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ISC Class XII Notes 2022 : English Paper 2 (English Literature) (Smt. Sulochanadevi Singhania School, Thane) : Dover Beach

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Smt. Sulochanadevi Singhania School, Thane
1st to 10th, X-XII

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Dover Beach 1. Intoduction Dover Beach first published in 1867, is Mathew Arnold s most representative poem. The poem presents two things: the loss of faith and the reality of the new world. In the poem, Arnold laments the decline in faith in God and religion, brought about by the unprecedented growth in science and commerce, giving rise to questions and doubts in the society. The time when Arnold was writing this poem, England was torn between science and religion, materialism and morals and doubts and beliefs. It was an age that was known as the age of reforms in not only industries and religions but also in politics and society. Darwin and other scientists with their scientific discoveries had made the Victorians question and challenge the existing religious beliefs. Arnold s preoccupation with the significance of a world rich in morals and ethics and the despair that arises from the loss of faith is clearly evident in this poem. 2. Summary Stanza 1 (Line 1 to Line 5) The speaker looks out upon a calm sea, and observes the fullness of the tide and the moon reflecting on the water. Looking across the English channel, the speaker sees the lights of the French coast fade away on the French coast the light gleams and is gone , while the cliffs of the English coast stand tall and bright, and the bay seems calm. Here, the strait refers to the Strait of Dover, which connects the English Channel to the North Sea. (Line 6 to Line 14) Suddenly, the speaker addresses someone else, and implores this person to come and look at what the speaker is looking at, and to enjoy the night's pleasant air sweet is the night air . The speaker describes the spray where the sea meets the moon-blanched land . The speaker instructs the other person to listen to the grating roar sound of the pebbles as the waves shift them back and forth, up the beach and down again. The jarring roar of the pebbles caused by the ebb and flow of the sea creates a striking contrast to the pleasant atmosphere described in the first few lines. The speaker notes this slow repeating action, and identifies it with eternal note of sadness in the life of human beings. Stanza 2 (Line 15 to Line 20) All of a sudden, the speaker makes an allusion to the famous tragic poet Sophocles. The despondent and monotonous sound of the waves reminds him of the despair with which Sophocles observed the misery and suffering of human beings in life as he heard the melancholic sound of the waves of the Aegean Sea. In to his mind, the turbid ebb and flow of human misery. The poet too finds himself deeply affected by the tragic aspect of the sea and of human fate. Nobody is free from the eternal sufferings that human beings find themselves in. The disordered rise and fall of human misery is symbolic to the ebb and flow of the sea waves. This short stanza ends with a return to the present as the narrator states that we find also in the sound a thought, hearing it by the distant northern sea . Stanza 3 (Line 21 to 23) The speaker describes religious faith as The Sea of Faith , that was once full like the tide. At that time, it wrapped itself around the continent and islands of the world, like a bright girdle furled around the waist of an individual. But now the sea is only receding. (Line 24 to 26 ) The loud and intense roar of the sea of faith is now replaced by a gloomy and withdrawing roar , which finally disappears into the breadth of the night wind . The night wind here symbolizes disbelief and doubts. (Line 27 to 28) As the sea recedes the pebbles on the shore are left naked. It means that when faith pulls away, it leaves nothing behind but sadness. The naked shingles bring to mind a dreary feeling of helplessness and desolation, as though the mind is left stripped and bare on the vast and dreary edges of the unknown world. Stanza 4 (Line 29 to 30) The speaker suddenly turns from the troubling scene and addresses the companion as "love," and states desperately that the two of them need to treat each other with honesty and authenticity let us be true . Love is invoked as the ultimate solace with a sense of a certain consolation. According to the poet, in a world that has been tormented by deception, lies, and gloom, love is the ultimate truth. (Line 31 to 34) This is because the world, though it has a dream-like quality of variety, beauty and newness, doesn't actually offer joy, love or clarity. Neither, claims the speaker, can it provide certainty, peace, or relief from pain. It is deceptive a world, a mere shadow without any substance land of dreams . The grim reality of the world, lies in sharp contrast to its joy and innocent beauty in the first few lines of the poem. (Line 24 to 26 ) The speaker then compares their collective situation to standing on a flat and dark piece of land drankling plain , which is caught up in the chaos of fighting, where soldiers fire at shadows unable to distinguish between friend and foe or between good and evil ignorant armies clash by night . Faith and humanity is forgotten. The present is filled with utter hopelessness and despair. 