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Poem Analysis. Literary Devices. Discussion Questions. The poem is also a modern-day lyric , meaning it contains personal emotions from a first-person speaker. At the beginning of the poem, the speaker is standing at a window on the cliffs above Dover Beach. He calls his lover over to the window and tells her to listen to the sounds of ocean waves dragging pebbles up and down the beach.
Get access to this full Study Guide and much more! The speaker concludes by telling his lover that romantic fidelity is the only source of truth they can possibly find in modern life, because the world. The SuperSummary difference.
Industrialization meant agrarian rhythms no longer ordered day-to-day existence. People increasingly felt their Christian faith weakening, meaning that religious faith no longer oriented them psychically. It is part sonnet , part dramatic monologue , part formal, and part free verse poem. Arnold was born in England in in a town along the River Thames. He died in England in Alexandrina Victoria, who later became Queen Victoria, was born three years before Arnold in , became Queen of England in , and reigned until her death in Thus, Arnold lived and wrote squarely in the Victorian era.
Thomas Arnold, was both a clergyman and the headmaster of the Rugby school. Matthew Arnold was educated first at Rugby, then at Oxford. He became an inspector of schools in , a job he held for the next 30 years. He also got married in On his honeymoon, he and his wife went to Dover, so that they could cross the English Channel there at its narrowest point and visit France. By , Arnold had published and withdrawn two books of poetry. Neither of these books received much attention.
