Chapter - 12
"Dover Beach"

- Matthew Arnold

Life and Works of Mathew Arnold

Mathew Arnold was born in December 1822. He was the eldest son of Dr. Thomas and Mary Penrose Arnold. His parents gave their full care and attention. After his father, Dr. Thomas became the headmaster of the Rugby school. His primary education started at Whinchester. Later on he took admission in the Rugby school in 1837 and remained there for four years. He had the advantage of Balliol scholarship in 1840. It is a school boy attempt when he deserves to be studied from that point of view only.

In 1841, Arnold went to Belliol. Here his life was gay and care free. But he did not suit his fashionable dress. His poetical alliance changed from Byron to Goethe, George Sand and Emerson also impressed him. His life was not favourable to serious studies. It had its adverse effect on him when he missed his first in his graduation examination. But all of a sudden his father died and he had to search for a job. He could have been a persist, barrister. But he was not willing to join either career. However, he joined secretary to Lord Landowne, President of the council.

In 1851, Arnold married Frances Lucy Wightman, the daughter of a judge and his first child was born when he was thirty. His youthful enthusiasm and dream of literary achievement was still fresh in him. His position bettered when he joined as professor of poetry at the oxford University. In 1853, after more than thirty years of service as an Inspector of schools, he retired upon a pension of two hundred fifty pounds. Its report was the last official work of elementary education in Germany, France and Switzerland, he had suffered weakness in heart. It caused him to die on April 15, 1888.

Arnold's poetical career started form his school study life, on account of his father's evident he wrote Rugby Chapel to adjust his father's views. Arnold's Cromwell was published in 1843 and it was followed by The Strayed Reveller and other poems in 1849. Though he produced a lot of work in prose also, we are concerned only with the poetical works of Mathew Arnold. New poems by Arnold came out in 1867 and contained such pieces as Thyris is Rugby chapel, Dover Beach, A Southern Night and Obermann Once more.

Dover Beach
Introduction of the poem

Dover Beach is the most popular poems of Mathew Arnold. Dover Beach is a poem of supreme cry of his loneliness, his sense of religious loss and his feelings of spiritual isolation. It is one of the subjective poems of Arnold. The poet describes his experience which he had at Dover. The sounds of the sea give the poet an opportunity to express his pessimism and melancholy, the rising and falling waves of the sea from the beach in the strait of Dover inspire the poet with melancholy. For he begins to reflect on the spiritual and intellectual unrest of his age. He also studied general variation of human fate, in uncertain world. He regrets the dominating spirit of skeptism of his age. He feels sorrowfully that the faith of past age will never return to his contemporaries. The poet seeks to get relief in love in this ignorant and confused world.

Substance to the Poem

The falling and rising waves of the sea from the beach in the strait of Dover inspire the poet with melancholy. For he begins to reflect on the spiritual and intellectual unrest of his age. He feels sorrowfully that faith of the past ages will never return to his contemporaries. The poet seeks to get relief in love in this ignorant and confused world.

कविता का हिन्दी सारांश

डोवर की पहाड़ियों से सागर की लहरों का उतारचढ़ाव कवि की कवित्व बैचेनी या भावों को प्रोत्साहित कर रही है। इसी के परिणामस्वरूप कवि के मन में अपने युगीन धार्मिक और अध्यात्मिक उतार-चढ़ाव उदघृत होते हैं। कवि बीते हुए दिनों को याद करता है और महसूस करता है कि वह पुनः वापस नहीं आयेगें। कवि लहरों के उतार-चढ़ाव को देखकर आज के प्रेम अभाव और अविस्मरणीय संसार में भी राहत महसूस करत है।

Points to Ponder (About the Poem)
1. The sound of sea gives the poet an opportunity to express his pessimism and melancholy.
2. The poet begins to reflect on the spiritual and intellectual unrest of his age.
3. He regrets the dominating spirit of skeptism of his age.
4. The vibrating of slow pace strickes the poet as the eternal note of sadness.

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