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    Dover Beach

    Uploaded by

    kamnorton1

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Dover Beach

    Uploaded by

    kamnorton1
    7 views2 pages

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

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    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

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    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    7 views2 pages

    Dover Beach

    Uploaded by

    kamnorton1

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 2

    Dover Beach

    A.) Matthew Arnold’s poem, “Dover Beach,” is clearly written on a Wordsworthian model,
    but it takes a different direction in several important ways. Discuss “Dover Beach,” giving
    (1) an account of the poem and (2) an explanation of its broader conceptual significance.

    Arnold, through Dover Beach, emulates Wordsworthian poems via its focus on themes of
    inherently natural proclivities, such as the beauty and inherent majesty of nature and the world
    that surrounds humanity and society. In the lines in which Arnold writes: “Where the sea meets
    the moon-blanched land, Listen! you hear the grating roar Of pebbles which the waves draw
    back, and fling, At their return, up the high strand,”; he’s intentionally not referencing inventions
    of humanity, whether our psyche’s intellect, achievements, or advancements as a species. The
    idea that nature and the absence of humanity can create some sense of peace, beauty, and
    complacency derived from the lines of Dover Beach are extremely reminiscent of the ideas of
    Wordsworth; that nature can act as a teacher, as a reminder of what humanity has forgotten/lost.
    However, Arnold references an almost inverse of Wordsworth's ideas and style: the
    concept of tragedy and sadness and faith; all very human concepts. Although emotion and pain
    can exist in nature, the idea of tragedy and belief are uniquely human. Arnold’s third stanza:
    “The Sea of Faith/Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore/Lay like the folds of a bright
    girdle furled./But now I only hear/Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar” emphasizes the idea
    that the lack or regression of faith (specifically christianity) is a detriment to mankind as a whole,
    a complete inversion of Wordsworth’s writings and style. Arnold, through this poem, offers a
    critique of society, just as Wordsworth had done prior to him, yet Arnold somehow uses
    Wordsworth’s own language to create almost the antithesis to his teachings.

    A. Explain the argument of T.S. Eliot in “Tradition and the Individual Talent.” What are
    his main ideas? Choose one artist and explain how we can see Eliot’s ideas operating in any
    work by that artist.

    T.S. Eliot, in writing “Tradition and the Individual Talent” emphasizes the idea that
    authors and artists must learn from their predecessors by possessing knowledge and an inherent
    understanding of their works and histories on a fundamental level in order to create truly
    masterful art. Eliot argues that the ways in which great artists attain immortality is via the ways
    in which their contemporaries emulate their art through their own creation. Eliot writes “Whereas
    if we approach a poet without this prejudice we shall often find that not only the best, but the
    most individual parts of his work may be those in which the dead poets, his ancestors, assert their
    immortality most vigorously.” However, Eliot discourages the blind and repetitive copying of the
    deceased masters, stating that “novelty is better than repetition”. This idea that dead masters can
    coexist and assert their prowess in the works of equally great, yet novel poets can be easily seen
    in Dover Beach. Wordsworth’s teachings and ideas seem to be very present in the creation of that
    poem, yet when observed closely, Arnold’s novel ideas and arguments are made extremely
    apparent.

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