the Victorian poets inspirations. Robert Browning’s work is remarkable for the dramatic monologue which developed into a main genre in the nineteenth century and is a hybrid of drama and lyric. It enables the poet to control the way in which the persona communicates with the reader.!

The Victorian Period was a time of great change and uncertainty. One had to look to oneself in order to cope with the changes. To Ivan Kreilkamp ‘Victorian poetry particularly invokes the 4 paradoxes of temporality, interpretation, and the construction of pastness and futurity’. It is this paradox which makes Victorian poetry unique to any other it enables the poet and the reader to travel through time. To relive memories and learn from them. Poetry is a ‘mirror’ in which ones self is exposed and ones life can be explained. Thomas Carlyle describes what is to be a poet in ‘The hero as Poet’ writing in 1840. ‘To the Poet, as to every other, we say first of all, See. If you cannot do that, it is of no use to keep stringing rhymes together, jingling sensibilities against each other, and name yourself a Poet; there is no hope for you. If you can, there is, in prose or verse, in action or speculation, all manner of hope.’ Poetry gives vision. To Arnold this vision is pure, allowing us to view the world as a place ‘so various, so beautiful’ and ‘so new’ rather than a ‘darkling plain’. To Tennyson poetry should be reflective and should not be direct intervention of social reform but is instead only a reflection. This contrast between Arnold and Tennyson’s perspectives highlights how poetry provides something individual to each poet despite living in the same period experiencing the same social and political reforms. To conclude, poetry is that which we have through wars, revolutions, riots and rebellions. It is that which we can look upon in order to be consoled and sustained. It is not just one interpretation of life but innumerable interpretations as it is a reflection of so many peoples lives, living in the same or different times to our own. Through poetry we can time travel and look through the poet or persona’s eyes. Through poetry we can ‘see’ what often goes unseen in every day life.

The question I decided to answer for my Approaches to Poetry critical essay was an assessment of Matthew Arnold’s view on Poetry as something which can restore faith in humanity. ’More and more mankind will discover that we have to turn to poetry to interpret life for us, to console us, to sustain us.’ Discuss in relation to at least two Victorian Poems. The two poems I chose to explore were Matthew Arnold’s ‘Dover Beach’ and Alfred Lord Tennyson’s ‘Lady of Shallot’. I chose these two poems because both poets dealt with the issues of the time but did this in two different ways. I felt that these poets were relevant to the question in hand as the question was assessing Arnold’s view it made sense to analyse and explore his poetry. Tennyson was Poet Laureate and Queen Victoria’s favourite poet replacing Wordsworth, recognised as one of the greatest poets of the Romantic era. Tennyson’s work was therefore can be viewed as a bridge between the Romantic movement and the modernist movement. This inspired me to further analyse how Victorian Poets were inspired by the works that came before them and how this formed a sense of nostalgia for the past. However researching more the poetry from the Victorian period I came across a exert from a letter Arnold wrote to his mother on the 5th of June 1869 putting his poems into perspective. Arnold compared his works to that of Tennyson and Browning. I therefore was inspired to research Browning’s poetry in order to compare and contrast it with that of Tennyson’s and Arnold’s the same was Arnold had done.!!

Having studied ‘Lady of Shallot’ in my seminar I revisited relevant notes and condensed them into a plan and structured analysis. I took into consideration the relevance of the rhyme scheme the poems structure and form. I then did the same thing for ‘Dover Beach’ which was explored in one of my lectures. I therefore listened to the lecture again using Lecture Capture a resource accessible on the Poetry Moodle page. This refreshed and furthered my understanding of Victorian Poetry as listening to it a second time I gained more from it. I then further researched Victorian Poetry using JSTOR and other useful sources found online such as The Victorian Web and other articles and websites documenting the Victorian Period and how this related to it’s poetry. I documented all the resources and extracted the most valuable parts in which I included in my essay to back up my argument. Researching the poets lives and inspirations thoroughly helped me to understand better the motives behind each poem.!!

