George you Joshua George Instructor Sarah Poffenroth SOBRE 115 twenty-three October 2012 Essay Two: The concept of the ‘Illusion compared to Reality’ in Matthew Arnold’s ‘Dover Beach’ ‘Dover Beach’ is a poem by the British poet Matt Arnold. The locale from the poem may be the English ferry port of Dover Kent, facing Calais, France. It was the place where Matthew Arnold honeymooned in 1851 (Wikipedia Contributors).
In Matthew Arnold’s ‘Dover Beach’, the speaker draws visible imagery showing that precisely what is generally identified is false and hence an illusion, and he contrasts it applying aural images to show precisely what is truly true, the nasty reality of losing beliefs in a person’s tradition, culture, and faith. The poem is unevenly divided into several stanzas. The first stanza has 18 lines, whereas the second, third, and fourth have half a dozen, eight, and nine lines, respectively. Ruth Pitman phone calls this poem a series of imperfect sonnets (109).
The poem has no particular rhyme structure except for stanza four which follows the rhyme scheme- abbacddcc. The events described in the poem infer the Victorian Era (1837-1901) (Wikipedia Contributors), which was a period of industrialization and introduction of clinical theories and ideas including the Theory of Evolution which usually questioned key principles of Christianity. Several critics say that the presenter in the poem is Matt Arnold himself because the area where the incidents in the composition take place is
George 2 Dover seaside, where Arnold went for honeymoon vacation with his wife. The composition is thought to be composed in 1851 that is certainly the year the moment Arnold honeymooned (Wikipedia Contributors). The presenter paints visual imagery with the scene in line 1-8. Words such as ‘calm’ and ‘tranquil’ create an image of stability whereas words and phrases such as ‘glimmering’ and ‘vast’ describe the visual splendor of the field. The first stanza also uses phrases like ‘roar’ and ‘tremulous cadence’ to draw a great aural image of the landscape.
Notice the compare Arnold pulls by using image and aural imagery, the previous expresses false impression (calm, amazing, tranquil, and so forth ) plus the latter communicates reality (tremulous cadence) which will induces despair. The beginning of the first stanza describes beauty of ‘Dover beach’. Midway throughout the stanza, the speaker invitations his take pleasure in (mentioned in stanza four) to ‘come to the window’ (line 6) and listen to the grating roar from the pebbles. By simply saying ‘come to the window’ the loudspeaker wants his love to see things by his point of view.
Alternatively, it might also indicate looking at points closely since implied by lines eight and 8-10 where the loudspeaker mentions that ‘only, through the long brand of spray the place that the sea meets the moon-blanched land’ (the shore) are you able to hear the ‘grating roar of pebbles’. The sound manufactured by the pebbles when it is drawn and flung by surf, creates a take note of despair in the speaker’s heart. The first stanza shows the incompatibility between what is perceived and what is truly true. The material items of the world are in a way a great illusion made by the globe but the real truth can be just known whenever we closely examine everything.
By simply introducing Sophocles (Greek playwright) in the second stanza, the speaker wants to emphasize the very fact that he can not the only person to experience misery induces by the sound of pebbles thrown about by waves which in turn ‘brought in his (Sophocles’) mind the turbid ebb and George 3 movement of human misery’ (lines 17-18). The speaker seems the same. This kind of poem was written inside the Victorian Time. It was a period of industrialization, economic abundance and advantages of medical ideas including ‘Darwin’s Evolution Theory’ which will made people question tradition, culture, and religion.
Persons lost all their faith, although on the outside they will seemed quiet, happy and control, the speaker seems that deep down inside they all experienced sadness due to their lack of hope (stanza 3). In the third stanza, the speaker talks about faith. The speaker seems that people used to be full of faith but due to the modern age and its ideas, people have lost their trust in tradition, culture, and religion. The speaker displays this utilizing the image of clothing. When people had faith in religion, the earth used to become clothed (Lay like the retracts of a bright girdle furled).
Once they misplaced their trust, they were stripped of these outfits like ‘naked shingles of the earth’. Thus, the third stanza brings out the bitter truth of that period. Depressed by condition of individuals the presenter turns to his mate and desires them to always be true to one another. Stanza several brings back the illusion shown in stanza one. The speaker says, “For the earth, which seems to lie ahead of us like a land of dreams, therefore various, so beautiful, thus new, hath really nor joy, nor love, nor light, nor certitude, neither peace, nor help pertaining to pain (lines 30-34).
Right here the word ‘seems’ implies that the world isn’t what it is normally recognized (it can be an illusion) as (land of dreams, beautiful etc . ) but it really has nasty reality placed on it. This kind of melancholy knowing of the poet person is set perfectly simply by Rodney Delasanta, he composed, “The concept of the the poem (the poet’s melancholy understanding of the horrible incompatibility between illusion and reality) is supported by the usage of visual images to express impression and oral imagery expressing reality (1). George 4 H.
Wayne Schow highlights an interesting factor, the phraseology of the poem is similar to Aventure 8: 38-39, where Paul writes: For I are persuaded, that neither death, nor your life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor power, nor things present, nor things to come, nor level, nor interesting depth, nor some other creature, will be able to independent us in the love of God. This shows that Arnold knew the Bible very well. He would have used it purposely to comparison the bit of scripture coming from Romans to emphasize the current state of mankind (27).
Arnold’s “Dover Beach uses images, symbolism, and also other poetic gadgets to reveal the theme of illusion versus fact. Throughout the composition we can see the speaker’s struggle which is well supported by the inconsistent tempo and meter. The audio beautifully identifies it by utilizing visual images to express confusion and aural imagery to express harsh truth. The audio expresses his desire to have faith and be honest with his appreciate but on the end from the poem slideshow back to negativity due to the recognition of the actuality. George five Works Offered Wikipedia members. “Victorian time. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 23 March. 2012. Internet. 23 March. 2012. Wikipedia contributors. “Dover Beach. “Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 18 Sep. 2012. Web. twenty-three Oct. 2012. Pitman, Ruth. “On Dover Beach. Essays in Criticism. XXIII (1973): 109-136. Web. twenty-three Oct. 2012. Schow, L. Wayne. “Arnold’s Dover Beach front. The Explicator. (1998): 26-27. Net. 23 March. 2012. Delasanta, Rodney. Explicator. XVIII (1959): 1 . Web. 23 Oct. 2012. Fain, John Capital t. “Arnold’s Dover Beach. (2002): 40-42. Web. twenty three Oct. 2012.