We read Arnold's poem in class, and located devices, rhythm, and meter within the poem. Reread the poem below and answer the questions below. Be sure to respond in at least one paragraph, and comment on at least one of your classmate's responses. Your responses are due by Sunday, March 7th, at midnight.
The sea is calm 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-blanched 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.
Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the A gaean, 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.
The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
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.
Ah, love, let us be 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 we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.
1. What do you believe to Arnold's most central message? How did you reach your conclusion? Can you make any parallels to society today? Give examples.
2. How does this poem reflect Arnold's style, and tone, in "The Buried Life?" Make comparisons.
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I believe that Arnold’s most central message is that the faith in religion is being lost among all the chaos of the earth, and is being replaced by technology and science, in which people now put their faith in. The poem is also saying that because the world is losing its faith, we will be miserable, since putting our faith in technology and science is a lost cause. Without our faith in God, we no longer have joy, love, light, peace, certitude, or and help for pain. Without our faith, life is a struggle and we have no one to look to in our times of pain and suffering. Since our faith in religion is becoming lost in the chaos of our world, we are left confused and don’t have anywhere to run. However, the poet wants to break away from that, and want him and his lover to be true to each other and to the world that lies. He wants to be faithful and not give into the confusion of the world. This is seen in the third and fourth stanza’s, when he talks about “The Sea of Faith”, and how it was “once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore”, this is meaning that faith in God and religion used to be all there was, however now all our faith is now in technology and science. Also, in the fourth stanza, it shows that without our faith, we have nothing but a lie.
ReplyDeleteThe parallels to this world is how we put our faith in medicine and technology and forget about God; like we no longer have to depend on God for anything. But this is not right; we should put our faith in God and nothing else in this world. The tone of this poem is similar to “The Buried Life” in the way that it has a somber, depressing tone but with some hope in the distance. Just as Arnold says in “The Buried Life” that although we have secrets in our heart, only the ones that we truly love can release even the tightest locked secrets; this is comparable to “Dover Beach” in the way that it has a depressing tone because the world has lost it’s faith, but there is still hope if we put our faith in God.
1) I believe Arnold’s central message is that nature and the beautiful, tranquil world is lost on the people of the earth. The first stanzas talk of nature, even in the context of sophisticated countries (lines 3-4). Even nature laments the fact that humans live their lives in a blind state of existence, furiously rushing from one task to another; this systematic, impersonal rhythm seems to worsen with every passing decade. In their haste, they forget to look around and see the nature, which now “bring[s] - The eternal note of sadness in.” Arnold is mourning the loss of the human appreciation of the world, which is nigh irretrievable. Arnold mentions Sophocles, a Greek playwright. He was a particularly great (and apparently insightful) tragedian; thus Arnold indicates the tragedy of living life as fast as possible and never slowing down to really discover the surrounding world. War, which is strictly a human device by default, is labeled “ignorant” (line 37). This fact insinuates that the world no longer “Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, - Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; - And we are here as on a darkling plain - Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight” (lines 33-36).
ReplyDelete2) From the two poems we have read of Arnold’s, he seems to write as one looking back and picking out the undercurrent of unhappiness laced throughout all of history. He then will try to pinpoint such vague notions through eloquence and evoke emotion rather than reason. His writings are meant to open the eyes of the readers to the world around them and to what they are missing by going through the fast-paced motions of life. “The Buried Life” grieves the propensity to hide emotions away, pointing out that this is not at all necessary and that it causes life to pass one by. To Arnold, this is such a waste. The same theme rings true too throughout “Dover Beach,” and the emotions and lamentations are recurring. “Dover Beach,” is about realizing the beauty of the natural world; “The Buried Life” is about realizing the beauty of natural emotion.
In response to Liz:
ReplyDeleteI agree mostly with your thoughts on the poems’ pertinence to modern society. I did not think to take the faith route. However, even though line 21 is about “The Sea of Faith,” I do not think of faith in God or a god; rather, about faith in nature or faith in humankind. From what I have read, Arnold “abandoned Christianity, apparently on ethical grounds…and turned to agnosticism” (http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/arnold/delaura3.html). Even before I read this, though, I had great doubt as to whether Arnold was referring to the Christian God, or even the general deity “God.” Arnold seemed to be a particularly secular man, humanitarian and philosophical, a proponent of man’s stubborn endeavor. Generally sound Christian faith and humanitarianism cannot coincide and are mutually exclusive (as by definition of both), because we know that “human endeavor” is basically an oxymoron. This is particularly evident when Arnold mentions Sophocles and Greek philosophy, because the Greeks, while aligning themselves with an intricate “religion,” (what we now call mythology) did not hold the same faith Christians do, as they relied on sacrifices to many gods of many areas of life to lead a normal life and to avoid disaster. As in, it was less of a “relationship” faith and more of an “appeasement” faith, where the people relied on themselves for good fortune.
