POEM
MATTHEW ARNOLD (1822-1888)
Dover Beach 1867
The sea is calm tonight. 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 be of spray Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land, Listen! you hear the grating roar rp 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.
rs Sophocles long ago Heard it on the Aegean, and it brought Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow Of human miser we Find also in the sound a thought, 20 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 so 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, our light, Nor certitude, our peace, our help for pain; ss And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night.
=15-18sophocles ‘Wee, In Antigone ahes656-77),Sophocles likens the disasters that besetthe house of Oedipus to “mounting…
pebble beach.
Choose a favorite image from the poem. Tell us the poem’s title and author and then include the quotation. When you write the quotation, be sure to indicate any line breaks with the symbol “/”. (For example, “It resembles a bird’s foot./ Worn around the cannibal’s neck.”) Next, explain to us what the image is describing and why you think it’s a successful image. How does it contribute to the poem as a whole?