Once I had thoroughly researched I began to construct an argument. I re-read the poems with the question in mind and noted down how they each made me feel. I asked myself if I found it easier to interpret life? If I felt consoled and sustained? If I felt this way not only by reading these two poems but by ever poem that i’ve read. I came to my conclusion as to whether Arnold’s statement was empty or correct. Then combined this view from the perspective of a Victorian person from each different class. Despite poetry being renowned as something for the upper classes only to appreciate literacy levels rose fairly dramatically in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Therefore poetry became a political motive giving a voice to the oppressed. The rise of women poets in the Romantic era inspired to me research the treatment of women in the Victorian era. This added contextually to my analysis of Tennyson’s ‘Lady of Shallot’ and I was able to put forward a strong thesis. !!

Presenting my plan to my peers and tutor was a very beneficial exercise. I gained more confidence which has helped me to contribute more in following seminars. I also appreciated the relevant feedback and contributions. My tutor suggested I focused more on the idea of nostalgia which helped to tailor my essay response helping me to keep my answer focused and concise. Despite choosing certain critical sources I decided to look for more as I felt limited as to what was useful and relevant to include in my critical essay. My tutor suggested I focused on Matthew Arnold’s ‘Dialogue with the Mind Itself’ in this I gauged a better understanding of what contributed to Arnold’s perception of modern society. The presenting I found useful as it helped me begin to develop important life skills and overcome a fear of public speaking. It was also a different way to convey my thoughts and observations rather than an essay and I was able to obtain immediate feedback.!!

Overall, researching and presenting my critical essay plan helped me to have more confident in my own observations and ideas. I found the essay easier to write as the research and planning had been done prior so I wasn’t struggling to find topics to write about. Although it was a daunting prospect presenting my essay plan to the class it helped me to ensure that my research for the essay was thorough as I wanted to give a good presentation. I also enjoyed listening to my peer’s presentations and their feedback given. Although not all was relevant some generic feedback was also helpful for my own planning and writing of the essay. The skills I have obtained from presenting, planning and writing my critical essay have been beneficial in understanding the works of great poets and the contexts which have influenced them.!!

Bibliography:

1. Battin M. Pabst’ Aristotles Definition of Tragedy in the Poetics’ The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 33, No. 3 (Spring, 1975), pp. 293-302!!
2. Farrell John P.‘What you Feel, I share’: Breaking Dialogue of the mind with itself.!!
3. Farrell John P. ‘Matthew Arnold’s Tragic Vision’ PMLA,Vol. 85, No. 1(Jan., 1970), pp.107-117 !!
4. Kreilkamp Ivan, Victorian Poetry’s Modernity, ‘Victorian Poetry, Vol. 41, No. 4, Whither Victorian Poetry? (Winter, 2003), pp. 603-611

The Study of Poetry is one of the quality works of Matthew Arnold and is taken into consideration one of the quality in English literary complaints. He wrote this essay at a time whilst one-of-a-kind critics have been speaking in opposition to literature. The touchstone approach enables readers to recognize the distinction between proper and terrible literary piece. In this approach, a reader, with a purpose to recognize the great of a literary piece, have to absorb works of amazing writers that are taken into consideration to be masterpieces.

We have to take few strains from the works of the one after which evaluate them with different writers’ works. It could assist us to recognize which one is ideal and which one is terrible. Many matters may be stated in opposition to and for the touchstone approach. Touchstone’s approach commenced a brand new idea. However, it now no longer benefits a good deal of recognition for we see that current writers test their works. So far, we have got found out Matthew Arnold’s very own doctrine of ‘The Study of Literature.’Now, I discuss five negetive elements of the contact stone method.