Arnold convey's the central message as being that of blindness or loneliness in the world. People are too caught up in their own lives to respect the true beauty of the world. We live in a world that serves to our needs and rather than looking at what we already have; makes us blind to the natural enjoyment that nature brings. " So various, so beautiful, so new,
ReplyDeleteHath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain"(Arnold). As the poem continues to use rhyme though the context it grows to show more of the inner allegory. The bigger message behind the scheme of events portrayed is that as our personal lives grow to become more and more hectic, we become incompetent to the things around us. Even in the world today we don't realize the true beauty around us because of our hectic schedules that play about day by day. "Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,Where ignorant armies clash by night" (Arnold).
Arnold poems are put together to make a realization of lost beauty, hope, or intelligence. The way he writes dictates the central message. The Buried Life and Dover's Beach,convey the message of grieving or acceptance of reality. Both messages use allegory, hidden within the text itself, to point out the actuality of disrespect and wastefulness in the world and inner our emotions. Both the Buried Life, and Dover's Beach, dig deeper to a hidden theme. Arnold seems to connect his poem's with the recurring theme of desperately longing for true emotions and excepting, or taking into consideration, the earth's natural beauty.
In response to Alie:
ReplyDeleteI really like your word choice in how you went about talking about these poems. I agree completely with your annotation and also think that you had a a good point in saying "Arnold indicates the tragedy of living life as fast as possible and never slowing down to really discover the surrounding world."
The world revolves too much around modern technology and doesn't capture the uniqueness of what we already have. What surrounds us today is overseen by daily life and wants/ needs. We under appreciate what we have in our daily lives, and let our emotions fool us. I agree with Arnold's view points, and much of what he say's is what happens in our own lives.
The world is calm and full of beauty and a natural flow. But with fighting and sadness, the world is no longer full of love, happiness, and dreams. Once people let sadness creep in, the world will never seem beautiful again, but only full of strife. This is Arnold’s central message. Nature is calm and beautiful, “Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.” Everything flows together naturally in an endless rhythm and fear and sadness slow the rhythm, “Begin, and cease, and then again begin, With tremulous cadence slow, and bring The eternal note of sadness in.” The world seems to be full of love and life, but is not when full of sadness and fight, “for the world, which seems To lie beofre us like a land of dreams,…Hath really neither joy, nor love,…swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night.” Americans can take the beauty and blessings of everything for granted and instead everything becomes melancholy, sad, and full of fighting. This happens because we don’t see the good in things and only the bad which leads to fighting and eternal sadness.
ReplyDeleteThis is similar to “The Buried Life.” In that poem, people that stifled their love could only find it back again when true love awakened it and feelings shouldn’t be kept hidden. In this poem, people let sadness creep in and lose sight of the good things in life. Both poems show the consequences of what happens during a situation. One is when you hide all feelings, and the other is when you let only sadness control you. Both start with a tone that is of hopelessness that leads to how that can be fixed to be full of hope. Both poems give examples of human’s ignorance to nature.
The world is calm and full of beauty and a natural flow. But with fighting and sadness, the world is no longer full of love, happiness, and dreams. Once people let sadness creep in, the world will never seem beautiful again, but only full of strife. This is Arnold’s central message. Nature is calm and beautiful, “Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.” Everything flows together naturally in an endless rhythm and fear and sadness slow the rhythm, “Begin, and cease, and then again begin, With tremulous cadence slow, and bring The eternal note of sadness in.” The world seems to be full of love and life, but is not when full of sadness and fight, “for the world, which seems To lie beofre us like a land of dreams,…Hath really neither joy, nor love,…swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night.” Americans can take the beauty and blessings of everything for granted and instead everything becomes melancholy, sad, and full of fighting. This happens because we don’t see the good in things and only the bad which leads to fighting and eternal sadness.
ReplyDeleteThis is similar to “The Buried Life.” In that poem, people that stifled their love could only find it back again when true love awakened it and feelings shouldn’t be kept hidden. In this poem, people let sadness creep in and lose sight of the good things in life. Both poems show the consequences of what happens during a situation. One is when you hide all feelings, and the other is when you let only sadness control you. Both start with a tone that is of hopelessness that leads to how that can be fixed to be full of hope. Both poems give examples of human’s ignorance to nature.
