dover beach
Dover Beach is a very mood-evoking poem. We are first met with an admiration for the sea and different emotions that draws to the observer. However, as the poem progresses we are gradually introduced to a large metaphor for love and like the sea are able to evoke many moods, and different emotions, whether prosperous or decayed. The poet describes the emotions with extreme passion and perhaps with slight hysteria. We are given as sense of loss by this turmoil, which becomes clearer in the last stanza. The title of this poem, “Dover Beach”, really sets the scene to the reader almost instantly. The beach, with its white cliffs, help give the readers a sense of dominance and magnificence. The poet may have done this as to set the mood for the opening stanza. For others it may provoke a thought or memory of the past such as the childhood holidays with your parents. The lines in the poem could be provoking these thoughts so that you can empathize later to what he is experiencing in the poem. The title itself however, does not give you any emotional insight into the poem. I feel the poet did this as to not alert the reader to what is going happen in further in the poem.
In the second stanza we are actually able to learn more of the poets analogy. The poet believes that the noise of the sea can bring in the “flow of human misery”(Line 18). This is what he claims happened to Sophocles. This analogy is perhaps what also happened to the poet’s life. The calm sea turned into a continual warning swash in his soul which brought with it misery. However the last line of the stanza tells us that this noise does not bring with it just human misery but also a thought, that the poet does not elaborate this theory so we are left to assume this changes from person to person. “in the sound a thought”(Line 19). The poems opening stanza is to begin with very soft and peaceful, “The sea is calm tonight”(Line 1). The words the poet uses are pleasing such as “Gleams, sweet, glimmering”(Line 4, 6,5). The mood for the poem is being set. The reader is filled with visions of peace and a sense of being content “sweet is the night air!”(Line 6). However, the mood of the poem dramatically changes. The poet begins to use words, which changes the mood and are vastly different from the previous lines, “roar, slow, sadness”(Line 9, 13, 1
Some common words found in the essay are:
Dover Beach, poet’s life, mood poem, , poet’s life calm, sea calm, final stanza, loss faith, life calm,
Approximate Word count = 826
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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