1. First of all, If there may be no complaint some of the writers. And costs from all of the well-known writers are very treasured if we observe him. Then we are able to be withinside the center of a boundary. We will now no longer increase amongst ourselves. And we are able to now no longer be capable of recognizing whether or not there may be any mistake withinside the writing of that poet. As a result, we might in no way get this literary complaint course.
2. Through Criticism we will enhance literature. Criticism presents a chief position in literature. For instance After the Chaucer of the Middle Ages, no properly writing become posted. None of what becomes posted falls into the class of proper literature. Because there has been no complaint then. They try and replica Chaucer in the entirety they write. They did now no longer criticize any of the writings that brought about him to recognize wherein he becomes incorrect and wherein he becomes right. That is why that point is likewise known as the Dark Age.
3. Against the touchstone approach, it may be stated that now no longer all of the strains of Homer’s poetry carried amazing weight. If we attempt to jot down like Homer, taking into consideration the regular truth, we are able to now no longer capable of studying whatever is new there. And we cannot capture his incorrect.
4. Shakespeare has become famous via new literary fashion. The identical element may be stated approximately William Wordsworth. He created a wholly new poetic fashion. It could be tough to evaluate between vintage and new poetic fashion. If we achieve this we might now no longer be capable of admiring the brand new fashion and it’d now no longer be properly for us as well.
5. If we had taken into consideration the coolest and the terrible from the writings of preceding writers, we might now no longer have determined poets like William Wordsworth, Shakespeare, or some other writer. Then everyone’s fashion of writing poetry could stay identical. I am now no longer possibly thinking approximately this approach.

We now no longer locate novelty in poetry. The Touchstone Method is, ultimately, a systematic and goal manner to a degree how carefully a poet fits up to at least one opinion approximately literary worth. It’s in no manner a systematic or goal method to decide if a poet is properly. By this approach, we will set aside the alive, the vital, the honest from the shoddy, the showy, and the insincere. So, that is all of the negativeness of this approach.

“Dover Beach” is a four stanza poem written by Matthew Arnold that starts out with a quiet scene. It begins with the speaker looking out on the moonlit water and listening to the sound of the waves. The author describes that the night air is “sweet” as he stands on the pebbled shore looking out at the “calm” sea. However, he says the sound of the waves create a sad noise. The speaker is reminded of a time he was in Greece, and the sound of the waves takes him on a mental journey back there. The second stanza is about this allusion. He imagines if Sophocles heard the same sound as he stood next to the sea. This allusion creates a connection between Sophocles and the speaker. In the third stanza, the speaker drives the ocean as a metaphor to religion. He refers to an earlier time when religion was more important in people’s lives. He says that people used to have faith “full” and “round.” The speaker says that people used to have faith, but just as the tide was going down, so is the faith of people. The last stanza takes a pretty big shift. The tone becomes even more sad. The speaker brings up the idea that maybe if the world has lost its faith, it can hold onto some of it. However it’s the world he hears in the crashing waves. The world is nothing but chaos, and there is no joy left. Meaningless wars are taking place, and the speaker realizes he has lost his faith in the world. Though the poem started out peacefully, the poem ends with the speaker losing hope in the world, which has turned to ugliness and chaos. Arnold starts out his poem describing the beautiful sea and surrounding scene. He expresses his uncertainty about nature, and the mood of the poem quickly changes in a negative way. Throughout the rest of the poem, he describes the landscape in a depressing way. In the poem “Dover Beach”, Matthew Arnold creates a lonely, disheartening tone by making use of imagery, simile, and personification. Using these elements, he portrays a man standing on the beach afraid of what the world has become.

Arnold makes great use of imagery to almost spellbound the reader in this poem. He immediately captures the readers’ senses in the beginning of the poem, “The sea is calm tonight. / The tide is full, the moon lies fair”. The first stanza is filled with detail of the landscape of where the character in the poem is standing. The straightforward description given in the first stanza makes the reader picture the natural beauty depicted by the author. However the author uses imagery in the rest of the poem to portray the sadness and loneliness of the character. In the last stanza, the author writes that the world “Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, / Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain’. Then the poem ends with its strongest lonely image of a “darkling plain / Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, / Where ignorant armies clash by night.” The imagery used here is to show the reader that the people of the world aren’t anything like the beauty of the world. This same analysis of the use of imagery was shared by Nicholas Salerno in his article “Shakespeare and Arnold’s ‘Dover Beach’”, where he acknowledges Arnold’s use of imagery to make the reader feel the darkness the speaker was feeling. The world has a beautiful visual appeal, but the people on it don’t have any joy nor light. The speaker feels as if he is the only light, and his loneliness is felt by the reader because of the imagery used throughout the poem.

