Write the summary and explanation of the Poem entitled "Dover

Write the summary and explanation of the Poem entitled “Dover Beach”.

Ans.

Summary of the Poem

The poem starts with a beautiful description of the Dover Beach in a moonlit night. The sea is calm and full. The French coast and the cliffs of England are shining by the white moonbeams. The waves are rolling to and for along with them. They are dragging the pebbles on the sea-shore. The poet standing on the Dover Beach hears the granting roar of the pebbles. This sound fills the heart of the poet with a sadness that Sophocles had also experienced in the past. The poet becomes sad to note that the faith which once man had is now receding just like the receding waves of the sea. He also realizes that the world which is full of beautiful things is not really a place of : joy and comfort but it is devoid of joy, love, peace or help. The world is full of pain and misery and we follow our conventional duties without any fixed goal to attain. So the poet earnestly desires that in such an illusory world he and his lady love should remain true and sincere to each other.

Analysis of the Poem. The poet says that the sea-coast between the French coast and the cliffs of England is calm and full and it is shining brightly by the moonbeams. The waves are moving forward and again they are going back. They are also moving the pebbles on the sea-shore forward and backward, along with them. The sound of the waves fills the mind of the poet with sadness.

Arnold says that similar sounds produced by the waves of the Aegean sea was heard by Sophocles and his mind was also filled with sadness. He says that the minds of the men of today are also filled with sadness when they hear the melancholy note produced by the waves of the distant northern sea.

The poet then says that the people of today are gradually loosing their faith which was once present in them.

Lastly the poet says that the world seems to be full of beauty, joy, comfort and happiness. In this world people struggle blindly without any knowledge of their destination. So the poet wishes that in such a world, at least, he and his lady love should remain true and sincere to each other.

EXPLANATIONS

1. The sea is cairn to night.

The tide is full, the moon lies fair

Upon the straits; -on the French coast the light

Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,

Glimmering and vast out in the tranquil bay

Come to the window, sweet is the night-air.

Only, from the long line of spray

Where the sea meets the moon-blanch ‘d land,

Listen! You hear the grating roar

Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,

At their return, up the high strand

Begin, and cease and then again begin,

With tremulous cadence slow, and bring

The eternal note of sadness in.

Explanation with Reference to the Context- This stanza has been selected from Dover Beach composed by Mathew Arnold. The poet, at night, is watching the waves of the ocean from the window of the house located in the Dover Beach. He is watching the beauty of night, sea and air, etc.

Arnold depicts that the sea to night is silent. The moon is shining bright in the sky. The waves of the ocean come on the bank and go back again. On the white bank of the ocean moon beams are shining brightly. This made the bank whiter than it was before. On the one side there is French part and on the other side there is hilly area of England. These high peaks too are shining brightly in the silent ocean. The poet calls his wife to enjoy the sweet air of night, spray of water on the bank where the moon beams are whitening the bank considerably. The poet needs the attention of his wife to listen the rubbing of small stones in the waves that come and go with water. The waves sometimes leave the stones on the bank and sometimes bring back with them to the ocean. This process of waves and stones is taking place constantly. There is a music in this activity but it brings a permanent sadness to the heart of the poet.

Note- Poets finds this world incomplete for joys. That is the reason that the poet grieves at the sight of pleasant phenomena. Basically Arnold believed that Victorian age was materialistic and away from religious values. It grieved the poet.

2. Sophocles long ago

Heard it on the Aegean, and it brought

Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow

Of human misery; we

Find also in the sound a thought,

Hearing it by this distant northern sea.

Explanation with Reference to the Context- These lines exist in the poem Dover Beach composed by Mathew Arnold. The poet remembers his favourite poet, Sophocles who listened at the music of human misery. He grieves at the sadness of his own age.

Arnold explains his views of sadness pervaded in his own era. He think that mankind has been sad since the time of Sophocles in the same way as day. He, too, listened the music of human misery. As he himself is seated on the bank of Dover Beach, in the same way in ancient time Sophocles listened this sad music on the Mediterranean sea. This kind of sad music is a constant misery of humanity. There came ups and downs in these miseries out it never came to an end. The poet, too finds the whole situation thoughtful seeing towards the Northern sea.

Note- The poet finds human misery constant since the ancient times. On the one hand he finds mankind full of vice and on the other hand believes that suffering of mankind is out of hands and permanent.

3. The Sea of Faith

Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore

Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furl’d

But now I only hear

Its melancholy, long withdrawing roar. ‘

Retreating to the breath

Of the night-wind down the vast edges drear

And naked shingles of the world.

Explanation with Reference to the Context- This stanza emerges in Mathew Arnold’s poem Dover Beach. The poet grieves at the loss of religious values. He thinks that no pleasure can be obtained out of materialism without following the ways of God.

The earth is surrounded by sea. Once this sea was religion which beneficed the mankind. This sea defended the earth in the way as a fence guards the sheep in the fold. Small stones are human beings. Once they enjoyed the music of sea and faith but today these human beings are nude viz. void of religious faith. This anti-religious notion or the materialism competition mankind to listen the sad music of the waves. These waves are going up and down constantly. Flowing of the fast wind is the fury and excitement of mankind. All around there is a dismal situation in the world.

Note- The poet grieves at the materialism and industrialization of Victorian era which ruined the peace of mind and heart. He suggests to leave materialism and follow religious decorum.

4. Ah, love, let us he true

To one another ! for the world, which seems

To lie before us like a land of dreams,

So various, so beautiful, so new;

Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,

Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;

And vie are here as on a darkling plain

Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,

Where ignorant armies clash by night.

Explanation with Reference to the Context- This is the concluding stanza of Dover Beach composed by Mathew Arnold. The poet concludes his views of this world that here is no reality and the world looks a world of dreams.

Arnold addresses his beloved wife and all lovers on the earth that they should try to remain truthful and full of religious conception. We should not feel proud on the world and its achievements because this world which seems so varied, pretty and new, is a world of dreams. Here is no joy, no love.. no light of knowledge, no certainty of conception, no peace nor any kind of help for the crying men. We are living in the world of confusion in the ignorancy. We are surrounded by the armies who are making warning of war. All around here is a danger of air attacks. Armies are fighting at night without knowing the reality whether they are fighting with their friends or enemies.