Summary Dover Beach
Questions and Answer
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Summary of Dover Beach
-Matthew Arnold
This is a
poem about a sea and a beach that is truly beautiful and holds much deeper meaning.
The poem is written in free verse with no particular meter or rhyme scheme,
although some of the words do rhyme. This poem condemns the loss of faith,
religion and the meaning of life resulting from the industrialization and
advancement in science and technology.
In the poem,
the speaker sits with a woman (his Wife) inside a house, looking out over the
English Channel near the town of Dover. On the coast of France, they see the
lights just twenty miles away, and the ocean is calm and peaceful.
When the
light over in France suddenly extinguishes, the speaker focuses on the English
side which remains tranquil. He trades visual imagery for aural imagery,
describing the "grating roar" of the pebbles being pulled out by the
waves. He finishes the first stanza by calling the music of the
world an "eternal note of sadness."
The next
stanza flashes back to ancient Greece, where Sophocles heard this same sound on
the Aegean Sea and was inspired by it to write his plays about human misery.
Stanza three
presents the primary metaphor of the poem with "The Sea of Faith/Was once
too, at the full, and round earth's shore." The phrase indicates that
faith is not in society just as the tide is from the shore. Through melancholy
diction, the speaker laments this decrease of belief.
In the final stanza, the speaker directly addresses his beloved who sits next to him, asking that they always be true to one another and to the world that is laid out before them. He warns, however, that the world's beauty is only an illusion, since it is, in fact, a battlefield full of people fighting in absolute darkness.
1.
1. How does the poet represent the loss
of faith in the modern changing times? (यस आधुनिक परिवर्तनशील समयमा कविले विश्वासको क्षतिलाई कसरी चित्रण गर्नुहुन्छ ?)
As the
speaker sees his contemporary society, it is moving from faith to a
science-based understanding of the world. The intellectual and spiritual life
of the world is in transition. The transitional nature of the beach therefore
makes the speaker think more deeply about faith, change, loss, and love.
2. What does the poem say about love? (कविताले प्रेमको बारेमा के भन्छ?)
Ans: The
loss in religion causes a crisis of spiritual faith. The speaker turns to love
as an answer for the loss of God. Perhaps, the poem suggests love between
people can compensate for the loss of the connection between God and mankind.
The speaker argues that love has the possibility of creating the certainty that
religion once did.
3. What is the importance of being true
to each other in a faithless world? (विश्वासहीन संसारमा एकअर्काप्रति सच्चा हुनुको महत्व के हो ?)
Ans: The
speaker believes that love might provide a solution to the problem of the loss
of faith, but that only a love that is authentic and true can hope to fill the
gap created by a loss of faith.
4. How does Matthew Arnold show conflict
between religion and science in the poem? (माथ्यु अर्नोल्डले कवितामा धर्म र विज्ञानबीचको द्वन्दलाई कसारी देखाउँछन् ?)
Ans: Matthew
Arnold is aware of the philosophical changes rising in the western society. He
has experienced the crumbling of old establishments where people were losing
their faith in God with the development of science and technology. Arnold has
made great effort to carve out the complete picture of the world's goodness and
evil. The first stanza begins with a frank portrayal of the sea and with the
effects of light on it. Though there is momentary excitement, it concludes that
the moonstruck sea induces sadness. A perfect ray of melancholy flows into the
second stanza too. In the third stanza, the idea of religion is introduced. The
reader now enjoys the contrast between the low tide of faith, and the high tide
of the evolution of science and technology. In vacuum, the speaker suggests
that only well-woven love between individuals can withstand the negative forces
in the world in the fourth stanza. This kind of love can bring meaning to an
otherwise confused and confusing world. By the end, it can be summed up that
"Dover Beach" is a perfect picture of the Victorian Society, its
cause, sufferings, and its achievements. Arnold's work portrays all shades of
human character in a poem with the help of his changing moods and tone,
stanza-wise.
5. How does the poem imply that in the
contemporary spiritual wasteland, love is the only consolation?( आध्यात्मिक उजाड भूमिमा प्रेम मात्र सान्त्वना हो भनेर कसरी संकेत गर्छ )?
Ans:
Dover
Beach" is a poem with a complete portrayal of the society. Through in this
poem, Arnold thought that poetry may replace the importance of religion and
rise as a new spiritual source in the exhausting society. The melancholy tone
of this poem is a wonderful treat by Mathew Arnold.
Through in
this poem, Mathew Arnold has tried to make a great representation of the
Victorian Period (19th century). It was a time when science and evolutionary
theories were rising with immense pressure on religion, as a threat to its
existence. Technology was taking away peace and faith both out of life. This inspired
a lot of writers to take on a melancholy tone in their works. While reasoning
Arnold's somber tone, it looks like he is coming to terms with the way the
world works, feeling depressed and sad. The poem, "Dover Beach" is
such a perfect portrait of the Victorian era but the poet seems lost and lonely
in his situation, unable to converse with the human being next to him. The poem
starts off with a hopeful tone but by the end of the poem, in its last stanza
its unveils the harshness of the world.
6. "Dover Beach" is a lament for
humanity in the face of modernity and progress. Discuss. ("डोभर बिच" आधुनिकता र प्रगतिको अनुहारमा मानवताको लागि एक विलाप हो। छलफल गर्नुहोस्)
Ans: In the
poem, the poet brings the narrative to a point where the reader is stuck
between the celebration of beauty and lament for humanity. The time and
background of the poet needs to be considered to understand this. Ironically,
the tumult of nature, on the ocean, is nothing compared to the tumult of this
new way of life. It is this latter tumult that frightens the speaker and makes
him beg his lover to stay true to him. He worries that the chaos of the modern
world will be too.
The poem
signifies a certain type of poetic experience, in which the poet focuses on a
single moment in order to discover profound depths. Here, the moment is the
serenity that the speaker feels in studying the landscape. To accomplish that
end, the poem uses a lot of imagery and sensory information.