Arnold also uses simile and personification to further drive the tone of the poem. He uses these elements to compare the sea to human sorrow and also human faith. He writes that human faith “Was once, too, at the full,” and using simile he continues: “like the folds of a bright girdle”. This could also be considered personification since a girdle is something a human would wear. Mary Midgley shared this analysis in her article “Dover Beach: Understanding the Pains of Bereavement.” Her article was a great analysis of the theme of lost faith in the poem. The speaker in the poem has lost hope in the people of the world, and feels saddened by the way people lost faith. Using these literary elements, the reader can feel the emotions of the character and a lonely tone is represented.

I like this poem because I felt like I was there in the poem. The imagery and abundance of detail used by Arnold made me feel as if I was standing on the beach with the speaker. The poem had so much meaning and I felt as if I was connected to it somehow. Analyzing this poem made me appreciate poetry more and I actually enjoyed doing it.

Matthew Arnold was born in 1822 in Laleham-on-Thames in Middlesex County, England. Due to some temporary childhood leg braces, and a competitiveness within the large family of nine young Matthew earned the nickname ‘Crabby’. His disposition was described as active, but since his athletic pursuits were somewhat hindered by this correction of a ‘bent leg’, intellectual pursuits became more accessible to him. This may have led him to a literary career, but both his parents were literary (his mother wrote occasional verse and kept a journal, and scholarly, also, and this may have been what helped to accomplish the same aim. His father, Thomas Arnold, was a celebrated educator and headmaster of Rugby School, to which Matthew matriculated. He later attended Oxford, and, after a personal secretary-ship to Lord Lansdowne he was appointed Inspector of Schools. He spent most of his adult life traveling around England and sometimes the continent observing and reporting on the state of public schools, and his prose on education and social issues continues to be examined today. He also held the Chair of Poetry at Oxford for ten years, and wrote extensive literary criticism. Arnold is probably best known today for this passage of his honeymoon-written ‘Dover Beach’, the only poem of Arnold’s which may be called very famous. This is the last stanza of the poem.

This poem, a love poem doubtless, in the end directs us to a love beyond all earthly love, and a rejection of the world as a place of illusions. Religion was the central idea of Arnold’s life, but he thought that poetry was an excellent, and, in fact, vital part of the new society, which he thought absolutely necessary to understanding the spiritual component of life. He wrote in his The Study of Poetry, ‘But for poetry the idea is everything; the rest is a world of illusion, of divine illusion. Poetry attaches its emotion to the idea; the idea is the fact. The strongest part of our religion today is its unconscious poetry.’ ‘We should conceive of poetry as capable of higher uses, and called to higher destinies, than those which in general men have assigned to it hitherto. More and more mankind will discover that we have to turn to poetry to interpret life for us, to console us, and to sustain us.’ So this poet, who was actually not primarily a professional poet for a large part of his life, but instead accomplished all of his great poetic feats during his time off from his employment inspecting schools (Britannica article), argued that poetry was of paramount importance to everyone, and necessary for spiritual health. What kind of poetry would a man like this write?

