Dover Beach is a poem about a "honeymoon." It was written in 1851, just after Matthew Arnold's marriage to Frances Lucy Wightman, and it conjures the "sweetness and brightness" that Arnold famously discovered in the classical world, in the image of which he constructed his ideas of English culture. The poem describes how upon gazing at the moon on their wedding night, his bride suddenly cried: "Oh! what is this I see/'Tis not the moon, nor any star,/But a pale face watching over me!"
Arnold answered this question in his essay "Dover Beach": "The name was given by its discoverer, who bestowed it as a souvenir upon a sea-shore he had visited during his honeymoon." Thus, the historical figure behind this poem is Matthew Arnold.
Matthew Charles Arnold (1822–1888) was an English poet and scholar. He is best known for his poems "Dover Beach" and "Thyrsis," but he also wrote on a variety of other subjects, including music, education, and politics.
Arnold was born in London to a wealthy family. His father was an attorney who served as mayor of London several times. When Arnold was only nine years old, his family moved to South Kensington, where his upbringing was influenced by the classics. At age 20, he went to Germany where he studied art and music for three years.
Arnold's poem is titled "Dover Beach" because the setting is crucial to the poem's progression. The poem is based on Matthew Arnold's wedding journey to Dover, and his imagined speaker is addressing a lover while they stand near the ocean at a window. This scene is important to the poem because it represents freedom and peace of mind.
Have you ever been on a trip where you knew something was going to happen, but didn't know what? That's how the poet feels as he journeys to Dover for his brother's wedding. He knows that something wonderful is about to happen to him, but he doesn't know what it is yet.
The title of the poem is also significant because it tells us that this is a beach poem. Beaches are beautiful places full of life, but they can be dangerous too - if you listen carefully you can hear the roar of the sea even now!
Finally, the title means "the white cliff" in English. This refers to an iconic landmark near where Arnold's brother had married previously. If you go to Kent you will see this cliff near where the Channel Tunnel enters Britain. It is completely covered in white chalk rocks which look like bones sticking out of the earth!
This is just some extra information about why the poem is called "Dover Beach".
Matthew Arnold's best-known poem is Dover Beach. It was inspired by two excursions he and his new wife Frances made to the south coast of England, where the white cliffs of Dover lie barely twenty-two miles from the coast of France, and was written in 1851. The English poet Matthew Arnold wrote the lyric poem "Dover Beach." It was published posthumously in 1867, when Arnold died at the young age of 36. The title character of the poem is a figure from Greek mythology: she was a Phoenician princess who was turned into an animal for marrying a human. She was then restored to humanity.
Arnold's father wanted him to become a clergyman like himself but Matthew showed no interest in this career. He did, however, show an interest in literature and poetry and so his parents allowed him to go to Oxford University to study law. While studying at Oxford, Arnold fell in love with and married Frances Fane, daughter of a wealthy London merchant. They had one son together before divorcing in 1853. That same year, he began writing poems which were published later in life.
Arnold's father died when he was only thirty years old and this left him with very little money. So, to make some more, he went to Germany where he worked as a teacher for six months and then as a translator for another six months. Back home in England, his friend Henry Wadsworth Longfellow invited him to come and live in America.
A Summary of Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold Matthew Arnold's best-known poem is Dover Beach. The poem is divided into four parts, each describing a different emotion: part I describes tranquility; II joy; III love; IV grief.
The first edition did not include a title page or copyright information. In subsequent editions, these were added by Thomas Hood and others. "Dover Beach" has since become synonymous with "the sea", and as such it is often considered Arnold's greatest work.
Arnold based his description of the English coastline on several visits there with his wife. The poem was published in six monthly installments in the British Magazine from January to June 1851. It was an immediate success, being praised for its beauty and simplicity.
Arnold himself said that the poem was "an attempt to express in verse an impression received during two short walks on the Dover Road". However, many readers believed that the setting was more extensive than this, and it has been suggested that the work may have been influenced by William Collins' Poems on Several Occasions (1700).
Another possible source of inspiration is John Clare, who lived near Dover and whose poems often focused on rural life.
"Dover Beach," probably Matthew Arnold's most famous poem, was written long before its publication in his 1867 edition of New Poems, maybe as early as 1851. It is a classic book of Victorian worry in the face of lost faith and the most complete exposition of its author's theological uncertainty. The poem expresses doubts about God's existence and concerns about the state of humanity after death.
Arnold was an English poet who is regarded as one of the founders of modernism. His work can be difficult for students to understand because it uses different styles for each part of the poem, making it difficult to tell where one section ends and another begins. However, "Dover Beach" is often included in school poetry anthologies because of its simplicity and power.
When Matthew Arnold wrote this poem, England had just experienced two major wars (against France and Germany) and was on the brink of revolution. This may explain why he used such pessimistic words to describe what he saw around him. He also used real events and people from his own life when writing the poem, which makes it even more personal.
In conclusion, "Dover Beach" is famous for being one of the first examples of modernist poetry. It shows how important style is in poetry and should be used to express the feelings of the writer.
The word "Beach" is more important than "Dover" in the title since it refers to the poem's dominant picture. On a nice evening, the poet and his love are reportedly in a room with a window overlooking the straits of Dover on England's southeast coast, maybe in an inn. Although they can't see the white cliffs from there, they can hear them—a constant reminder of exile and loss (customarily called "the grave").
This is a poem about mortality, innocence lost, faith unfulfilled. It was written by John Keats when he was only 18 years old. He died at the age of 21 after being hit by a car while walking home from the library where he had gone to study medicine.
Here is how the poem begins:
"Brightly dawned the sun today. / But hark! 'Tis midnight, all is still."
He ends up losing her, just like Adam did in the beginning of life. But instead of mourning forever, as Adam did, Keats tells us that "Gladly would I die of grief, / If death could be so cheaply bought".
The title is also meaningful because it refers to the story told in the poem, which is about a young man who loses his love. Like the Dover beach, he tries to jump off but fails and is killed.