8/3/2019 How Does Arnold Convey a Sense of Uncertainty and Confusion in the Poem

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How does Arnold convey a sense of uncertainty andconfusion in the poem Dover Beach? Consider the effectsof verse form, language and imagery.

Arnolds poem concludes with a vision: And we are here Swept

with confused alarms. The world hath neither certitude, norpeace.Presented with a nocturnal picture of moonlit seascape, the poetsattempts to extract successively Romantic Worsdworthian elation instanza one and evidence of the presence of God in all things instanza 4 have been undermined my the perception of the seascapein stanza two as relentless and elemental, impersonal andunromantic a grating roar that ceaselessly thrashes the shore,and in stanza four as a microcosm of the worlds dwindling faithbeaten back by the night wind down the vast edges of theworld. In stanza five the poet concludes that only love and lovesfidelity between the two observers of the scene has any reality ormeaning, because the nocturnal view which should be evidence ofthe wonder of the world, ogf Gods presence, the echo of mans joyin nature, is a darkling plane where in a potent pre- echo ofYeatss mere anarchy is loosed upon the world in the SecondComing, nothing good is inherent or evident. The poem is both theexpression of an epistemological crisis and a representation of itsconsequent confusion. It abounds in mixed metaphors and shifts ofregister.

The theme of the poem is mirrored by the movement of the

uneven progression of imagery, which shifts, and metaphors mixing,as the subject in view, the sea at night, evince contradictorymetaphors and associations. The poem begins as an invitation bythe narrator to his companion to behold the ocean at night in itspicturesque beauty: Come to the window, sweet is the night air.The images conjured up in the first stanza are reassuring andwelcoming- for example: The tide is full, the moon lies fair. Theworld appears at rest and in peace. The moon watching over it,made even more reassuring by the common perception of the moonas a maternal figure, and a representation of guidance- arguably thefocus of light and hope constantly present in the night sky.

However, the stillness of the sea in the first stanza- the sea iscalm to-night is shown to be superficial and romanticised in stanzatwo. Listen! You hear the grating roar/ of pebbles which the wavesdraw back, and fling. The waves, it seems, are a violent, repetitive,elemental force of geological process. Not peaceful but relentless.Begin, and cease, and then again begin. Beneath the patina of thepicturesque lurk energies indifferent to man. The impressionsreceived in stanza one are undermined; the fair moon has becomethe source of blanching light. This shift shifts again at the end of thestanza as the bleakness of the scene imports the eternal note of

sadness. The poet is imposing sentiment on natures lack ofsentiment. These progressions are poetically somewhat awkward. It

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is hard to equate the grating roar with a tremulous cadence,and the impersonal vision of moon- blanched land with an eternalnote of sadness.

In the third stanza the nature of the sadness becomes universal.The poet makes reference to classical experience of the impression

he has received and is relating himself, not only emphasising thetimelessness and relevance of the disorder and sadness all over theworld, but lending strength to his argument by citing a famous andwise figure. The fact that the everlasting human misery has beenheard both in the pre- Christian world and post- Christian worldechoes the movement of the waves in and out in the second stanza.However in the fourth stanza, the sea is no longer used as ametaphor for the ebb and flow of human misery but is compared,with some poetical strain, to the Sea of Faith, akin, perhaps, to thesurprise of enharmonic modulation. It could further be interpretedthat there is a presence of music within the phrase with tremulouscadence slow (line 14). This phrase contradicts the other elementsin its stanza- a cadence denotes the end of a piece of music, aconclusive sound, very unlike the constancy of the waves and theenduring human misery that they represent. Tremulous cadencehas connotations of a choir finishing a hymn; this idea links to therole of religion in the poem. Sophocless turbid ebb and flowcertainly rewrites the sea is calm tonight. Likewise the night,mentioned both at the beginning and end of the poem,contradictorily contextualises peace, and at the end, ignorantarmies clashing. As well as the different poetic connotations of the

sea, the fourth stanza represents the duality of religion, and thetheme of mingled appearance and reality returns. For example inthe phrase Lay like folds of a bright girdle furled, since a girdle is apiece of clothing designed to envelop and securely wrap, the poetappears to be describing the role of religion as encompassing,securing and embracing society, but the metaphor of a girdle torepresent religion not only has feminine and maternal connotationsbut also implies deceit- the covering up of truth, and hasconnotations of vanity and perhaps gaudiness (the impression ofthis backed up by the girdle being described as bright). Apessimistic impression of the capability of religion is also implicit in

the phrase vast edges drear in which doubt is equally allencompassing.

Even the fifth stanza, where it seems that there is an answer tothe infinite human doom, there is still overwhelming evidence ofuncertainty. Although the stanza begins with a brighter and moreassured phrase, the renewal of hope is swiftly compromised: withinthe phrase Ah, love, let us be true to one another! For the world,Which seems to lie before us like a land of dreams the word forimmediately following the brightest phrase in the poem makes itclear that we must love not just to improve us as people but

because there is some impending threat and love is the onlydefence. Each time where hope is introduced in the poem, it is given

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limitations. This is exemplified in the phrase: So various, sobeautiful, so new, Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light; norcertitude, nor help for pain. Although the initial repetition of theword so builds up a sense of overwhelming peace, the good thingsare outweighed by a multitude of absences of things so vital to

human survival. It seems that joy, love, light, certitude and help forpain are key to everything that makes us human and their non-existence leaves us bereft and empty. And so we are left with animpression of unrelenting hopelessness.The irregularity of the poets impression of the world is also

mimicked by its structure: the poems first two sections consist oftwo pairs of fourteen lines that almost but not exactly achieve truesonnet form; this could be interpreted as a reflection of theuncertainty of a new world. Furthermore the rhyme scheme isinconsistent, containing half rhymes, for example roar and dreardo not rhyme but the repetition of two words with similarly roughsounds adds to the lack of coherence and duality of meaning. Thechaotic rhyme scheme as a whole could be argued to represent thepoets world which is inconsistent, disorganised and lacking control.There is also much use of enjambment; phrases overflowingunevenly into the next line could portray the disorganised nature ofthe world without religion (an example being Of human misery: we/Find also in the sound of a thought).As well as this the poem is irregular in its rhythm, many linesdivided by sharp punctuation, for example Listen! You hear thegrating roar. The line break is jarring and surprising creating a

sense of confusion, and perhaps the repetition of this is reflectingthe uncertainty of the future for the changed world now that trustand dependence on religion has begun to be eroded. An impressionof order could be extracted from the layout of the last verse, whichis like a petrarchan sonnet: its structure could be reflecting theconclusion of love bringing sense, humanity holding peopletogether, and love as a path out of the confusion- a notion endorsedby phrases like a land of dreams However this idea is contradictedby the solidity of the final uncertainty which is unavoidable,collective and immediate and the fact that the poem ends withhelpless despair: where ignorant armies clash by night.

In summary I would argue that the poet makes use of an extendedand evolving metaphor, the form, structure and sound of the wordswithin his poem to contribute to his meaning and his ownimpression of the disorder within the world he perceives, using thecomplexity of connotation to both represent the eternal sense ofconfusion and to argue that its nature is absolutely perpetual.