On a Darkling Plain: Victorian Poetry and Thought

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Religion Religion in the Victorian Age: In the middle of the Victorian era people began to adjust and make changes accordingly to this new way of life. Increasing debate about religious belief surfaced. Victorian age moved away from the social Christian norm, there wasn't one religious belief anymore, making it harder for Arnold to have a specific focus or set ideal on religion Norton Church of England was split up into three divisions: Evangelical or Low Church Broad Church High Church This division and change in the way the church ran could largely account for religious faith being lost as well O'Gorman This poem takes some philosophy from the late Romanticism Period, which occurred right before the Victorian Period.

Visited Dover Beach on his honeymoon allowing some elements of poetry used in the Romantic Period to be useful to Arnold. Scene of Arnold looking out his honeymoon cottage at Dover Beach.

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Rhythm and tone attempt to lull the reader in, a use of poetry in the Romanticism Period. The two were suspected to have been married two or three weeks prior to the honeymoon on June 10, Clausson Comparing his wife to the beauty of Dover Beach and the tranquil setting Clausson Water Arnold is obsessed with water. Water and the sea are constantly referred to throughout the poem. The Sea of Faith: In-text examples where the use of the sea and water are referenced: Melancholy became a characteristic of the spirit of the Victorian period Norton This was in large part of the huge cultural and social shift at the beginning of the era.

Many poets and writers at the time did not know what to make of such drastic shifts towards an industrialized world Norton In light of these changes and views, they suffered "from an anxious sense of something lost, a sense too of being displaced persons in a world made alien by technological changes that had been exploited too quickly for adaptive powers of the human psyche" Norton With the advances in technology, they felt like their roles and duties were being taken out from underneath them.

This in large part can account for much of Arnold's mood and are feeling of sadness throughout Dover Beach, a poem that can be seen as a representation of the Victorian phase. In-text references of sadness: The three similes of Dover Beach have unifying themes. All of the comparisons are in reference to land and setting.

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The similes are also used to describe the way in which something lies. Even the first stanza uses metaphorical language to personify the way the "moon lies fair. This simile compares the sea to a girdle. It describes the tide as being full, so the waters surround the shore. It is curious that Arnold intentionally uses a girdle-an intimate undergarment-to represent the tide.

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It is one of the moments in the poem when the description of the land aludes to romanticism. Here, Arnold compares the world to a land of dreams. It hints that the world is full of falsities or illusions, and that what seems to be fantastic "hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light. The world is like a land of dreams, but fails to actually equal one. Earlier in the poem, the narrator mentions that the world lies before them, suggesting that they are at an observatory location.

The "darkling plain" may be metaphorical for a mental state of despair, or it may be a literal description of Dover Beach at night. Arnold also frequently uses metaphorical language in Dover Beach, as well as his other poems to compare life to a sea. This excerpt from "To Marguerite--Continued" is an example of Arnold's use of the sea as a metaphor for the alienation of life.

The comparison uses a literal picture of a vast body of water encompassing islands, while also setting up a figurative picture of a life of loneliness. The idea of separation is further evidenced by these lines in "To Marguerite--Continued," in which Arnold suggests a longing for connection. Arnold seems to say that humans have an innate desire for companionship, which may stem from a subconscious knowledge of a more communal way of living.

The lines may be a reference to Pangea. Perhaps Arnold views nature as a key reason for the loneliness of life "The Sea is calm to-night" "Dover Beach" 1. The opening line of Dover Beach references the sea, which may imply that Arnold is describing an instance of life is calm.

on a Darkling Plain Victorian Poetry and Thought 9781434343697 by James Haydock

As the poem proceeds, Arnold includes other descriptions of a "grating roar of pebbles" and the clash of ignorant armies. This may suggest that he is commenting on the facade of a peaceful life. Perhaps Arnold believes that there are many disruptions beneath a calm surface. He may be suggesting that most men and women merely act satisfied with life, and are secretly hiding their fears of alienation. Near the end of Arnold's poem, "The Buried Life," he uses this statement to describe a person reaching enlightenment in regards to their life's meaning.

Again, Arnold is using the idea of a flow or a movement of water to describe a journey of life. The statement could also be referring to someone finally understanding that life is a moving, dynamic body.

