This week’s spotlight falls on British poet and critic Matthew Arnold. Though remembered today largely for his essays and his prose, it was his poetry that actually won him early acclaim. Religious, and the very picture of a proper British gentleman, one of his greatest desires was for new literature “to animate and ennoble” the readers of his time. A graduate of Oxford University, he would go on to be a teacher, and later, a government school inspector, and education, above all else, became one of the driving forces of Arnold’s life.
Many of his poems struck at social issues, and reflected rather clearly the values of the era, while others struggled with the concept of psychological isolation. It could be argued the man had a certain lofty sense of self, based on some of his written self-assessments, yet given the praise he garnered in a time of Victorian sensibility, it’s small wonder. Today, however, his poetry is mostly to be found in school anthologies, and as such, many students may remember today’s piece–“Dover Beach,” one of his most well-regarded pieces.
~Chris Galford 7.9.12
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.
tashtoo said:
Remember the poem but not the poet! Funny how somethings stick with us…lovely look at Matthew Arnold…now, thanks to you, a name I won’t soon forget! Thanks Chris!
claudia said:
the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery… isn’t it strange how the sea flushes our mind in all kind of different directions… i was approaching dover by ferry from dunkirk a few years back..not in the night but still was able to see and smell the sea air… thanks chris
Susan said:
“Dover Beach” and “The White Cliffs of Dover” mix together in my mind which is rather silly given that the former is mainly about the necessity of an inner gem in a grim world and the latter insists the world will right itself again. There are no bluebirds in Arnold’s world–a blessing that would require restoration of faith, an end of the clash between good and evil.
Margaret said:
I found this beautiful. The comment that particularly amused me that critics have questioned the unity of the poem… that it begins with the calm sea and ends with the darkling plain. I like that it started out with one emotion and ends in another… Perhaps I just admire the “free verse” style of it. 🙂 Thank you and I will look up other of his works..
Victoria C. Slotto said:
Arnold’s poetry is so strong. Isn’t he the one who wrote “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner?” One of the most chilling WWII poems there is.
Tony said:
Afraid not Victoria! Arnold was a Victorian poet (1812-1888), “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” is by Randall Jarell. Another poem for a tail gunner was written by Ted Russell, who was a bomber navigator in WWII.
ManicDdaily said:
Hi Chris, I’ve always really liked this poem. The closing lines so beautiful. Thanks for the rest of your post as well. I’ve never thought that much about Arnold as a total figure, great Victorian. k.
snakypoet said:
Thank you, thank you! This is one of my favourite poems of all time. I think Arnold was a very great poet, one of the best ever, and can hardly believe what you say — that he is now best remembered for his prose writings. Surely not? How can that be? Just look and listen to what he does here with language, line length, punctuation, to create such beautiful music. One must, effortlessly, read it exactly as he intended; he has made sure of that.
brian miller said:
i def like his heart…Ah, love, let us be true
To one another!…will have to look into him a bit more…and check out his prose as well…
hedgewitch said:
This is one of the poems I read at a young age tthat made me love poetry, along with Poe and all the other sonorous Victorian verse we were taught as kids–I had this written out in many a notebook over the years, as if by writing the lines down I made it part of my own weave. Thanks for sharing it, Chris.
Beachanny said:
This is in my top ten favorite poems. I love that your shared it today! Thank you.
Arron Shilling (@ArronShilling) said:
hey guys
i live in Dover and walk the front every day, without fail…
(its my Kantian perscription)… i know this sounds hokey but my connection to the scene and scape created in the poem, which is, as it is in reality, or at least in my mind… is deep concrete.
i attemped my own version sometime ago… On my blog (Zero summer) if its not to hideous (i havent read it for a while) i’ll repost …
thanks chris
Arron Shilling (@ArronShilling) said:
lol having taken a look it stands up quite well (in its own way) but i have no clue how to re post it… its in january 2012 if anyone wants a peek… not tempted? – theres a vid too!… still not tempted… i dont blame you 😀
thanks again chris – for making me re-read this classic and making me look back on my own work too 😀
Ruth said:
I heard Dover Beach first as a child – my older sister who had come home after years of living in children’s hospital, in an iron lung (polio), had a habit of fixing one with her eye and breaking into poetry… So the poem always reminds me of her… but it’s also one of a handful of poems that, every time I read or hear it, it feels like a first time…
lornacahall said:
This poem just reaches me so deeply – right down to the soles of my feet. It is the cadence of ‘on and on’ through time – this same warfare like the stones being thrown back on the beach, over and over.