He naturally excelled at lyric and elegy but he really thought the truly impersonal epics – the ‘classic virtues of unity, impersonality, universality, and architectonic power and upon the value of the classical masterpieces’ (Britannica article) – were the highest form and the best model of poetry. He wrote some long dramatic and narrative poems, such as ‘Empedocles on Etna’ ‘Sohrab and Rustum, and ‘Tristram and Iseult’, with classical and legendary themes. He had a classical education at Rugby and Oxford, but distanced himself from the classics (though he thought of them as being the bastion of sanity but he was also the first Poetry chair at Oxford to deliver his lectures in English instead of Latin. He gave a lecture ‘On Translating Homer’, but in it refused to translate it himself, and instead provided criticism on the latest two translations. He was very religious, but also was critical of the established religions of his Victorian time, and wrote ‘most of what now passes with us for religion and philosophy will be replaced by poetry’ which must have been a somewhat shocking claim in his time coming from a man employed in more than one capacity to mold young minds. He was a product of his time, but had deep personal reservations about the state of his world. His poetry has been criticized, even his greatest poems, as being ‘an allegory of the state of his own mind.’ His talents appear to have lain in the personal poems – the lyric and the elegy, such as ‘Dover Beach’, but his ambitions perhaps lay in what he considered a higher form of poetry – the epic.

This poem has the fourteen lines of a sonnet, and the final rhyming couplet, but has additional stanza breaks that Shakespeare’s sonnets did not. Perhaps in this kind of laudatory poetry (perhaps imitating the original form of classical elegies, which were replete with flatteries) Arnold didn’t think he was worthy to directly imitate his subject’s sonnet form. This example of Arnold’s poetry shows his mastery of language – even awkward constructions like ‘Self-school’d, selfscann’d, self-honor’d, self-secure’ trip off the tongue and make sense without seeming simplistic. He uses some of Shakespeare’s language but doesn’t make this sound like a piece of Elizabethan poetry, either. He brings the reader to think about what in Shakespeare he or she might have read that is ‘out-topping knowledge.’ The comparison in the second stanza is definitely classical in origin (perhaps the Colossus of Rhodes, or the battles of the Titans and the gods in Greek mythology), showing Shakespeare metaphorically large enough to stand on earth and live in heaven. We humans on earth can only contemplate his lower parts, his ‘base’.

It is a good way of capturing the wonder and mystery of great art. We ‘ask and ask’, as Arnold says, be we don’t fully understand a masterpiece or how its creator made it. Also, it’s just selfconscious enough to show Arnold’s modesty about his own talent. He doesn’t put himself in the class with Shakespeare, or with Homer or writers of the other classical epics. He hasn’t quite reconciled himself, I think, to the idea that the future of poetry lay in the personal, which was a kind of poetry he himself was able to write very well.

Arnold’s poetry, especially his lyrics and elegies, are often interesting and thought-provoking. His mastery of English is complete, and his diction shows his full Latin and Greek education, with the deep understanding of the origin of Latinate English words. But he does not shy away from good Anglo-Saxon words, either, like Shakespeare does not, and is fully able to use both high-flown language and very simple, lovely images, such as ‘stars and sunbeams know.’ His elegy ‘Memorial Verses to Wordsworth’ is considered one of the best elegies in English.

Arnold was a product of his time — the old Victorian world of religion and classical education – but he also anticipated the new modern focus on self-choice and the value placed on the personal. He was a poetic talent with a flair for thoughtful poems, with the ability to create beautiful and lasting images.

While lecturing in America, Matthew Arnold wrote his poem “Dover Beach” in 1867. It is a free verse poem and does not follow any specific rhyme scheme and consists of 37 lines and 4 stanzas. Arnold’s poem “Dover Beach” poem is about a person who is looking over the sea, and how this person is comparing the tides on the beach to his faith in society. The persona’s faith is slowly fading, similar to how the tides slowly fade from the shore, the persona. The persona then laments his decline of faith and at the end of the poem and addresses his beloved how the world’s beauty is only an illusion, but one thing the persona seems to remain to have faith in one thing. Matthew Arnold uses imagery, metaphors, and similes, which create a calm, lonely, and quiet tone found throughout the poem in order to describe his lost faith in the world, also hinting a bit of hopefulness at the end of the poem as we learn he stills has faith in love.