Dover Beach, Matthew Arnold - UI Victorian Wiki - UIowa Wiki

Perhaps Arnold believes that the realization that life is like a flowing stream of water is crucial to self-fulfillment, thus accounting for his frequent use of the metaphor. Use of Sensory Language: In his contemplative writings, Arnold places a lot of emphasis on the functionality of the senses, especially sound or hearing. This implies that the absence of feeling or sensation causes mankind to remain ignorant to the meaning or purpose of life.

By utilizing sensory language to stress the importance of speaking and listening, Matthew Arnold suggests that honest communication with others is the purpose of an individual life. This line is an example of Arnold calling on his companion- or his reader -to listen. The use of an exclamatory mark may suggest that Arnold stresses the importance of listening within relationships, as it will contribute to a clearer understanding between partners.

This excerpt depicts sound as having an ability to arouse contemplation. A lot of emphasis is placed on the act of hearing. Arnold may be suggesting that byy soaking in the expressions of others it is possible to gain enlightenment. This may be read as saying that mankind is not only deaf to their own feelings and purpose, but also to the verve of the world. However, he also suggests that this emotional barrier can be broken by interaction between two people, specifically two people who love one another. When these reflecting sounds are heard they force humans to recognize their disaffection.

This idea reinforces the claim that there is a subconscious knowledge of companionship or community. However, the recognition is depressing, because the echoes come from so far away. This causes the goal of unity to seem unreachable. Outside Resources and Links.

Dover Beach

The Dover Bitch Helps us understand the piece more thoroughly, but through the girl's point of view Hecht Puts poem into more modern lingo that we use today Hecht Does Matthew Arnold have a lover in this poem? Who is Arnold addressing as his reader in the poem? Is it specifically for his lover? Do you think the rapid expansion and changes made in the Victorian society influenced Arnold?

The metaphor with which the poem ends is most likely an allusion to a passage in Thucydides 's account of the Peloponnesian War Book 7, He describes an ancient battle that occurred on a similar beach during the Athenian invasion of Sicily.

The battle took place at night; the attacking army became disoriented while fighting in the darkness and many of their soldiers inadvertently killed each other. Culler calls the "darkling plain" Arnold's "central statement" of the human condition. Exploring the dark terror that lies beneath his happiness in love, the speaker resolves to love—and exigencies of history and the nexus between lovers are the poem's real issues.

Devoid of love and light the world is a maze of confusion left by 'retreating' faith. Critics have questioned the unity of the poem, noting that the sea of the opening stanza does not appear in the final stanza, while the "darkling plain" of the final line is not apparent in the opening. One critic saw the "darkling plain" with which the poem ends as comparable to the "naked shingles of the world". Another found the poem "emotionally convincing" even if its logic may be questionable.

Beginning in the present it shifts to the classical age of Greece, then with its concerns for the sea of faith it turns to Medieval Europe, before finally returning to the present. Critics have noted the careful diction in the opening description, [2] the overall, spell-binding rhythm and cadence of the poem [17] and its dramatic character. According to Tinker and Lowry, "a draft of the first twenty-eight lines of the poem" was written in pencil "on the back of a folded sheet of paper containing notes on the career of Empedocles ".

Tinker and Lowry conclude that this "seem[s] to indicate that the last nine lines of the poem as we know it were already in existence when the portion regarding the ebb and flow of the sea at Dover was composed. Arnold's visits to Dover may also provide some clue to the date of composition.

Allott has Arnold in Dover in June and again in October of that year "on his return from his delayed continental honeymoon". To critics who conclude that ll. The anonymous figure to whom Arnold addresses his poem becomes the subject of Hecht's poem. After which she says "one or two unprintable things".

Kenneth and Miriam Allott, referring to "Dover Bitch" as "an irreverent jeu d'esprit ", nonetheless see, particularly in the line "a sort of mournful cosmic last resort", an extension of the original poem's main theme. Even in the U. Supreme Court the poem has had its influence: Marathon Pipe Line Co.

For a more thorough bibliography see Matthew Arnold. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This article is about the poem. For the novel by Richard Bowker, see Dover Beach novel.

Retrieved 2 August Holt, Rinehart and Winston. Tinker and Lowery attempt to discover a specific reference to Sophocles, suggesting passages from Antigone , The Women of Trachis , Oedipus at Colonus , and Philoctetes.

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