Heart Of His Lover example essay topic

The speaker in Mathew Arnold's poem "Dover Beach" seems to be searching for the meaning of life. The evening is perfect for lovers, yet he is heavy hearted. Perhaps if he looks deeply into the heart of his lover instead of his own troubled heart, he might find for what it is he is searching. He speaks to his lover in the cabin of their boat out in the straits between Dover England, and the coast of France. It is on a beautiful moonlit night and a full tide that he summons his lover to the window to see the cliffs of Dover to one side, and the lights on the coast of France on the other. As the waves crest and fall, the shimmering French coast "gleams and is gone".

(4) The cliffs stand "vast, out in the tranquil bay". (5) These two lines suggest the couple is out on the water by the description of the view. The setting is one of peace, tranquility, and romance. Sights that should be pleasing to his eyes are instead troublesome. Sounds that should soothe the soul on such a romantic evening do not. Instead the relaxing crash of waves upon the beach grate upon his nerves and break the enchantment of the placid night.

He suddenly retreats deep into his own little world and does a complete 180-degree turn in his line of thinking. Going from "sweet is the night air" (6) to, "the eternal note of sadness" (14) strongly suggests a bipolar disorder. One moment he is thinking lover's thoughts in the moonlight and the next, he is drifting with Sophocles on the A gean. At this point the speaker is wondering where humankind fits into the scheme of things that are, and things that are to come. The paradox "turbid ebb and flow / of human misery" (17, 18) suggest he feels the human race has no clear sense of purpose. No matter what endeavor we embark upon, we end up hurting each other.

These thoughts come to him as he listens to the roar of the sea. The very same sea that once told promises of beauty and purity that lay ahead of us like a shinning gift to be unwrapped, treasured and shared. This is suggestive of the simile "the Sea of Faith... / lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled". (21, 23) Hankins 2 Now, the sea tells him a different story. He hears a story of extensive sadness. A story of what could be the collapse of all that is righteous.

The story the sea is laying on his heart is how humankind is on the very brink of entering very austere times as suggested in lines 24 through 27 of the poem. Once again, the speaker does a complete turnaround, comes out of the deep thoughts within himself, and begins to address his lover. Line 31 seems to suggest that his lover is his new bride by proclaiming that his love is "so new". His thoughts are now turned away from his bleak outlook on the future of the human race. Now, what seemed dark and dreary to him, suddenly takes on new meaning. As he tells his new wife what hopes and dreams he has, he realizes that the "Sea of Faith" (21) is not a lost vision.

The love he feels in his heart for his wife gives him new hope for the future as he says in the simile, "The world... / lie before us like a land of dreams". (29, 30) Lines 32 and 33 suggest that he has a realization that the problems of the world are not the world's fault but the fault of man. The last three lines of the poem tell the reader that humankind, like it or not, deals their own fate. We give ourselves our own misery from our own ignorance.

The poem comes ever so close to being an allegory if it were not for two lines in the poem. These two lines sum up what the speaker knows to be the answer to his query. "Love, let us be true / To one another". (28, 29).