In response to Alie:
ReplyDeleteI didn’t think about people forgetting nature in their haste. I think it still holds true today that that condition of forgetting nature is becoming worse with the passing decades. Besides the occasional tree huggers, people are too busy and worried about the next new electronic, that they have lost their interest in nature. Soon nature will become so deteriorated and people wont miss it until it’s gone.
1. In some ways, I kind of think that his central message has to do with comparing human emotions to the sea. It's kind of personifying the sea by saying it has a "melancholy, long, withdrawing roar." It makes me think of when people are upset, they show it by sighing or using a certain type of body language to let people know that they're upset. Also, I think that the focus on the sea is supposed to make the reader realize that we more or less take the beauty of nature for granted every day that we're around it because we're all to busy with our lives to really notice what it is that we've been blessed with. The idea that humans are focusing less and less on the happiness of life and the beauty of nature makes Arnold's message all the more clear. In order to keep the natural flow of things, there needs to be balance in the world, starting with the focus of people and their priorities and emotions, I guess.
ReplyDelete2. I think Arnold has a very specific style of writing. Both poems are easy to understand, and personally, I think that he uses everyday situations to make it easier for the reader to relate to and understand the poem. In "The Buried Life," Arnold uses the fear that people have of showing their true emotions to others, and in this poem, that same idea is used again when he explains the loss of feelings and emotions of the people in the world. Both poems use nature as a force that isn't truly understood by people, and that leads to the ignorance and neglect of it, which in turn causes us to be pulled farther and farther away from the beauty of the earth. That's what I think, at least.
to Tina:
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with what you said about the two poems. The comparisons you made between the two was pretty much exactly what I was thinking. I like the way you used the fact that we're all pretty much ignorant to the power and beauty of nature. It makes me feel like if people were more in tune with nature, that things wouldn't be so hectic all the time. I have a feeling that there'd be waaaaay more calm people on the planet if they paid attention to nature, and really appreciated it for it's beauty and majesty.
I think that Arnold's central message is about the beauty and serenity of nature in its abundance, being ignored or over looked by humanity. People often take tings for granted and i think Arnold has made a great observation of this. I came to this conclusion through my own experiences of over looking certain details of my life that are important. This message can easily by compared to society today in that people continue to do exactly as i just stated, over look things. People can take just about anything for granted, like money, family, or even nature. Other than vast technological advances, people have generally remained the same. Even from Arnold's time period, people continue to ignore certain details that are actually important.
ReplyDeleteJust like in The Buried Life, Arnold sets a some what concerned tone as he is trying to get the reader's attention. He wants people to open their eyes for maybe just a moment to see what they are missing. It is the same as expressing feelings as in The Buried Life, we are missing out because we hide our true feelings and don't make our true selves known.
In response to Meghan:
ReplyDeleteI never really looked at it like that, but i think you're right when you talk about Arnold kind of using the sea as a personification of emotions. It kind of reminds me of The Awakening and how the sea represented Edna's feelings.
"Dover Beach," written by Arnold has an overwhelming sense of convicting humanity for being neglectful towards natue. The central theme of this poem is how often, we as humans, get so incredibly caught up in the hustle and bustle of every day life. Instead of appreciating nature for her beauty and brilliance, it often becomes normal, and it shouldn't. The third stanza dicusses the Sea as an example, "But now I only hear
ReplyDeleteIts melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world." A creation so magnificant is portrayed through the human mind as somthing relatively common and mainly repetetive. I believe that Arnold's intent for writting the poem wasn't to make his audience think deeply about what the poem ment, because most would come to a common consisus that humans some way or another underappreciate nature, but rather what to do inturn. One must ask themselves what must I personally, or the world do to change this? In today's society, I believe that the poem still has the same effect that it did years ago. For example, I have lived in Colorado my whole life and am used to the Rocky Mountains always being present, I never really contemplate about the beauty of them, but rather take them for granted.
Both "The Burried Life" and "Dover Beach" are passionate convictions of how wrongly we as humans are living. We are not fully living unless we learn to appreciate the blessings in life. In "The Burried Life," love allows freedom for us to be completly ourselves. Appreciating nature, would enable humans to look at whats honestly important in life. Often times when I think of nature, I begin to realize how insignificant so many of my fears are. Arnold wishes to connect to his audience by thought provoking work on inner reflection.