Matthew Arnold does a great job setting this calm and quiet tone by using plenty of imagery, describing the beach and the night. “The sea is calm to-night’. This line is the very first line of the poem, it is clear that Arnold wants to give us a clear description of where the speaker is and the word “calm” lets the readers know it must have been peaceful and quiet.“The tide is full, the moon lies far”. The next line follows up by describing the scenery of the tides on the beach, making it even more easy to visually picture this scene in the reader’s mind. “Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay”. This line adds more imagery to the scenery and an even more detailed description of the beach and the sea. By using “vast” readers can easily get a sense that it was quiet, and the tranquillity of the bay contributing to the calm part of the tone. It also contributes to the loneliness part of the tone further into the poem, when the speaker begins to express his loss of faith in the world. The first stanza stresses out the scenery with a vast amount of imagery, the location of the speaker, and the significance of the sea and its tides, reflecting the quietness and tranquility of the sea. Halfway through the poem, Arnold begins to shift the tone of the poem from calm and peace of mind to a gloomy and somber tone. “The sea is calm to-night”. In the first stanza, the ‘calm’ sea and the overall description of the sea creates a sense of peacefulness.

The calmness of the sea portrays the emotion of delightfulness and freedom. The calm and peaceful tone in the first stanza shows the significance and the possibilities of a pleasant life, portrayed through a beach and a quiet, silent, and vast sea. Yet this image of calmness and peace rapidly changes as the reader is left with a gloomy tone through the second half of the poem. “With tremulous cadence slow, and bring/The eternal note of sadness in”. It is clear that there is a sense of fear, lost hope, and loneliness that is brought on by vocabulary that has an unpleasant description and meaning. “To one another! For the world, which seems/To lie before us…”. These descriptions of these lines ultimately remind the persona of the hard truth and the sad reality, which brings fear to the persona. The persona cannot face the world alone and instead decides to face reality alongside with his beloved. “Sophocles long ago/Heard it on the Aegean, and it brought/Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow/Of human misery…”. In these lines, the words “human misery” bring thoughts of darkness setting the gloomy tone. One of the lines mentions Sophocles, who was a Greek author of dramatic and tragedy plays. This shows how the persona is thinking about how miserable and unhappy people are because of how cruel the world has become.

In the end, Arnold uses similes and symbols to create a hopeful tone that shows the persona still has faith in one thing, love, despite having lost faith in the world and the disappointing illusion of life. “The Sea of Faith/Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore”. Throughout the poem, the persona mentions the sea often and is usually referred to as an image and metaphor. In line 21 the sea could represent the faith of people put together and then in the second line it explains how the tides of the sea were once “full”, which suggests there once was a time when people’s faith was all together and faith in the world has faded away.“Ah love, let us be true.”. Despite the lonely tone created by the third and fourth stanza of the poem the speaker has a conversation with his beloved and readers can see that the speaker is not actually lonely, but rather still has faith in something. “To one another! for the world, which seems/To lie before us like a hand of dreams”. In this simile from line 31, the persona mentions himself and his beloved living in a “land of dreams” which means in a wonderful place, but it also suggests that this wonderful place is part of this illusion and is somehow unreal. “Ah, love, let us be true”. This line shows the persona is addressing his beloved and how they should be true to one another, being loyal and by each other, in order for the escape this disappointing illusion of life and the world, since the world has become a dark place. Although the persona has lost faith in the world, the persona is left to only have faith in one thing, love.

The persona remains to have faith in love since it is the only way for him to hold on to the last remaining hope he has for the world. Arnold’s use of imagery, metaphors, and similes achieves many tones, including a change in tone from the beginning to the end of the poem. Through the use of these devices, he expresses the world is only an illusion and gives the reader different perspectives of life, love, and existence. The author’s use of vocabulary is remarkable and really helps the readers get a deep feeling and sense of what the author is trying to say. Arnold is successful in using poetic devices and language in order to show the speaker’s feelings for the world. He is successful because his message of fearing the decline of faith and that the world’s beauty is only an illusion is summed up by several poetic devices and languages such as imagery, metaphors, personification, and similes. Arnold is able to shift tones smoothly and is able to clearly present the different tones found throughout the poem. Readers can take away the good use of imagery and vocabulary, as well as what a good shift of tone looks like.