3. Theme Victorian Crisis of Faith Human Suffering Love as the Last Solace Appearances versus Reality Conflict between Religion and Science. 4. Style Written in iambic metre, the poem consists of 37 lines divided into 4 unequal stanzas. The first stanza is the longest with 14 lines. "Dover Beach" has been noted by many critics for its unusual form. The poem is highly irregular and does not fit with any specific poetic form. Dover Beach is a dramatic monologue in which the speaker is probably the mouthpiece of the poet and not the poet himself. Arnold succeeds in the beautification of the language of the poem with the use of a number of figures of speech: enjambment, metaphor, simile, alliteration, pathetic fallacy, anaphora to assonance. Rich use of visual and auditory imagery. 5. Symbolism The Sea: Imagery related to the sea pervades the poem. The first line describes the sea as "calm" at high tide, and this description is reiterated in line five: "the tranquil bay." All too soon, however, the sea takes on additional symbolic meanings. Its repeating cycles the rise and fall of tides, the advance and retreat of the waves evoke eternal pattern. To Sophocles, the poem says, this rhythm symbolized the perpetual rise and fall of human misery. Finally, to the speaker the sea represents faith. This is the most explicitly stated symbol in the poem, as the speaker refers to the "Sea of Faith." He describes how it was once "at the full" and is now like a retreating wave "withdrawing" and leaving the world a darker, harsher, more confusing place. This symbolic meaning is reinforced by the sea's traditional symbolism related to birth and baptism. The Land: Like the sea, the land seems to have two competing symbolic meanings. An early image of the cliffs of England's shore describes them as standing "glimmering and vast." This image of the land suggests its solidity and greatness. Indeed, the poem's first few lines suggest both the land and the sea represent strength and stability. However, the final image of the poem shows a different side of the land. The "darkling plain" is the scene of "confused alarms" and clashing of "ignorant armies." Here the land seems to represent the domain of humankind and its tendency to violence and struggle. Because this image is presented in contrast with the Sea of Faith, the land becomes the symbol of humanity on its own, without the love and comfort faith provides. Light and Dark: For Arnold, the loss of religious faith is closely tied to and symbolized by the lack of light in the world. In the first stanza both the land and the sea reflect the light, but it is the dim light of the moon, not the bright light of the sun. The brightest light of day has already gone from the world. The pulsation of light from the French shore first "gleams," then is "gone." This loss of light foreshadows the meaning of Stanza 3, in which Arnold describes the decline of faith and laments its loss. Here the speaker notes that in the past, faith was like a "bright girdle" around the world, clothing it in light. Not so now, he laments in Stanza 4, describing the world as having no light at all. The loss of light from the world leaves its inhabitants in symbolic dark. The "darkling plain" of the final stanza is a place of utter confusion, as soldiers who cannot be seen and who cannot see fight invisible opponents. The chaotic darkness of this image offers a bleak representation of the human state. 6. Sequence of Thought The use of stanza breaks follows the most significant developments in the speaker's mental journey, with each stanza focusing on a coherent set of thoughts: Stanza 1 deals with the speaker's initial experience of the beach, which shifts from calmness to disquiet brought on by the sound of the moving pebbles. Stanza 2 introduces Sophocles, as the speaker imagines ancient Greece and believes that the tragic playwright must also have experienced the same sort of pain and doubt that the speaker is experiencing now. Stanza 3 develops the specific reason why the speaker hears such sadness in the sound of the sea: the loss of faith. Stanza 4, finally, tries without entirely succeeding to build a defense against the future faithless world by professing the value of authentic love.

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