Dover Beach Tone
“Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold is a poem from the late 1800’s, which discusses a man’s view on emotion, life, and religion. The author Matthew Arnold portrays this message by using action and the setting of Dover Beach. He alludes to Dover Beach in many ways in order to talk about his personal views. An example is, when the author starts talking about the physical setting of Dover Beach, which he uses to allude to the emotions that he feels. The author then goes on to discuss the human condition and how life isn’t that great and people aren’t that happy. Finally the author uses The Sea of Faith to convey the message that people do not believe in religion as much as they used to. The Author uses the physical setting of Dover Beach to allude
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The tone of “The Dover Bitch” mocks “Dover Beach”. While the tone of Hecht’s poems is light and humorous, Arnold’s poem is extremely sad and melancholy. For example look at the title first of all “The Dover Bitch” is mocking “Dover Beach”. Secondly the structure of the poem is completely different, “The Dover Bitch” in my eyes is “less formal” because the language is less formal and also there are no stanzas to separate the different moods or portions of the poem. While “Dover Beach” is more formal because there are stanzas and the language is more formal. An example of this is “Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled”(23). This shows the formal language because Arnold uses vivid vocabulary that is not used commonly. Thirdly, “The Dover Bitch” says that the author Matthew Arnold is the speaker as well but in “Dover Beach” there is no indication that Matthew Arnold is the speaker. Although the poems are very different they also have similarities first of all, although the poem by Hecht mocks that of Arnold’s, Hecht still gives a summary about what Arnold talks about, the setting is the same but both poems take on different perspectives. Also the poem by Hecht talks about how life is negative, which is a connection between the two poems because Arnold talks about the negative aspects of life as well. An example is “We are here on a darkling plain”(34) in Arnold’s poem and “Caught that bitter allusion of the sea”(8) in Hecht’s poem. Both poems while they are very different in tone and style have connections because the plot in the parody uses facts from the original “Dover
The tone of “The Dover Bitch” mocks “Dover Beach”. While the tone of Hecht’s poems is light and humorous, Arnold’s poem is extremely sad and melancholy. For example look at the title first of all “The Dover Bitch” is mocking “Dover Beach”. Secondly the structure of the poem is completely different, “The Dover Bitch” in my eyes is “less formal” because the language is less formal and also there are no stanzas to separate the different moods or portions of the poem. While “Dover Beach” is more formal because there are stanzas and the language is more formal. An example of this is “Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled”(23). This shows the formal language because Arnold uses vivid vocabulary that is not used commonly. Thirdly, “The Dover Bitch” says that the author Matthew Arnold is the speaker as well but in “Dover Beach” there is no indication that Matthew Arnold is the speaker. Although the poems are very different they also have similarities first of all, although the poem by Hecht mocks that of Arnold’s, Hecht still gives a summary about what Arnold talks about, the setting is the same but both poems take on different perspectives. Also the poem by Hecht talks about how life is negative, which is a connection between the two poems because Arnold talks about the negative aspects of life as well. An example is “We are here on a darkling plain”(34) in Arnold’s poem and “Caught that bitter allusion of the sea”(8) in Hecht’s poem. Both poems while they are very different in tone and style have connections because the plot in the parody uses facts from the original “Dover