"Melancholy Colloquy: A QUESTion
A final for Freshman Comp II Honors, Spring 2005
In Dover Beach, poet Matthew Arnold begins with the triggering subject of the 'grating roar' of pebbles tossed ashore by the sea. To it, he associates a sadness - melancholy - that resulted from the speaker's loss of faith ("Sea of Faith"). The generated subject carries the melancholy theme into his personal realtionship and the transience of life.
"Melancholy" is more than sadness. To the Victorian (1837-1901) mind, it was a very complex emotion, a result of many influences, both religious and social. Educated individuals of the time were confused by the changes that were taking place in society. New sciences were conceiving disturbing theories about psychology, history, and medicine that shook some traditional beliefs.
Poetry, as a form through which thoughts are explored, reflected those conflicts. For this QUESTion, your task is to browse through the Victorian concept of "melancholy" in terms of Matthew Arnold's "Dover Beach."
The QUEST (a task that asks for a 500w essay)
How does the poem "Dover Beach" reflect the thoughts and beliefs of Matthew Arnold and of "melancholy" in general? Your answer will be assessed on your ability to include examples from the linked readings, but no MLA documentation is required.
Note: Hyperlinks will open new windows
Dover Beach (1867)
Matthew Arnold
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 Aegean, 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.
HinTS:
Read over the poem and view the links thoroughly. Some of the links are effective, meaning they will directly help you write the required exercise. Others are more affective, and will help you understand what the poet saw or experienced. For most of the hyperlinks, you will need to read no more than a paragraph or two to understand what is asked.
PeRpLeXiTiEs:
Consider some of the following ideas from the reading (linked phrases)
- Composition of the poem (Come to the window) can be narrowed to a time when Arnold underwent some emotional turbulence.
- "Retrogressive" (ebb and flow) was a fairly new concept at the time, a result of scientific discoveries that challenged the idea that society consistently "progressed" toward a better future.
- Matthew Arnold, the son of a Protestant minister, eventually rejected Orthodox Christianity (Faith) for number of reasons. he argued the Bible was metaphorical rather than literal.
- The "clothing" metaphor of "girdle furled" was unique to the poem (Dover Beach) and led to the term Kleidervergleich, which has probably never been used since!
- "Agnosticism" (light) was also a new concept at the time. It's meaning was different than what we would consider today.