In response to Meghan:
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your insight comparing the sea to people emotions. It reminds me very much of when we were reading The Awakening. The Sea could also have a correlation with how people choose to live their life, to the fullest or just commonly. I believe that Arnolds poems challenge the reader to fully living, and the sea is often a symbol of what we're doing currently.
A question for everyone:
Often times when I reflect on nature, it makes me wonder how could God not exist? Any comments or same feelings?
I believe that the central message of Arnold's poem, "Dover Beach" is that people are to arrogant and too caught up in fighting with each other, sadness in life, and being overall busy with life in general that they miss the true beauty of the world. The first stanza helps show this how this beauty of the world is overlooked. The first stanza is talking about how beautiful the world is, and the last line in the first stanza says, " With tremulous cadence slow, and bring The eternal note of sadness in". This is line is saying how sadness is coming into the world like a trembling beat. Also the last line helps show this overall message. " Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
ReplyDeleteWhere ignorant armies clash by night". this is saying how people constantly fight because of their ignorance.
The feeling i get form this poem is similar to the feeling i got from "The Buried Life". It has a tone of concern for people that are missing out on the true beauty of the world. He wants them to just open their eyes for just a moment and see what they are missing. This is similar to how Arnold wanted people to see who they truly are inside.
In response to Liz R
ReplyDeleteI think that your idea is a possible modern day interpretation for this poem, but i think that the original interpretation has more to do with how the world is being neglected by man because he is getting to arrogant and caught up in things like fighting and war.
Arnold’s sole message of his poem is that nature and the beauty of the world is lost among people today. The world revolves around so much corruption and ugliness that people lose sight of the beauty of love and happiness. The wars and death and hurt and corruption among the world almost seem to always overshadow the love and peace that many people have within their lives and the wonderful blessings they encounter. However, when he talks about the beauty and calmness of nature, it is always timeless. Nature moves on and rebuilds through time even though it is destroyed from humans creations. If nature can rebuild itself and become beautiful, calm, and serene, then why can’t humans do that with the world today?
ReplyDeleteIn “The Buried Life”, Arnold describes how many people hide behind emotions and never fully come out of their shell until they encounter the right people and look within themselves. This is similar to “Dover Beach”. He describes how the happiness and peace is hidden behind the sadness and fighting of the world. His tone in both of the poems is what seems to be a yearning desperation for people to become true and hopeful. Both poems are comparable because people are controlled by some force to act in a different way. Whether it be sadness or fear of judgment.
In response to Meghan:
ReplyDeleteI didn't really look into the poem the way you did, but as you went on the explain it, I was shocked as to how I actually saw it in that way after your post. Your insight was very interesting and somewhat different from everyone else's which was cool because then we have more than one option to the poem. I agree with what you say that people today are taking beauty for granted to find what's new in the electronic world. It's funny how we all see that and emphasize on it, yet some of us are the biggest "culprits" of this crime.
"The Sea of Faith Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled." Arnold is lamenting the loss of Christian faith and religion on society. Dover Beach is a poem that tells of the lack of religion in the people, specifically those around Arnold. Throughout the poem, he continually talks about the faith that is no longer strong among society. Along with this loss of faith comes a loss of many other things in the world: love, peace, joy... "...Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
ReplyDeleteNor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night." Society has first lost any means of faith or religion which has caused further loss for mankind. In society today we are so caught up in ourselves, our jobs, our lives, our friends etc... that we have lost all sense of peace and joy and love. We have become too wrapped up in our own little worlds and are much to distracted to take notice or care.
I think that in this poem and in "The Buried Life" Arnold just shows how we become to concerned with ourselves that we don't bother to look into anything greater. In "The Buried Life" this is shown with how people are afraid to show their true selves to the world. They hide behind a mask and only show what will get them by. In the end it is still all fake. In this poem, Arnold shows how society is too busy with themselves, fighting and such, that they have become ignorant to what has been lost among them; joy, love, peace, certitude, and help.
In response to Mark:
I really liked how you stated that people are missing out on what is really important. They take much for granted and overlook a lot of what this life has to offer. People really do need to learn how to open their eyes and see what they are missing. And on top of that, they need to look around and find how they can show the world what it is missing; show the world love, peace, and joy.
I believe that the central message in “Dover Beach” is that we lose ourselves in this life. We get so wrapped in things in this world that we don’t appreciate the beauty before our eyes. The beauty of the world symbolize not only the true wonders of the world but that of God. In today’s age, we want new things and we let things overtake us and we put our faith in those things such as technology. The problem is we will never be happy in the Earthly things, and that the only thing that will make us happy is God.
ReplyDeleteThe two poems by Matthew Arnold “Dover Beach” and “The Buried Life” are similar. The tones of the two poems can be expressed by depressing and hopeless without something more. That we are hopeless in a sense that we will never be happy in this world and that we have to rely on something far stronger and bigger. When we are unhappy we put a mask on to pretend that everything is just fine but actuality it’s not. The poems are similar in that the tones are alike and the theme is close to each other.
I feel like Arnold's message was about getting caught up in the world with different things going on in it, and then not focussing on what really matters. Faith, for instance was part of his poem, and I beleive that is a major issue in today's society. I came to this conclusion by reading through the poem a couple times and then reading people's responses, to see if my opinion matched up with theirs at all. I feel that Matthew Arnold is trying to express the difficulties we, as Christians, face to get the Word out there, and how we just get distracted.
ReplyDelete"The Buried Life" demonstrated how we are almost embarrassed to show who we really are, and it explained how we always hiding behind a facade or something similar to that, because we are scared of what society will think. I feel that "Dover Beach" was like that because it was about getting caught up in society. Society has a huge impact on people these days, and it definitely makes things more difficult.
In response to Erin:
ReplyDeleteI like how you paralleled the two poems together. I also believe that both poems talk about the blessings in like. Many times in our lives we are convicted by things such as the Bible and our inner selves. Matthew Arnold convicts us also not to get too involved with this world because true happiness relies in God and the true blessings in life.
In response to Heather:
ReplyDeleteI feel that you are correct about how the world revolves so much around corruption and such. That's the main reason we get so wrapped up in society as a whole. We focus on all the negatives and not the positives; whether it be in a person or in nature. God created everyone differently and unique, and having a worldly view that corrupts the thoughts of people causes that individual and personal beauty in each person or thing. Everyone always focuses more on the media and how people don't meet those standards, when really everyone needs to look past that to see the true beauty within that comes from the Holy Spirit.
1.) I think Arnold’s most central message is that long-lasting faiths and morals (mainly theology/religion) have been challenged and because of this, the believers in God and religion are starting to question their faith. I reached this conclusion by noticing how faith and religion were mentioned within the poem. It first describes faith as full, and most people shared and believed in it. “The Sea of Faith Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
ReplyDeleteLay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.” But then the faith is challenged and starts to retreat. “But now I only hear Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, Retreating, to the breath Of the night-wind” One parallel to society is how our world today is full of disaster, change, and it seems that no one is without worries, just as described in the poem: “Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain”.
2.) In both poems, it seems that Arnold contemplates on the beauty of nature and then poses the question, “Why do bad things happen in a world originally so beautiful?” In his other poem, Arnold discussed man’s tendency to hide true feelings and put on a façade. In “Dover Beach”, he points out that when problems arise and things all of a sudden don’t seem perfect, the faiths of religious people are shaken, and they are confused.
1.) I think Arnold’s most central message is that long-lasting faiths and morals (mainly theology/religion) have been challenged and because of this, the believers in God and religion are starting to question their faith. I reached this conclusion by noticing how faith and religion were mentioned within the poem. It first describes faith as full, and most people shared and believed in it. “The Sea of Faith Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
ReplyDeleteLay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.” But then the faith is challenged and starts to retreat. “But now I only hear Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, Retreating, to the breath Of the night-wind” One parallel to society is how our world today is full of disaster, change, and it seems that no one is without worries, just as described in the poem: “Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain”.
2.) In both poems, it seems that Arnold contemplates on the beauty of nature and then poses the question, “Why do bad things happen in a world originally so beautiful?” In his other poem, Arnold discussed man’s tendency to hide true feelings and put on a façade. In “Dover Beach”, he points out that when problems arise and things all of a sudden don’t seem perfect, the faiths of religious people are shaken, and they are confused.
In response to Erin's question:
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way. There is no way that all of nature could have just been an accident; someone definitely created it. The problem is people become to wrapped up in the problems of this world and are blind to all the good things in life. I think this is part of the message Arnold is trying to get across and that he also stresses that our faith in God should not be shaken as easily as it is by the troubles in this world.
In Response to Erin, I completely agree. It's hard to think what can make things like the world so beautiful other than God. I see God just creating everything so beautifully in nature, and I wonder how do people who do not believe in A God see the world, and what would they think about all this beauty? How would they think it all came together? Also in agreement with Nathan, our faith is easily forgotten among the chaos of this world, and we forget the simple beauty of this world and everything that God has created.
ReplyDelete